Hannon's Hub has CHICKS! (and a recap of our other stations...)

Our CREATE stations are definitely the focal point of our library activities. For a recap of these stations, click on the image below, and it will navigate you to a chart with links to earlier blog posts that highlight and explain these activities and stations.  This is a good overview of everything we have done so far. 

In the meantime, we have some exciting action happening in the library.  Because it is the time of year where we teach LIFE CYCLES, my colleague and I have decided there is no better way to teach this than to incubate chick eggs and have the students watch them for 21 days. Each day we are able to watch the eggs, research how they are developing, and candle them for the students to see the progression. It creates quite the buzz!

Let's start at the beginning. We use the Nurture Right Incubator 360. The directions are simple, and it is easy to set up. Once we take it out of the box, we set the day, and make sure the egg turner light is on. The incubator needs to come up to the correct temperature and humidity. 

TEMPERATURE: 99.9 FAHRENHEIT

HUMIDITIY: 40-50%  

Next, we stop by the local farm to pick up the eggs. The first 14 days in the carton, the fertility rate stays at 95%.  After 14 days, it drops incrementally.  We always make sure that we have everything set up and ready to go within those first few days of picking up our eggs because we don't want to keep them in the carton for more than 14 days. 

Once we have the eggs, we take a crayon, and we label each egg letters A - L. One side has a capital letter and the other side we place a lowercase letter.  This allows us the opportunity to track the eggs in the incubator to make sure the egg turner is working and the eggs are revolving AND rotating in their snug incubator home. 

Now we are ready to roll! Place each egg in the incubator, place the lid firmly on top, and add water to the water reservoir on the side. Monitoring the humidity can be the most challenging because it can fluctuate. Throughout the day, I check the humidity and add water as needed. When I am home, I can check on the eggs because I set up the computer with a document camera and create a google meet that I can access from my cell phone in case the temperature or humidity drops. 

If you do this project, I highly recommend the Learning Resources plastic eggs you can open each day and show the students exactly what the chick looks like inside. The students LOVE these. Check them out HERE.

We are currently incubating 12 chick eggs for the students to observe.  This additional observation station is something I incorporate throughout the year to integrate science lessons.  When we are not watching chick eggs, I will on occasion set out microscopes with different slides for students to analyze. 

Check back later in the week to take a look at our candling the eggs. This is going to be a fun 21 days.