If a young boy came home to his parents and proudly showed off a bone from some animal he had found out in the field while playing with his friends, chances are the mom or dad would say, “Oh, that’s nice. Now can you put it back outside where it belongs?”

Yes, kids have been dragging bones from the likes of field mice, rabbits, groundhogs and countless other dead creatures home for decades, proudly showing off their finds.

But on Thursday, Oct. 6, students in Bonnie Agawa’s third grade class at Killbuck Elementary took home bones with a greater purpose, showing off a baggie full of field mice bones that they uncovered during a class project in which they dissected owl pellets.

Owl pellets are pill-shaped balls of hair, fur and whatever else the owl had digested in recent days, which the owl regurgitates. Inside each pellet is the content from the owl’s stomach, much of which consists of field mice bones.

“We’ve been talking about living things and the things they need to survive,” said Agawa. “I love getting the kids excited about science and especially doing field experiments like this. It’s fun to see them so excited about a project.”

Indeed, several times Agawa had to settle the class down as they prepared to dig into the pellets, armed with a pair of tweezers and toothpicks. Much like a scenario that would take place on an archeological dig, the students began pulling apart the pellets, dissecting them, and finding jaw bones, leg bones, even a full skull and one group found a tail intact.

The pellets come from zoos, and are put in a special machine that removes all of the harmful bacteria from the pellets, making it safe for students to dig in, literally, to their work.

The students broke up into groups of four, and began exploring the content of their pellets. But before that, Agawa had them hypothesize about what they felt they might find in the pellets.

Then the groups dug in, with shouts of excitement and joy coming with each new artifact discovery.

“That was so much fun,” said student Josclyn Snow. “I really liked finding the bones as we dug through the pellet. I am ready to do that again.”

After the project was all over, Agawa gave the kids a zip-lock baggie for them to take their discoveries home to show their parents,

“Parents usually have one of two reactions,” said Agawa. “They either think it is awesome or they tell their children to throw those things away.”

Agawa said she doesn’t know how many teachers use the science curriculum that includes the owl pellet science project, but she said that going outside the everyday classroom setting and experimenting with science in a way that is conducive to learning while having fun exploring something in new ways really enhances the ability to make learning stick.

“I’ve always been a lab person, and this is a wonderful way for the kids to participate in a real hands-on way,” said Agawa. “This is going a long way in instilling learning in such a unique way. I love introducing them to science in a way that is meaningful and extremely exciting for them. It’s always fun, because they oftentimes will start out kind of intimidated, but by the end they are digging in. It’s nice to see the students so on-track and focused on what they are doing.”

The interesting science event even brought superintendent Kris Pipes-Perone into the classroom, along with several volunteers, who did their own digging as a group.

So it was on this day, a classroom full of third-graders at Killbuck Elementary went home to their parents, armed with a bag full of bones, having been all too happy to root around in something that an owl had expectorated.

Oh, if school could only be that much fun every day.