Agricultural Workshop: Day 1

Today was the first day of our agricultural education workshop!
Thank you to the Fayette County Farm Bureau for helping us make it great!

The topic of today was chicken reproduction.  The class learned about the different parts of the egg, and the rolls they play in the development of a baby chick.  The class learned to tell if a freshly laid egg was fertilized or not!  We cracked open an egg from the store, as well as an egg from our flock of free range marans.  It didn't take much for them to see the difference in the thickness of the shells!  I explained that the egg from the store was laid from a chicken who most likely doesn't get to roam around, pecking at bugs and such.  Actually, it was probably laid by a hen that is encouraged to lay throughout the winter with assistance from artificial light.  You see, chickens take cures from nature to know when to slow down on laying eggs.  As the days get shorter, the chickens lay less.  This is a good rest for the chicken, and prevents chicks from being born when it is too cold for them to survive.  However, it does not help feed a massive, and rapidly growing, population of people in the world.  Although there is a need for available, affordable foods, there is also a benefit of high quality eggs from happy, healthy, free range chickens!

The class learned how even though hens lay an egg each day, or every other day, they all begin developing a chick at the same time:  When the hen sets or when they are placed in an incubator!  We discussed the fertilization, incubation, and gestation of chicken eggs, thermometers, hydrometers, thermostats, and humidity.  We even learned a bit of chicken genetics!  You see, our eggs came from a pen with a blue copper maran rooster, a blue copper maran hen, and a splash (white with black dots) maran.  Each combination results in a different ratio of colors.

 Here is a breakdown of the different combinations:

 
Blue (Bb) X Blue (Bb) = 50% Blue (Bb), 25% Black (BB),   
                                   25% Splash (bb)
Blue (Bb) X Splash (bb) = 50% Blue (Bb), 50% Splash (bb)
Blue (Bb) X Black (BB) = 50% Blue (Bb), 50% Black (BB)
Splash (bb) X Black (BB) = 100% Blue (Bb)
Black (BB) X Black (BB) = 100% Black (BB)
Splash (bb) X Splash (bb) = 100% Splash (bb)



In our pen, we had two combinations, Blue X Blue and Blue X Splash.  So, in order to find out the possible ratio for the eggs in our incubator, we had to do some chicken math!  The result was that our eggs should, in theory,  have roughly 50% Blue Copper Marans, 37.5% Splash Marans, and 12.5% Black Copper Marans.  I did remind the class that chickens DON'T DO MATH!  So, we'll have to wait 21 days to see what hatches!

The class put the eggs into the incubator, and now we wait.  We will be candling them later to see how development is going!  They are set to hatch on May 3rd!

Grammar- Today, the class learned how to diagram sentences with compound verbs.  Now that they have diagrammed compound subjects and compound direct objects, it wasn't hard at all to apply their logic to verbs.  They could even diagram sentences with compound subjects AND verbs with ease!

Reading/Writing-  Oh, what schemes are being concocted in Hamlet!  We read more in our "Hamlet for Kids" book today.  Then, the students' pencils were FLYING as they added to their own summaries of the play.  The amount of creativity, focus, and determination on these writing assignments is amazing!  I cannot wait to finish the book, finish the summaries, and hear the wonderful prose that they have written!

Math- Today was another lesson in borrowing multiple times in a single math problem.  I believe in practice, practice, practice!  So, after another illustration on the conceptual reasoning behind the skill, the kids worked on a math subtraction crossword puzzle.  We will be working on this at home on Friday and Monday, as well!

 Science- We began our physics unit today!  Ms. Caroline came and taught the class about movement and friction.  Using a marble and a paper towel tube, she demonstrated types of energy. As the marble is held at the top of the tube, the marble is said to have "potential energy." The marble is positioned above the surface of the earth, and it has the potential to do work thanks to the force of gravity pulling down on it. As she lets go of the marble, it rolls down the tube. At this point, work is taking place, called "kinetic energy."   After the lecture on physics, the kids had a lesson in gears.  Using Legos, they learned how to "gear up" (use a smaller gear to make the machine move faster than the speed of the motor) or "gear down" (use a larger gear to make the machine move slower than the speed of the motor).  Once this concept was mastered, they used it to create a machine that spins a top!  They all worked, as a group, to create their project.  Then, they took turns using their creation!

Social Studies- Today, Mr. Dennis continued his lesson on the branches of government and the U.S Constitution.  The children utilized Venn diagrams and charts to answer questions about the lesson.  We will be beginning a poster project next week!