The chicks are hatching! The students in Mrs. Hoover’s 4th grade class could not contain their excitement on Tuesday, June 4 as the eggs that had been incubating for 21 days began to hatch. The students watched as the chicks were born, dried off, got stronger, and fluffed up…all within a couple of hours, and, of course, their favorite part was getting to hold the chicks. It was all part of a life science unit and a project that Mrs. Hoover has done with her classes for the past 10 years.
The project kicked off on May 13, with preschool teacher and school parent Mrs. Kelly providing 29 eggs and school parent Paul Vogel loaning an incubator. Before putting the eggs in the incubator, the students marked their initials on one of the eggs as well as an “X” on one side and a “C” on the other. These markings helped the students to be certain they had turned the eggs each day, and Mrs. Hoover turned them on the weekends. Classroom charts tracked the daily growth of the chicks and how to find evidence that an egg was fertile. The students also got to see an embryo while inside an egg by shining a very bright light through the egg, a process called “candleing.”
“This science project is a great way for our students to experience the wonder of birth and the way God began the miracle of each kind reproducing itself on earth,” said Mrs. Hoover. “They also experience the reality of some chicks not being strong or developed enough to survive.”
This year, 21 of the 29 eggs hatched, the biggest hatch yet, and two chicks were born on Day 22, which is unusual, according to Mrs. Hoover. The chicks are being relocated to Mrs. Kelley’s preschool classroom for a few days, giving her students a few days to enjoy them before she takes them home and raises them there. She plans to keep some of the eggs produced for her family and sell some eggs as well.
“Each year we have many visitors stopping by to see the chicks before school, during the school day, and after school, including the student’s family members, previous 4th grade students now in the Upper School, as well as other preschool and elementary classes,” said Mrs. Hoover. “It makes for a fun end of the year!”
