Cold Scat Creamery

Using Ice-Cream-Parlor Tricks to Create Fake Scat

by Katie Fisk

old Stone Creamer y is an ice cream chain

that uses mix-ins to make custom ice
cream creations for each customer. Patrons first choose an ice cream flavor then
select from a variety of items to add to their creation (mix-ins), such as chocolate chips, strawberries, candy bars, and graham cracker piecrust. Instead of topping the ice cream with the mix-ins, as
most traditional ice cream parlors do, Cold Stone
mixes the ingredients directly into the ice cream
on a chilled marble slab using two metal spatulas.
The confection is then scooped up and ser ved in a
bowl, cone, or cup. Using this concept, I created
the activity described here, Cold Scat Creamer y,

68

in which students create their own ice cream animal scat using playdough and mix-ins resembling
items found in animal scat.
This activity combines two things middle school students lovefood and gross stuffto teach them about
local wildlife, animal sign identification, and a variety of
animal diet classifications, such as omnivore, granivore,
and frugivore. It complements lessons in ecology and
the environment, including predator/prey interactions,
energy flow through a food web, and ecological niches
(consumers, producers, decomposers), and can be used
as an introduction to these units or to reinforce concepts
being currently studied. Who would have thought that
animal poop and ice cream would go so well together?

Teacher preparation

The activity
When setting up the activity, I cover or hide the scat
pictures, playdough, and mix-ins, as well as an ice
cream scoop or large spoon with which to serve students playdough, until the actual Cold Scat portion of
the lesson begins so that students are not distracted
by the props and the real identity of the ice cream is
not revealed. Students should have their desks clear
so that they do not get the playdough on their papers
or books. (It is not advised to put newspaper on the
desks, as the playdough tends to stick to it.)
Start by asking students for different ways they
could tell that an animal has been in an area without
ever seeing the animal. Discuss the signs that students
mention, such as footprints, fur, feathers, chewed wal-

Figure 1

The most common animal

diet types

Carnivoreprimarily consumes meat (e.g., bobcat)

Herbivoreprimarily consumes plants (e.g., whitetailed deer, cottontail rabbit)
Omnivoreconsumes both meat and plants (e.g.,
raccoon, coyote)

nuts, and gnawed branches. After a student has said,

Poop, ask the class if it is possible to tell animals apart
just by their poop, or scat, as scientists refer to it. You
can inform students that there are scientists called
scatologists who study animal scat.
Scat can tell us quite a bit about the animal that
made it: how big the animal is, how recently it was
in the area, and sometimes even what the animal ate.
(If a student asks about the difference between owl
pellets and scat, owl pellets are formed when the owl
regurgitates undigested bits of fur, feathers, and bones.
Unlike scat, owl pellets never went through the entire
digestive system.) Ask students what a carnivore and
herbivore eat; they should be familiar with these terms,
though they may not yet be familiar with the term omnivore. Share some other dietary terms with the class
and see if they can guess what the animal eats (Figure
4). Students will undoubtedly giggle when they hear
the term piscivore, but ask if in the class there are any
Pisces and what symbol represents their astrological
sign (a fish), and they will make the connection.
Spend 5 to 10 minutes showing students the pictures
of scat from animals found in your area and see if they

Photos courtesy of the author

Begin by researching animals local to your area representing a carnivore, herbivore, and omnivore. Definitions of these terms as well as representative animals
that I have used in the past can be found in Figure 1. If
you research more than one animal per diet category,
you can teach your students how to tell the difference
between similar-looking animal scat. For each animal
that you have selected, obtain a picture of its scat; these
pictures will be shown to students during the lesson using either printouts or a projected image (e.g., PowerPoint slides). I recommend showing students full-color
images instead of black-and-white drawings, as this will
make it easier to distinguish between scat types and
compositions. In addition to the categories listed in
Figure 1, I also include photographs of turkey and typical bird droppings and scat from a local insect, such
as a cockroach. See Resources for a list of suggested
sources of animal scat images and identification.
Next, prepare homemade playdough (Figure 2) to
serve as the scat base to which students will add their
mix-ins. You will also need to collect items to represent
the diets of animals; Figure 3 contains suggestions for
items to use as mix-ins. Make sure that all items are
sanitary and do not use anything that could contain
bacteria, such as real bones, found feathers, or dead
insects. Also pay special attention to student allergies to
potential mix-ins such as tree nuts and pollen. To avoid
mold, mildew, and rot that might grow on wet vegetation, collect such items no more than 24 hours before
use and lay out to dry before the activity. Students must
be told to not eat the dough or any food items, such as
the candies, and be monitored for compliance.

A patty from the worlds first carnivorous cow.

A p r i l / M a y 2 013

69

Cold Scat Creamery

Figure 2

Homemade play-dough recipe

I have found that this recipe works well, as the dough has a texture very much like store-bought play dough and will
last for months if kept in food storage containers at room temperature or in the refrigerator. Some salt crystals may
form on the surface of the dough after a few weeks, but these can be mixed back in by hand. Note that the cream
of tartar is a critical ingredient and must not be omitted. This recipe makes enough for approximately 20 students; if
multiple batches are needed, prepare only one batch at a time.

