Monday, May 14, 2007

They're what?

Trauma is not what I hope to cause when I talk to people about nature. But it seems I did just that this past weekend.

A co-worker and I were talking to a group of people about birds of prey. We actually had a live hawk with us that day, so everyone got the chance to see something very cool and not often seen this close.

It was my job to talk about the different adaptations of birds of prey specifically, and then just some adaptations of birds in general. About half way into the discussion, the people are pretty excited about birds and how amazing they are.

So at this point, I begin talking about bird bones and how they are very light yet strong. I pass around the breast bone of a turkey so people can get a good look at it, and feel how light it is. We talk about how a bird's bones are hollow, but not empty. They are full of criss-crossing fibers which is what makes them strong. Then I made the fateful suggestion.

"The next time you have some chicken, break one of the bones in half and look inside. You'll see that they are not empty, but full of air space." One little boy on the front row, about 7 years old, asks me, "Do what?" So I repeat myself.

"The next time you eat some chicken, like from Kentucky Fried Chicken, snap one of the bones, so you can look inside of it and see what a bird's bone looks like inside."

He just looks at me a little confused. So I clariy, "You know that chickens are birds, right?"

His look of confusion is suddenly mingled with a touch of horror. I guess he didn't know that...

His mom pipes up from behind him, "We'll have a little discussion about that later."

-Chel

5 comments:

Kara said...

Oops! I hope it doesn't make the kid stop eating chicken lol.

Unknown said...

Way to go, Chel! You should have mentioned something about Santa while you were at it! ;)

Chelle / Chel said...

What about Santa??

-Chel

Christine and FAZ said...

He's got to learn some time. FAZ

Erika Jean said...

oh my that is too funny. I used to be a naturalist... we never passed around bones like that. such a good idea... we just used the feathers (they were easy)

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