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Goal

To bring the life-cycle to life for Yulee Primary’s K-2nd grade students via 4-H's Embryology program. 4-H provides fertile eggs and incubators to classes, but many teachers shy away from this opportunity because of the expense and effort required to brood chicks in their classrooms. This grant will help teachers manage these challenges - so even more students can experience the wonder of hatching chicks in their classrooms! 

What will be done with my students

I design the curriculum for Yulee Primary School's STEAM Lab and manage our annual Embryology program. Each year in February, 10-15 YPS teachers sign up to participate in 4H’s Embryology program. (STEAM Lab itself operates 2 incubators of eggs, so that even students whose teachers do not participate can enjoy the experience.) After three years participating in the program, and two years managing it, I’ve noticed that we do not have many repeat teachers. The students love having chicks in the classroom, but it requires a significant outlay of money and especially time and energy from the teacher. Most decide they need to take a year or two off before taking on the challenge anew. With this grant, I hope to provide teachers with the equipment to make egg and chick care simpler, cleaner, and less time-consuming. As teacher experiences improve, we’ll have more and more repeat teachers. The result? More and more students will benefit from observing the life cycle right in their classrooms!
Hatching chicks takes 21 days, and we keep the chicks on-site for a week and a half after hatch. For the entire 5 1/2 week duration, STEAM Lab runs Embryology activities, including Egg Puzzles (of development inside an egg on Day 1 and Day 15), Practice Incubators using plastic eggs and thermometers (so even our youngest students can turn eggs and determine if the eggs are warm enough), Code an Incubator (in which students code an imaginary robot arm to turn eggs and check humidity and temperature), Observing Chicks for Art (in which students observe a particular chick and duplicate their observations on a coloring sheet), and Observing Chicks for Science (in which students record chick behaviors using tally marks - creating an ethogram). These lessons and materials are in place already and serve over 700 students. The materials we are requesting will make it easier for students and teachers to provide a healthy habitat for chicks in their classrooms as well. The meters help ensure that the eggs are at a proper humidity and temperature for hatch and that the chicks are adequately warm once they make their appearance. The hanging water bottles will keep the chicks' bedding dry so their bellies don't become chapped. The red lamps produce heat for the chicks, and the red color makes it easier for the chicks to sleep at night (no bright white light shining in their eyes). The students learn that caregivers should consider the welfare of their animals when making decisions and purchases. Whether teachers are veteran chick hatchers or first-timers, they will feel comfortable knowing they have the right tools (and training) for a successful hatch and a great experience for their students. [The Embryology program runs for 5 1/2 weeks each year, from early February to Mid March.] The chick photo above was taken in STEAM Lab this week! 

Benefits to my students

Participating teachers will involve students in incubator and chick care, including turning eggs 3x daily, monitoring temperature and humidity, feeding, and watering the chicks. 4H provides an introductory lecture with curriculum. They return to candle the eggs for students on Day 7. On Day 21, students watch the eggs hatch up before their eyes, watching the effort and time (sometimes 24 hours) that it takes for chicks to enter the world. They see how much care the chicks require and draw real life parallels with their own pets and younger siblings. Students' families who wish to adopt chicks can do so at the end of the program as well! 4H provides a variety of curricular material in addition to the lessons we teach in STEAM Lab. Please visit their website at http://florida4h.org/embryology/ and click on “For Teachers,” to see the many lesson plans our classrooms can utilize! Three of the major Florida standards we cover in STEAM Lab and the classrooms are listed below.
SC.K.N.1.2 Make observations of the natural world and know that they are descriptors collected using the five senses.
SC.1.L.17.1 Through observation, recognize that all plants and animals, including humans, need the basic necessities of air, water, food, and space.
SC.2.L.16.1 Observe and describe major stages in the life cycles of plants and animals, including beans and butterflies.
 

Budget Narrative

The requested items fall into two groups. Most items are equipment that will help students and teachers care for eggs and chicks in their classrooms. These include feed and water dispensers, ziplocs for packaging feed for teachers, thermometer/humidity meters, heat lights and sockets, plastic totes, hardware cloth, zip ties, and tin snips to make brooder boxes for the chicks, a candler & power strip for observing inside the developing eggs, and sink strainers so that teachers do not clog their sinks with brooder box bedding while cleaning the boxes. These are all designed to make the experience positive for teachers and students (and of course, healthy for chicks) so that teachers are willing to repeat the experience year after year. The final few items are used in the five weeks of STEAM Lab Embryology lessons. These include crayons - for reproducing feathery details of an observed chick, geoboards (for using rubber bands to create geometric chick forms), and orange essential oil (so students can use their sense of smell to search their practice incubator for the plastic egg which has “spoiled” – orange scent smells far better than sulfur!) A few of these items are consumable, but most can be used year to year as they are checked out from STEAM Lab and used in classrooms. They'll become part of YPS’s STEAM Lending Library created with your grant two years ago. Thank you for helping us involve more teachers and students in this opportunity to witness the circle of life in their classrooms! [These items can be purchased on Amazon Prime within your specified timeline.] 

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