Inside Governors State University’s cafeteria annex, Nancy Harris, Melanie Hagar and Heather Frelichowski are huddled over several unappetizing lumps.
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“This ate that . . . and that ate that and that,” pointed out Harris, a freshman at Rich East High School in Park Forest. She, Hagar, also a Rich East freshman, and Frelichowski, a Joliet West High School freshman, are conducting a forensic exercise involving owl pellets.
The three are among 36 area students in GSU’s computer Scholars Camp for incoming high school freshmen.
As the Scholars Camp neared conclusion Friday, participants spent the morning finishing projects they would present in the afternoon.
Students had split their days learning about science and biology in the morning and working in computer labs in the afternoons.
Computer and Internet training were tailored to accommodate the range of skills and experience among the participants. Each student developed his or her own Web page using HTML. The program has been underwritten for the last two of its three years by AT&T, said camp coordinator Damon Krug, a professor in the GSU College of Education.
Bruce Ketcher, who teaches a course on scientific methodology, said the five science teachers use the computer camp to stimulate the students’ thinking.
“We want them to use critical thinking skills and to have ownership for what they find and what they put together,” he said.
For Harris, Hagar and Frelichowski, ownership involved what they were taking apart as they separated rodent bones from what looked like soggy, gray spinach.
The three were identifying what the owl had digested. Because an owl cannot chew, it swallows food whole (the mouse, in this case). The bird’s stomach digests the soft parts and the unwanted leftovers form a pellet the owl coughs up.