Chick embryology inspires a child’s natural curiosity about living things. The embryology project also conforms to the Kentucky Department of Education and National Science Standards competencies. The Trimble County Cooperative Agents for Agriculture and 4-H responded to a request from a Bedford Elementary School kindergarten teacher for assistance with this project in 2013. Agents conducted the program and provided leader materials and supplies for the project in which more than sixty kindergarten youth participated.  Since then, this program has become a tradition each year in our Kindergarten, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth grades.  In 2021 the 4-H agent placed six dozen eggs from the UK Chicken Research Farm in both Bedford and Milton Elementary Kindergarten, Fourth and Fifth grade classrooms involving 160 youth.

Students acquired knowledge in the following competencies: (1) Life Cycles – Animals have life cycles including birth, maturation, reproduction, and death. Animals also closely resemble their parents. (2) Living things have basic needs for survival – suitable habitat, food, air, water. Youth also demonstrated competencies in: (1) Calendar Skills – students marked off each calendar day during the twenty-one day development of the chicks before hatching. (2) Writing Skills – Students developed a written report of what they had learned during the embryology project. (3) Vocabulary – In another written piece, each student was able to define the word “oviparous” as an egg laying animal. They also named other animals which reproduce by laying eggs. (4) Sequencing – Students drew and colored the reproductive cycle of the baby chicks. Each of the written pieces was displayed on the school hallways for other students and parents to view.