One of the areas of focus this term is chickens. As an Enviroschool we are always looking at ways to be more efficient, produce less waste and ensure that our initiatives are sustainable. On our garden visit in Term 1 students recognised the value of having chickens, they help to fertilise gardens, can help with pest control on plants, eat vegetable and fruit scraps and have the added bonus of providing us with fresh eggs.
Having chickens is the next stage in our 'Waikino Homesteading' adventure and we couldn't be more excited.
This week we have been preparing ourselves by learning more about chickens and eggs, what each part of an egg is used for and how eggs can become the chickens we want.
Eggshells are smooth, hard, cold, a little bit bumpy.
We used needles to make small holes in each end of the egg. As we did this we found that egg shells are layered, the brown colouring doesn't go all the way through and that you can scrape the top layer away if you are careful.
They were surprisingly hard and it took some effort to get the needles through.
Blowing the egg forced the whites and yolks out of the other hole.
"It was pretty hard work, I had to be careful but blow hard at the same time" Shelby.
We noticed that the white stayed together more than the yolk and that the yolk was very sticky and thick.
The egg drop.
While we were blowing our eggs we were interested in the strength of the egg shell. "It has to be quite strong because chickens sit on them." Lucy.
So we used a BP technology challenge to make pads for our eggs. The aim was to protect the egg when it was dropped from a height simulating the pressure that is put on an egg when it is sat on. We chose a variety of materials to create our pads, using what might be found in nature and some things from the classroom. Soil, peat, mulch, tissues, kitchen roll and fleece fabric were all used.
We decided to increase the drop height by 25cm each time with the winner being the person who's egg could be dropped from the highest point without breaking.
We were surprised to find that we soon got to 2 metres and needed the height of the playground to keep going. Eggs were stronger than we thought. Sometimes eggs missed the pads we had made and they still survived. Next time we will do a fair test, dropping eggs with and without pads. What a great discussion we had about how we knew that it was the pad protecting the egg or simply the egg itself. It's fantastic to see the scientific thinking that comes so naturally.
The winner of this challenge was Elliott with 2.5 metres! That is one strong egg!
This challenge got us thinking about how chickens make their eggs and whether they need anything special in their diet to help them make such hard shells.
Earlier in the week Zara and her mum Casey shared an experiment that gives us much more information about what shells are made from.
Place one ordinary egg in a jar with white vinegar.
To begin with bubbles appear on the eggs surface. Zara told us that this was the calcium carbonate in the egg shell reacting with the vinegar. Devon told us that is was making carbon dioxide as we could see the gas rising.
The next day the egg was like a little rubbery ball, all of it's shell had gone!
Measuring with metre rulers has been part of our maths program this week. Counting in multiples and working on quarters and halves were all part of this process.
Next week we hope to get the incubator turned on and begin taking care of our own clutch of eggs. Please do come in and see what we are doing and share in our learning we love seeing you in our classroom.