Why is a controlled habitat important for growth? Chicks need proper warmth, moisture, movement, and shelter to develop properly. As an engineering design challenge lessons, teachers in the Chickenology workshop created incubators to provide an ideal environment for the growing chick.
The workshop provided participants with a close look at life science through a poultry lens, with fun, hands-on lessons covering these topics:
- the development of the chicken throughout history
- features chosen through selective breeding to meet consumer demands
- the genetics of the chicken and where the info is stored
- production of chickens and their growth through mitosis
- mass production of poultry for today’s society
A lesson on survival of the fittest had participants picking up different-sized beans with various “beaks” (forceps, plastic spoons, paper clips, chopsticks) to evaluate how genetic variation within a species produces different traits that help certain members survive and reproduce.
Learn more about this workshop from this lesson sampler. We’ll be offering it again in the future, so watch our events page!
