Training pre-service teachers with raptor pellets from an innovative perspective / <i>Formación del profesorado mediante egagrópilas de rapaces desde una perspectiva innovadora</i>

In this work raptor pellets are used for educational purposes, not only as a tool to achieve the classic objectives of dissecting, classifying and identifying their content but also combined with the application of real scientific practices and the use of a new educative online resource. A total of 162 future primary education teachers of an education faculty of Aragón (Spain) participated in a two-month inquiry-based approach case study through three consecutive academic courses. Students should identify the barn owl’s diet and the characteristics of the ecosystem in which it lives. The communication of opinions and the search for scientific evidence and observation to explain facts was promoted. Results show that pre-service teachers implement scientific practices and they are made aware of the potential of the inquiry approach and online resources in science education. Students agree that the applied methodology helped them to detect their own knowledge deficiencies and to learn bioecological contents, and also to implement this kind of didactic proposal in primary education classrooms.