Materials
~0.5 oz. brown food coloring (can be made by mixing red, yellow, and blue
food dyes until the desired hue is achieved or purchased in confectionery
sections of craft stores)

3 cups water
3 cups flour
1.5 cups salt
6 tsp cream of tartar

3 Tbsp oil

Bobcat scat created using bones left

over from an owl pellet dissection.

1. Add the food coloring to the water before combining it with the remaining ingredients in the large pot in Step 2
(you may want to set aside a small portion of uncolored dough to use for mix-ins (Figure 3). Add as much food
coloring as you need in order to achieve the desired shade of brown.
2. Pour all ingredients into a large pot.
3. Stir constantly over low-medium heat until the dough starts pulling away from the sides as you stir (about 10 minutes).
4. Remove the dough from the pot and kneadit until the texture matches that of playdough (12 minutes). Store in
an airtight food container.

can guess what animal the scat belongs to. Be sure to

point out any items that may be found in that animals
scat that could be used as a clue to tell what the animal
ate, such as bones, fur, grass, or seeds. If showing bird
scat, explain that birds do in fact expel urates (i.e.,
urine); the white part of a birds scat is actually the
urates, and the brown part the fecal matter.
To segue into the hands-on part of the activity, say to
students, Boy, all this talk of scat has made me hungry.
Do you know what I could really go for right now? Some
Cold Stone ice cream. Have a student explain to the
rest of the class how creations are made at Cold Stone,
or explain it yourself. Tell students that you couldnt
bring Cold Stone into the classroom (after all, you
dont know what everybody likes), so you brought the
next best thing: Cold Scat Creamery! Reveal the Cold
Scat supplies and explain to students that they will all
be provided with their own scoop of playdough with
which to form their scat. Go over all of the mix-ins and

70

what they represent. I tell students that their scat can

either be based on a real animal or one that they make
up. I tell students not to eat the Red Hots mix-ins, not
only because they are not allowed to consume food in
the science lab. You may choose to display the pictures
of the real animal scat for students reference as they
make their scat.
After all students have made their scat creation, give
them the chance to share the story of what their animal
is and what the animal has eaten. A fun method of assessment for this activity might be for you to name an
animal diet type discussed at the beginning of the lesson (i.e., frugivore, piscivore) and ask students to draw
or create scat that contains the correct ingredients.
Once the activity is complete, students creations
may be left in the classroom for future reference, discarded, or, if your school district permits it, brought
home. Play-dough remnants stuck to desks, chairs,
the floor, or other hard surfaces can be cleaned up

Cold Scat Creamery

Figure 3

Cold Scat mix-ins

Approximately 1 to 1.5 cups of each mix-in should be

enough for a class of 30 students.
Grassreal grass or hay
Bonesuncolored play dough
Furfake fur from a craft store, shredded coconut
husk, fibers from saw palmettos or palm tree boots
FruitRed Hots candies
Feathersfeathers purchased from a craft store
Seedsbirdseed
Insects (beetle-wing covers)shredded bits of shiny
paper

Figure 4

Additional diet types

Frugivoreprimarily consumes fruit (e.g., fruit bat)

Granivoreprimarily consumes seeds (e.g.,
mourning dove)
Insectivoreprimarily consumes insects (e.g.,
spiders)
Nectivoreprimarily consumes nectar (e.g.,
butterflies)
Piscivoreprimarily consumes fish (e.g., largemouth
bass)
Coprophagyin which an animal eats its own scat
because it does not obtain enough nutrients from food
through the first digestion (e.g., rabbits)

easily using a wet paper towel. Any playdough stuck

to clothing will come out when the clothes are washed
normally. Students should wash their hands and sanitize all activity surfaces upon completion of the activity.
Any leftover playdough or mix-ins may be stored for
later use or disposed of in the trash (see Figure 2 for
storage of playdough).

food web, students participating in this activity have

the chance to put their deductive and observational
skills to the test as they study animal scat, detecting
slight differences in size, shape, and composition that
reveal the identity of the animal that left it behind. And,
of course, the most memorable element of all for students: creating their own unique masterfeces! n

Conclusion

Resources

Through doing a hands-on activity that has a little bit

of shock value and a gross factor, students have the
opportunity to make a true, lasting connection to lessons about ecology and the environment. Rather than
just learn about what predators, herbivores, omnivores, and other animals consume in their place on a

Books
Elbroch, M. 2003. Mammal tracks & sign: A guide
to North American species. Mechanicsburg, PA:
Stackpole.
Halfpenny, J.C. 2008. Scats and tracks of North America:
A field guide to the signs of nearly 150 wildlife
species. Guilford, CT: Morris.
Murie, O.J., and M. Elbroch. 2005. The Peterson field guide
to animal tracks. 3rd ed. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Websites
Animal scat identification chartwww.terrierman.com/
scatanswers.htm
Droppings, scat, and feces identificationhttp://icwdm.
org/inspection/Scat.aspx

A variety of scat made by a participant in Cold Scat Creamery.

Katie Fisk (katie@thenaturegeek.com) is an

environmental educator at Briar Bush Nature
Center in Abington, Pennsylvania.

A p r i l / M a y 2 013

71