In this learning module, year 3 and 4 students conduct a scientific investigation into the life cycle of a chicken.Students investigate, incubate and raise chickens from fertile eggs. Mathematics (data collection, graphing, measurement and number) are also integrated into their learning.
Science, Life cycle, Investigation, Fertile, Infertile, Incubation
Australian Curriculum
As a result of completing this learning module, students will be able to:
SCIENCE UNDERSTANDINGS
Biological sciences
Year 3: Living things can be grouped on the basis of observable features and can be distinguished from non-living things (ACSSU044)
Year 4: Living things have life cycles (ACSSU072)
SCIENCE AS A HUMAN ENDEAVOUR
Nature and development of science
Science involves making predictions and describing patterns and relationships (ACSHE050)
SCIENCE INQUIRY SKILLS
Questioning and predicting
Planning and conducting
Processing and analysing data and information
Evaluating
Communicating
Learning Intention: To demonstrate what I already know about chickens, life cycles and scientific investigations.
Success Criteria: I can think about, discuss and share what I already know about chickens, life cycles and scientific investigations.
Use Timed-Think-Pair-Share to discuss what you already know about chickens, life cycles and scientific investigations.
After discussing with a partner record what you already know about chickens, life-cycles and scientific investigations in the comment box
Comment:
What do you know about chickens?
What do you know about life-cycles?
What do you know about scientific experiments?
What do you know about animals that are born from eggs?
After reading other students' ideas, comment on one piece of information that is new for you. Start with @Name so the person knows you are commenting on their comment. Start with Thank you @Name. I learnt that.........
Purpose
To find out what students already know about chickens, life cycles and scientific investigations.
Teaching Tips
Students discuss and record what they already know about the topic (chickens, life cycles, scientific investigations) in Scholar.
Encourage students to share their prior knowledge with their peers through discussion and to use the Internet to help with their thinking (images, information etc).
Learning Intention: To find out about eggs.
Success Criteria: I can follow the steps in a procedure to cook scrambled eggs.
Today we are going to follow this procedure and cook scrambled eggs. You will need to follow each step carefully to scramble your eggs well.
In a small group cook your scrambled eggs.
Eat them and enjoy!
Comment: In science we make observations. What was one important observation you made before, during or after the eggs were cooked?
Read through other students comments and comment on one of them. Start with @Name so the student knows you are commenting on their comment.
For example, @Bob I liked your comment because........ or @Sally I didn't know ............. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Purpose
Building the field - having students exposed to eggs, prior to teaching the differences between fertile and infertile eggs and their purposes.
Resources
Procedure for scrambled eggs.
Taste recipe - Perfect Scrambled Eggs
Teaching Tips
Highlight to students that there is a yolk and egg white inside the egg (when breaking into bowl). This can be referred to when looking at fertile eggs later (candling).
Procedures should be also focused on in literacy sessions.
Learning Intention: To develop your understanding of the life cycle of a chicken including the difference between fertilised and non-fertilised eggs.
Success Criteria:
In this activity you will learn about how chickens are born. You will then order the stages of a chicken life cycle.
Watch YouTube clip showing the developing chicken embryo
Watch the YouTube clip showing chicks hatching.
Complete the 'Life Cycle of a Chicken' artwork.
Purpose
This update develops student understanding of the life cycle of a chicken and the difference between fertilised and non-fertilised eggs.
Teaching Tips
Students use the life-cycle of a chicken proforma to sequence the development of a chicken.
Egg Fertility
Students need to understand the difference between a fertile egg and an infertile egg:
Fertile - Hen and rooster mate. Baby chicken inside
Infertile - No baby inside - can be eaten. Has been laid as part of the chicken's cycle but has not been fertilised
Resources
Images of fertile and non-fertile eggs.
Learning Intention: To further develop our vocabulary.
Success Criteria: I can understand and spell words on our Word Wall
Throughout our unit of work, we will be learning a variety of new words. As we learn new words we will record them onto our Word Wall.
Word Wall (with eggs)
Create a word wall with the students to display all terminology to do with the unit (with eggs).
Continue to add to this wall each day.
Use large pictures (outlines) of eggs to classify the words into categories. Suggested categories include:
- life-cycle
- chickens
- science / investigations
Add new and interesting words to the Word Wall in the appropriate egg (category).
Resources
Egg Templates to complete Word Wall
Learning Intention: To understand how to ask inquiry questions that guide an investigation.
