Wild, Woolly Science Lesson Is Underway

The science project at Westlake Elementary School is not a noxious chemical in a beaker. It’s not an avocado pit growing roots in a glass jar.

No, this experiment sucks infant formula from a bottle, nibbles alfalfa and baas when she needs attention.

Meet the school’s 15-day-old Katahdin lamb. Her name is Mahana, which, in Hawaiian, means “warmth from the sun.”

Since getting Mahana last week, the second- and fourth-grade classes have been preparing to spend the next few months sketching, weighing, feeding, walking and nurturing this orphaned ewe as they learn about animal husbandry in books brought by science specialist Andrea Rosenstein.

“I wanted to bring in an unusual animal,” said Rosenstein, who has a master’s degree in psychology and has been a 4-H Club leader. “I wanted them to see her hooves and find out why she has them. . . . Half of these kids don’t even recognize farm animals or have pets. . . . And until you see it and touch it, it’s a boring classroom lecture.”

So far, the students at Westlake Elementary are not bored with Mahana.

Children from all grade levels vie to walk the lamb on her leash at recess. Sixth-grader Caroline Brown, who is not in Rosenstein’s class, came by Tuesday to feed the docile, spindly-legged creature.

“Does it need its bottle right now?” she asked hopefully.

Rosenstein is thrilled that in just a week, Mahana has become the “talk of the school.”

When she came to Westlake Elementary last year to teach a special science class once a week, Rosenstein brought chickens and ducks.

But this year, she wanted a science project that was a little more out of the ordinary.

She called around and found a Bakersfield farmer, Gayle Dugan of Mutton Punchers, willing to donate the first appropriate orphaned lamb of this winter’s litter. Mahana happens to be a triplet whose mother abandoned her because she was the runt. Without the class, Rosenstein said, Mahana surely would have died.

Rosenstein said she wanted to raise a lamb in class because the species is sweet and gentle. In March, Rosenstein said, she plans to give Mahana to a farmer in Agoura who will keep the animal as a pet.

But until then, families are signing up to take Mahana, who now sleeps in a large dog kennel at Rosenstein’s, home for the evening. Last year, 110 students brought the class chicken and duck home overnight.

“We dressed the duck up in lace and videotaped it,” said 9-year-old Madelyn Krevitt, who wants to host the lamb at her home. “Then we let it swim around in the hot tub.”