After incubating chicken eggs in The Lane School Media Resource Center (MRC), families were able to tune in via a live camera to see the eggs hatch. Since their hatching, kindergarten students were involved in gathering observable data on the chicks, such as the time they spent under and away from a heat lamp, and if the chicks grouped together or moved in their container alone. After three weeks in an incubator and four days as chicks, they were brought to a farm near DeKalb.
The project took shape after The Lane School MRC Director Stephanie Stieglitz took an inquiry class in the summer of 2013 at Brookfield Zoo, courtesy of a grant from the D181 Foundation. “The inquiry class focused on seeking information through questioning,” Stieglitz explains. “Learners involved in inquiry engage in scientifically oriented questions. They gather data and evaluate evidence to formulate explanations to address their questions.” One of the requirements of the class was to write a lesson plan for an inquiry project. Stieglitz was inspired by the class activities at the zoo and planned a project that would involve students gathering data on live animals.
Stieglitz then attended the University of Illinois Extension Office Incubation and Embryology Workshop. There she learned the needed details for developing the chick project at The Lane. The U of I Extension Office provided the fertile eggs, while the D181 Foundation supplied funds to purchase the incubator. In addition to the kindergartners’ opportunity for data collection, all students and visitors were able to see the eggs in the incubator and the live chicks in action. Through visual posters and charts, students could monitor their progress and learn more about the process of a fertilized egg’s development.
The Lane School kindergartner Lucas Krasuski says his favorite part about having the chicks at school was watching them play together and seeing the chicks make a sleeping area out of their food dish.
Stieglitz invites interested community members to learn more by visiting the project site: https://sites.google.com/a/d181.org/lanemrc/chicken-cam
“This project engaged the whole school,” she says. “I’m not sure whether the students or teachers were more excited by having chicks in the MRC. I was surprised by the overwhelmingly positive response to the project.”
