CLUCKY CLASSROOM
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Snow White’s feet are still burned but the neosporin is helping to stop the swelling, blisters, and pain. Her comb is also still healing from the burn but it doesn’t seem to irritate her. Some of her feathers are also burned but if she molts her feathers could grow back to their white feathery selves! Her comb was also burned off but it does not seem to bother her to much, so hopefully she will be back like herself in a little bit. She’s on the road to recovery.
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IT'S COMING! The A2 Steam Temporary Indoor Chicken Coop is currently under construction and is well under way. Mr Vince and Sadie (below) alongside Oliver, Soloman and Deisa are building an indoor chicken coop that Snow White will move into on the Monday after Thanksgiving break! The "coop" Snow White was living in was not providing what she needed, so on Monday, She will have her own private chicken suite! The coop will be located inside Mrs. Moore's classroom, and the 5th graders are so exited to have Snow white inside the school! Stay tuned for more information about our new coop!
In what will soon be a mere 2 ½ years ago, 3 talented teachers asked a simple question- How can we raise chickens at STEAM? The initial brainstorming of that day resulted in 2- 2’x3’ pieces of paper covered in how this simple idea could expand and cover a wide range of standards, not just for 5th grade, but well beyond. Thanks to a shared structure and belief system, that learning should be experiential, almost every facet of that initial brainstorming has since come to fruition.
Within this simple question, students delved deeper into content rich experiences within and well beyond the classroom. This question did what it was designed to do- create an urgency and purpose for learning. Since our first proposal to students about chickens, our children have experienced and accomplished so much. The school year of 2015-2016 started out with a crash course in chicken ranching. Students visited multiple farms, invited chicken ranchers in to pose questions, and used their advice and guidance to individually engineer and design coops that could soon house our chickens. During that first expo, our community voted on 3D-scaled coop designs they thought were the best overall. Students soon got busy combing the top three designs, planning a budget and accounting for future expenses. The second expo that year saw a brand new coop outside, every board measured by one of those 63 students and every screw carefully placed. They had been busy inside as well, designing and constructing incubators and brooders to house our new family members. We hatched eleven chickens that first spring and were able to keep four. Each student was able to talk as an expert about chicken anatomy in reproduction and physiology. Mr. Vince and Mrs. Moore desperately wanted to continue the sense of urgency and purpose to learn the following year. We also wanted to use the design and construction process to help students practice math and engineering skills. So, in 2016-2017 it was decided with the help of the most wonderful addition yet- Ms. Stowe - that we should take on a client and build another coop. During the fall curriculum night it took the Baker family nearly a half a second to shoot their hands in the air to volunteer as chicken coop client #1. Our 2nd year of fifth graders went through a modified version of the design process, yet still with all of the questions and urgency as our first group. They designed and built a coop based on their client’s needs all while caring for the previous year’s hens in our coop at STEAM. Again, each screw and board secured and measured by children’s hands. And, the cycle of building coops and hatching chickens continued. Our second year started with something new as well- selling our laying hens’ eggs to buy chicken feed and bedding. It soon became apparent that they wanted to do more than just selling eggs and that is where the next phase of this project took off. As Mr. Vince and Mrs. Moore looked back on their original brainstorming, it was in awe of how far the project had come and how it was organically adding layers that they had intended to systematically introduce. It became true, authentic Project Based Learning. Children were seeing needs, asking questions and reaching for knowledge without adult interference. In the second year, students started layering plans to have a farm stand, to cook, to share their knowledge of healthy living and eating with their chickens as the focal point. It was with pride that they were creating things to pass down to the next year of 5th graders, just as those before them had done. Year three, the 2017-18 school year, started out with amazing strides. Students were learning fractions by cooking, designing and engineering solutions to chicken problems, learning soft skills like communication and collaboration when discussing chicken needs, and the list goes on and on. Their minds were bursting with creative solutions to problems we only dreamed of as adults. The urgency was once again palpable and dynamic. Then, November 11th came. It is with sadness at times, but optimism at most, that the 5th grade STEAM looks to move ahead and persevere- the same traits we discuss daily with our students. Prior to the fire, Mr. Luxon wrote the most heartwarming notes to Mr. Vince, Mrs. Moore and Mrs. Stowe about his wishes for his son to one day have the opportunity to take part in the chicken ranching, chickenomics, chickeneering, and chickenatomy in 5th grade, and to that we reply- he will. Without a doubt, the project will go on and he will. We know that many of your are eager to help brainstorm, fund, and rebuild our coop at STEAM. At this point we are waiting to determine the coop’s location and therefore its design so the most effective way to help is with funding for the coop. We are hoping to use even better materials and systems to ensure our work with chickens will continue for years to come. To the community at A2STEAM, your support and kind words have kept us afloat in optimism the past week, thank you. We find ourselves so thankful this Thanksgiving week to have those around us who know what we do, why we do it, and that it is a work of passion for all of our children. Mrs. Moore, Mrs. Stowe, and Mr. Vince paypal.me/STEAMCHICKENS Snow White is is living in our classroom with us and is feeling much better! She has been healing fast and has been laying eggs which means she is doing much better! She has been taking medication to ensure she is healing at a proficient rate.p
She is currently in a miniature coop in the back of Mrs. Moore's classroom. The 5th graders will be designing a temporary indoor coop for Snow White. Our Extremely Awesome Teachers will be building it over Thanksgiving break (Now thats something to be thankful for!). After the fire Snow White was brought to the vet. Now Snow White is at one of Mrs. Moore's former student's home, and is being well cared for.
