(By Chabella Guzman, PREEC Communications)

SCOTTSBLUFF -- Chicks will be hatching the week of April 21 from eggs at many area elementary schools where 4-H educators placed embryology projects.

Roosevelt Elementary welcomed Audra Brown, 4-H Extension Assistant, on April 15, for an update on the growing embryos in each classroom’s incubators. 

Brown’s visit was the candling part of the project, though she used a flashlight instead of a candle. Holding the flashlight under the egg in the darkened classroom, the children could witness what a fertilized egg with a chick growing inside looked like, as well as non-fertilized eggs. 

“Once they know what they are looking for, the kids really enjoy the candling process. They get excited when we are guessing as a class if there is a chick in there or not. And of course, getting to see the chick in the egg as a little black dot also brings excitement,” Brown said. 

Roosevelt Elementary has had the entomology project for seven years. It’s a big activity for the third-grade classes, and they pair it with their science learning.   

“They love the science, we have lessons, following what the chicks look like in the eggs at each stage,” said Alexia Lanka, Third Grade Teacher at Roosevelt Elementary. The project teaches the students not only where chickens come from and how they grow, but it also gives them the opportunity to learn something new.  

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Nebraska Extension is a Division of the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln cooperating with the Counties and the United States Department of Agriculture. Nebraska Extension educational programs abide with the nondiscrimination policies of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and the United States Department of Agriculture.