Embryology

Embryology is the hatching of chicks in the classroom, providing students with a hands-on learning of life cycles. This project targets second grade as it fits perfectly with Virginia Standard of Learning (SOL) 2.4 and 2.5, the study of life systems.

It takes 21 days to incubate a chicken egg and 28 days for duck and turkey eggs. During that time the eggs are left in an incubator for the students to observe at a distance. 4-H Agent Erin Morgan visits the classrooms at least once during the project to candle the eggs, a process that uses a light to see into the eggs, to determine if the egg is viable. 

Teachers are provided with the Learning Resources: Chick Life Cycle set which is a realistic set of plastic eggs that show a chick’s development for each day it is in the incubator. This provides the students with the opportunity to see what is going on inside the eggs without touching the real eggs.

Each spring, this program reaches approximately 150 students attending public and private school in Northampton County.