An annual tradition in all Minnetonka first grade classrooms is the hatching of duck eggs. Each year, these eggs are carefully raised in an incubator and eagerly watched by the students. Eggs are "candled" with a flashlight to see what is inside and if there is any movement. Students and teachers take care of the eggs, watching the temperature and humidity levels, and teachers even come in on the weekends to turn the eggs. Eventually the students get to see the result. Sometimes they are fortunate enough to be present in school when the eggs hatch and other times they miss out on seeing it live. Fortunately now this problem has a solution which includes Raspberry Pi.
This annual project is one my own children loved when they were in first grade. Eight years ago when my oldest son was a first grader, we put together a video highlighting the process and what happens to all the ducklings after school is out for the summer--students were very concerned about this unknown! The video was done in Spanish and English as well as translated into Chinese for our immersion students. 
Two years ago, Hsin-Yi Liu, a first grade Chinese immersion teacher at Excelsior Elementary, was awarded a grant from the Minnetonka Foundation to get some new equipment for this project. She received funding to purchase three automated incubators and LED candlers. After a successful test of the equipment last year, this year she received money from her school's PTO to get the equipment for the remaining first grade teachers in her building as well as a Raspberry Pi 3 Starter Kit and electronic Raspberry Pi Camera Module for each classroom.
The new model of incubator makes it easy for students to observe the eggs and greatly reduces the amount of work and worry for teachers and students, plus the hatch success rate increased from 30% in the old, styrofoam incubators (pictured in the video above) to 80% using the new automated model pictured. The new incubators manage temperature and has temperature alarms, lists days to hatch, automatically turns and rotates the eggs, has fan-assisted airflow to evenly heat eggs, and the egg chamber has clear sides for students to view the hatching eggs. The LED Light Egg Candler makes it easy to candle the eggs and display the images of the embryo rather than using an overhead projector. Students enjoy checking the eggs every day and recording new observations in their lab journals. A camera running with an inexpensive Raspberry Pi computer set up by our Technology Department allows for a live stream feed on YouTube (view here- select one labeled “Live Now”) so students can see the eggs at night and on the weekend, which now means no one has to miss the exciting moments when the eggs hatch!
Related:
 |
| Watch video: Wild ducks- not hatched in an incubator- also come each spring to one of our elementary schools |
- Minnetonka has Chinese or Spanish immersion programs for students beginning in kindergarten.
No comments:
Post a Comment