Success Criteria:
Throughout this unit of work we will be tracking the life-cyle of a chicken and recording our questions, predictions, observations, results, evaluations and reflections in our Science Journal.
Before scientists research and perform experiments, they ask questions and make predictions. They then perform their research and experiments to find the answers to their questions and check their predictions.
What questions do you want to investigate as we incubate our chicken eggs?
Think-Pair-Share to discuss the questions you have, with a partner.
Share your questions with the class and record the class' questions into your Science Journal.
Make predictions about what you think will happen or what the answer will be to each question you have asked.
Record your predictions in your Science Journal.
Comment: In science, questions are important as they guide our learning. What was one question you heard from another student that you now want to find the answer to?
Purpose
This update clarifies the purpose of the Science Journal and more importantly, introduces students to asking questions in their science investigation.
Throughout this unit of work students will record their learning, scientific investigations and observations into their Science Journal.
Teaching Tips
1. Science Journal: Discuss with students what they will include in their Science Journal, as per the Primary Connections "How to use a science journal." (See Resources).
Explain the definitions of the language used within a science journal. (Headings such as predictions, observations, equipment, procedure/experiment set-up, results and evaluation).
2. Science Investigation: Students will pose questions they would like to investigate prior to the commencement of the chicken egg incubation.
Using these guiding questions as examples, students discuss and record their own investigating questions.
Example Guiding Questions
Students then make predictions about the answers to their questions and what they think might happen.
Resources
"How to use a science journal."
Teachers may choose to use the example on page 71 of the "Plants in Action" resource as 'quality criteria' for completion of a science journal.
Learning Intention: To develop understanding of how to set up an investigation.
Success Criteria:
Record the equipment and materials you think you will need to set up our investigation about the chicken life-cycle.
Discuss and record how you think the investigation will be set-up. Record this in your Science Journal.
Over the next 5 weeks, you will be investigating the life-cycle of chickens. You will be recording the growth and changes of the incubated fertile eggs and the chickens after they hatch.
We will be recording our observations with descriptions, drawings, pictures and data collection (gathered from measurements using a candelling technique).
Throughout this unit of work we will be tracking the life-cyle of a chicken and recording our questions, predictions, observations, results, evaluations and reflections in our Science Journal.
Use the Investigation Planner to discuss the activities carried out during an experiment and the language we use when investigating.
Use the explorer's circle activity to investigate with a partner the layout of the investigation planner and the language features.
Share your ideas using the Give One, Get One cooperative learning strategy.
As a class, share your ideas from the Give One, Get One activity to label your class one text model of a science report.
Comment: What is one important thing you have learnt about writing a science report? Why do you think it is important to include all the information about the equipment and the procedure in detail? Read other students' comments and comment on 1-2, explaining why you found it interesting.
During this activity students discuss how they think the incubation project should be set up and the materials and equipment they will need to complete their investigation.
Over a 5 week period, students will be investigating the growth and life-cycle of chickens.
Purpose
This update sets up the weekly observations. Once a week, students will observe the growth of their chicken eggs and record their observations through measurements (candelling), diagrams and drawings.
Students are encouraged to demonstrate the growth of the chickens through time.
Pre-required
The Hatching Chicks program will need to be booked prior to teaching the unit of work. The incubation to hatching process takes approximately 5 weeks.
Students have completed tasks relating to measurement (length and time) throughout the year. As students record and represent data, you may have to revise some of these concepts.
Resources
See information on the Canberra Hatching Chicks program.
Teaching Tips
The candelling technique will be explained to the teacher, by the facilitator of the program. This information will then be passed onto students as to how to measure the chickens growth using the candelling technique.
The investigation will continue over the remainder of the unit. The chickens will be placed in the school's chicken coup when they are of appropriate age.
The data collection component of the investigation has been documented in the Learning by Design "Chance and Data - Graphing" placemat.
Learning Intention: To develop understanding of the life-cycle of a chicken.
Success Criteria: I can record observations and results.
Use the Observation Record to help you to gather your data and record your observations.
Comment: In science, the results we get from our investigations are sometimes not as we expected. What was one surprising observation or result from the data you collected today?
Each week students will record their observations of the egg incubation process, hatching process and the growth and changes of a chicken after hatching.
