Sunday, May 22, 2016

Cracking the case of embryology

This week we completed our embryo unit in the Library Learning Commons. All students were part of the process whether through investigating, researching, candling eggs, watching a hatch, thinking about hatch ratio, observing the babies, and always asking more and more questions. Our results were fairly good for such a very large batch of eggs. 

Ducks: we were given 12 eggs, 11 were fertile, all hatched, 1 died several days after hatching due to what we think were neurological issues.
Bantam Chickens: we were given 8 eggs, 7 were fertile, all hatched.
Guinea: we were given 2 eggs, 1 was fertile, 1 hatched.
Chickens: we were given 12 eggs, 7 were fertile, 5 hatched, 1 is blind ( and currently living in my house and doing well).
Goose: we were given 2 eggs, 1 was fertile, none hatched. Something went wrong towards the end of this hatch. The egg was moving in the last stages of development but never pipped.

All in all it was very successful hatch. We had tubs of babies in the LLC for at least a week and students would come in to work near them. Their observations, in comparing and contrasting the fowl, were interesting and lead to more and more questions. We talked a lot about the embryo development, and what went wrong with some of our eggs. We discussed failure to thrive and what that meant as well as addressed the duck that was born "crooked." Children were shown how to handle chicks and respect animals. There was A LOT of discussion all week long in the LLC that made me realize how powerful this unit was. We will certainly do it again in a few years. 

One of the most important achievements was documenting this process. When we candled eggs, students saw the embryo at 7 days and again around 14. They heard eggs pip and break the inner lining and then the outer shell. We videoed various stages of the process and I have compiled it in a YouTube video to keep and share. 
Enjoy and keep reading,
The Noisy Librarian
* Be assured all birds had good homes to go to before we set the eggs. 

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