Kalene Berte, Ag in the Classroom coordinator for the Humboldt County Farm Bureau, and Tristen Torkelson, youth coordinator for Iowa State University Extension and Outreach/Humboldt County, recently visited second-grade classrooms at Taft Elementary and first-grade students at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Humboldt for some hands-on learning about chickens.

Berte had previously delivered fertile eggs to the schools for each classroom to put into their incubators. Students had time before their lesson to observe how the incubator turns the eggs and provides the necessary heat and moisture in place of the mother hen.

The presentation began by showing the students all the different parts of an egg and how these components are important for the development of the embryo. This was followed by a short video explaining how the embryo uses the yolk for nutrition and calcium from the eggshell to develop its bones.

Students also learned that chicks have a special egg tooth for hatching. (An egg tooth is a tiny horn-like projection at the tip of the upper beak of a newly-hatched chick. Soon after the chick hatches, the egg tooth falls off.)

-Photo submitted by Farm Bureau
These students in Jenny Boswell’s second-grade class at Taft Elementary in Humboldt worked with Tristen Torkelson, Humboldt County Extension youth coordinator (left), to use an egg scale.

Eggs from the grocery store were cracked open to show students what all the parts look like, including the air cell, yolk, albumen, membranes and chalazae (the twisted, cordlike strands of egg white that anchor the yolk from the top and bottom of the shell membrane).

Students had the opportunity to use an egg candler from the early 1980s to check the development inside their eggs. Presenters explained that the blood vessels will be the first part students see. They also explained how these are attached to the embryo and to the yolk to provide nutrition to the developing chick.

Each classroom also has a set of 21 plastic chick life-cycle eggs. The realistic illustrations in each egg allow students to see day-by-day development of a chick, with the final egg containing a plastic 3-D chick. Students also watched a video of a chick hatching, which allowed them to see how the chick used its egg tooth to break the shell open.

The lesson concluded with everyone trying a hard-boiled egg on a stick. Along with the snack, the students learned fun facts, such as chickens can see in color and can remember people. Students learned that eggs are very nutritious, with 13 different vitamins and minerals that nourish their brain, eyes, heart and muscles. Presenters also explained how eggs are graded before they are sold in stores. The kids used a scale from the 1980s to weigh different sized eggs.

Extra lesson plans were left with the teachers to help continue their embryology studies, including a copy of the book “My Family’s Egg Farm,” worksheets about the parts of an egg, and a booklet about the life cycle of chickens.