Teachers can use the Observation Record to assist students in recording and gathering their data.
| Observation | |
| Week 1 | |
| Week 2 | |
| Week 3 | |
| Week 4 | |
| Week 5 | |
| Wee |
Resources
Observation Record, pencils, science journal.
Learning Intention: To understand how scientists use investigations, observations and data to find answers to their questions.
Success Criteria:
Represent the data you collected about the growth of the chickens in the form of a graph.
Use your graph and recorded observations to answer the questions you asked at the beginning of the investigation and see whether your predictions were correct.
Complete your Science Journal: results and evaluation.
Comment: Compare your findings to another students' in the class. Were your answers to the investigation questions the same? What was different?
Purpose
In this update students develop their understanding of how scientists use investigations, observations and data to find answers to their questions.
Teaching Tips
As part of our Numeracy planning, teachers will follow the LbD placemat on Chance and Data. At the conclusion of the Chicken Life-cycle investigation, students graph their results and use this information to assist their evaluation.
Students also answer the questions they asked at the commencement of the investigation and see if their predictions were accurate.
Students record their evaluation and answers to their questions in the investigation planner.
Resources
Learning Intention: To understand how to identify a living thing and that all living things have life cycles.
Success Criteria: I can draw conclusions about living and non-living things in my wider reading and in Cooperative Reading.
In your Cooperative learning teams you will be reading through a variety of texts over the Term. The texts that will be read will be information texts and you will be using a Chat Chart to assist each member in your group to gather information and deepen your group's discussion.
Watch the following Youtube clips.
Comment: Is an egg a living or a non-living thing? Give a reason for your answer. Is a chicken a living or a non living thing? Give a reason for your answer. Read through other students' answers. Comment on 1-2, explaining why you agree or disagree with them. Start with @Name so they know you are commenting on their comment. You could start with: Bella, I agree with your answer that ..........
Alongside the Chicken Life-Cycle investigation, students will engage with a variety of information texts depicting the Life-cycle of animals from around the world and relationships between animals and their environment.
Purpose
The Cooperative Reading activities aim to expand students thinking about the life cycles of other living things. The Youtube clips and the comment activity address the year 3 understanding in the Australian Curriculum - Living things can be grouped on the basis of observable features and can be distinguished from non-living things.
Teaching Tips
Students work in Cooperative Learning teams and will complete Cooperative Reading sessions 3-4 times per week. They complete activities as the four roles of the reader (Code Breaker, Investigator, Discussion Manager and Illustrator).
Students will also be introduced to a Chat Chart to guide them through the Cooperative Reading process. Teachers will need to explicitly model how the Chat Chart can be used during Cooperative Reading sessions and the links to reading strategies "good readers" use.
Resources
Learning Intention: To show what I have learnt about the life cycle of a chicken.
Success Criteria: I can draw together what I have learned in my science investigation into a presentation and present it to my peers.
Create a presentation about what you have learned in your science investigation. Include your predictions, observations, recordings, conclusions and illustrations.
Choose from one of the following activities to display their science report:
As a class we need to develop a success criteria to assist you in preparing your presentation. Let's use the Give One, Get One strategy to share our ideas.
Now let's make up a list of our criteria.
Present to a group of 3 other students. After each student presents, use 2 Stars and a Wish to give them feedback.
Comment: Based on your own feedback, what is one thing you could do to improve your presentation. Read through other students' comments and comment on one that you think would also help you to improve too. Start with @Name so the student knows you are commenting on their comment.
Purpose: The purpose of this activity is for students to individually demonstrate what they have learnt as they gathered data during the Chicken Life-Cycle investigation.
Teaching Tips
As a class, students prepare an assessment rubric or Success Criteria to assist them in their presentation preparation.
Throughout the planning and preparation of their presentations, students will evaluate each others' work using the 2 Stars and a Wish formative assessment strategy.
Students record their ideas in the Give One column of their table. They then share their ideas with other students in the class and record their peers' ideas in the Get One column of their table.
Students then collate their ideas with their teacher, ensuring all students are able to contribute to the discussion.
2. Stars and a Wish
This is a peer assessment tool, used by students to provide feedback on each other’s work. Students provide two areas that they think are ‘quality’ (stars) about the work and one area for improvement (wish). The comments are recorded on sticky notes.
Extension (Applying Creatively)
Students can research and present information about another topic linked to the life cycles of chickens. Offer choice in the topic and how it is presented (project, PPT, talk, update in Scholar)