Agriculture continues to thrive as more science, engineering, and technology advancements allow the industry to use new research and develop techniques to feed our country. It is important to teach students how science and agriculture go hand in hand to put food on their tables every day. This year 391 seventh grade students at Christian County Middle School participated in the 4-H Egg Incubation program in their science classrooms. This program began in 2019 using one of the 7^th grade science classrooms to pilot the program only reaching 171 students that year. This year three egg incubators were brought to the middle school on February 10, 2020; one for each of the two 7^th grade science classrooms and the third was placed in special education classroom. 

Over the course of two days, each 7th grader was taught about egg-incubation, poultry facts, and possible careers in the poultry industry during their science class. They were also given a record sheet from the ChickQuest curriculum to record temperature, humidity, and egg rotation each day in class while learning about the development of the chick taking place inside of the egg. Each teacher overseeing the incubators was given an information folder containing incubator instructions, chick handling information, various worksheets, and poultry facts to use as they wished in their class. Teachers were able to incorporate the incubators into their science curriculum about heat transfer and cell development showing students a tangible example. 

On March 2, 2020 a live stream was created on YouTube to view the chicks hatching. This livestream link was shared with all classrooms at Christian County Middle School, the eight elementary schools in the Christian County Public School District and was also posted on Christian County 4-H’s social media pages. 

During the first day of incubation at the start of each class period student was given a 14-question pre-test about the egg incubation process. The average total for the student’s pre-test was 48% . After the 21-day incubation period was complete a post-test using the same questions was administered. Students showed a significant increase of knowledge about egg incubation as the average pos-test score was 73%. Having this opportunity in the classroom not only exposed students to agriculture but also learning how science, engineering, and technology plays a large factor into the learning about development of an egg into a chick, to the design and function of the incubator, all which allowed the chicks to hatch.