Live Streaming: 2017 Chick Hatch

Over the weekend, the eggs that we've been incubating since May 2nd will be entering their final growth phases and may be ready to hatch.  You can keep up on all the action over the weekend and next week LIVE by checking out the following links:

Miss Darby's Chick Cam

Mrs. Ayer's Chick Cam

Mrs. Ankerson's Chick Cam

We use "Ustream" which is also an app -- look for it in your online store!

Hatching Chicks: Candling the Eggs

Today, our classes "candled" our incubating chicken eggs to check in on their development.   To candle the eggs, we hold a bright light up to the eggshell and take a peek inside to see the details of the embryo's growth and development.   When we candle, we are looking for a nice clear air cell at the larger end of the egg, veins, and an embryo.  If we look really closely, we might even be able to see the embryo move within the shell -- especially now that they are getting bigger and there is less room in the shell.

We are looking for three different kinds of embryos/eggs.

Winners

Winners are normally developing embryos.  You can clearly see the air cell on the right side of the egg.  The embryo is toward the left (the biggish black blog).  When we candled this particular egg, we could see clearly developed veins all around the shell and the embryo moved quite a bit.  We're expecting this egg (#25) to hatch.

Quitters

This embryo stopped developing at some point in the last two weeks.  In this picture, there is a clear bloodline indicating that the development of the embryo has stopped for some reason.

Yolkers

This egg was never fertilized.  There is no embryo to develop.  The eggs we buy at the grocery store are usually unfertilized eggs. 

We want to take the quitters and yolkers out of the incubator at this stage because we don't want the eggs to crack/break in the incubator or get in the way of the hatching chicks next week.

ABCD Brains! #brainresearch

Third graders were lucky enough today to hear about their developing brains from Hugh Garavan, Ph.D from the University of Vermont.  He shared a short slideshow with our students regarding the development of their brains and how THEY are able to change their brains right now!  He also wanted to share a new and very exciting research study currently in the recruitment stages at UVM.

The Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) Study is the largest long-term study of brain development and health in the United States.  The research study is currently in the recruitment phase, looking for participants who are 9-10 years old.  That's us!  So...if you are interested in your child's participation in this study, you can contact UVM for more information.

Here's an article from UVM about the study:

Garavan, Potter and Team Launch UVM Recruitment for Landmark Adolescent Brain Development Study

And, to learn more about the overall brain study and how to sign up, visit: ABCD Brain Study.

Thank you to Dr. Garavan for stopping by today!