Before Snow White can come back we will have to rebuild the coop. The coop will be bigger, better, and stronger. Today we have heard from a farmer in Pennsylvania. And she might be willing to donate some of her chickens to the fifth grade team! We hope to have a new coop before winter break for the chickens! If you would like to donate to this effort please go to paypal.me/STEAMCHICKENS. Thank you for your concern and belief in A2STEAM. This past Saturday, the 11th of November, a heartbreaking incident happened. Our chicken coop suffered fire damage as well as a few of our classrooms. Out of the five chickens, one of them survived and is in a local animal hospital receiving treatment and is on its way back to a healthy life back at A2 STEAM. The kids and teachers are deeply saddened by the news but are continuing to be strong and carry on. Sometime in the future the fifth grade teachers and kids will be getting new CHICKS! They will also build a newer sturdier and safer coop which the new chicks will grow up in. Even though this news has saddened us very much we will restart again and become even stronger, like a phenix rising from the ashes.
Below is the timeline of facts about the fire, if you are curious: 9:15 Fire started in the coop 9:17 911 was called by Ms. K’s aunt Police arrived as well as two bystanders who took Snow White away to an emergency vet (Ann Arbor Animal Hospital) 9:20 Firemen arrived on the scene to put out the fire in the coop 9:35 Smoke entered the building through broken windows and alarms went off 9:40 Mr. VanLoo (who was working in his classroom) came down the 4th/5th grade hallway where he saw smoke The fire was out by the time he came to Mr. Vince and Mrs. Moore’s classrooms 10:15 Mr. Vince and Mrs. Moore arrived on the scene (Mrs. Stowe was not contacted at this point) 10:25 Fire Investigator arrived on the scene to investigate the cause of the fire 10:35 It became evident that four chickens did not survive the smoke and fire 10:35-1:00am Mr. Vince and Mrs. Moore help clean up, answer questions from the fire department, and secure the building. This involved:
Sunday, November 12th - Maintenance and remediation teams worked at STEAM to repair our classrooms and take care of items in the chicken run. 9:00am Mrs. Moore talked to Leslie Science Center about housing our recovering chicken. They agreed and are able to keep her indoors throughout her recovery. 12:00-1:00 Mrs. Stowe and Mrs. Moore visited Snow White at Ann Arbor Animal Hospital She is stable and recovering. The vet is hopeful that she will continue to improve every day. 2:00-6:00pm Mrs. Stowe, Mrs. Moore, and Mr. Vince worked to prepare classrooms and plan our day for Monday. 6:15pm Mrs. Stowe and Mrs. Moore returned to Ann Arbor Animal Hospital to drop off food and mealworms for Snow White. 10:00pm Mrs. Moore called Ann Arbor Animal Hospital for an update on Snow White, she is eating mealworms happily and is off of oxygen. Dr. McKinney is hopeful that she will be ready to be moved to Leslie Science Center Monday after school. The chickens are back!
Welcome back! We are the 2017-2018 5th grade class. We will be updating you and your friends about our feathered friends and what they are doing. At this time the chickens are having fun and laying some eggs, we have been feeding them and they are gobbling it all up. The chickens have been very greedy, and we've even seen one of them lay an egg INSIDE the classroom! Apparently, the chickens really like apples and they will argue over the food we give them. We have some kids making sure the other kids in our school are safe with the chickens and are making sure the chickens are are safe too. And we also have kids who go in the coop to get eggs and give the chickens food and water. We have a farm stand where we are selling Eggs & Baked goodies every Wednesday! Stop by for a tasty treat! Did you know that this year, we have an Araucana, who lays green eggs (but no ham!) Thanks for wanting to know more about our chickens! On June 8, 2017 we put the chicks into their new home! They were a little bit confused, and of course very freaked out, but eventually curiosity got the better of them. They were interested by the semi-automatic feeder, and were hesitant to eat out of it. They are still quite nervous around the nesting boxes. Hopefully that will change by the time they are old enough to lay eggs. If not, well, we’ll deal with that when the time comes. Currently, we are trying to teach them to go into the coop at night to sleep, rather than to try to sleep under the coop all night. The only way we can do that is by chasing them around the coop, and then grabbing them to shove into the coop. Luckily, they learned how to get out of the coop, and the fact that the run is not a big, scary monster, fairly quickly. We only have to help them with the other side of the process now. The chicks are very happy to have a large amount of space, as their brooder was very small. Even the coop is bigger than the brooder! They are doing fine, and are settling in quite nicely. We’re pretty sure that they have their pecking order all straightened out, and that all of them will turn out to be healthy, happy hens!
Snow White’s feet are still burned but the neosporin is helping to stop the swelling, blisters, and pain. Her comb is still burned but it doesn’t seem to irritate her. Some of her feathers are also burned but if she molts her feathers could grow back to their white selves! Her comb was also burned off but it does not seem to bother her to much, so hopefully she will be back like herself in a little bit. She’s on the road to recovery.
We would like to thank the people at M Live for coming and making such a good article. Thanks also to the city councilman- Zack Ackerman, for coming and asking questions and just talking to all of us and thanks to the photographer that took the amazing photos you see on the article. And last but not least thanks to you, you are taking time out of your day to look at our website. Thanks again. Like http://s.mlive.com/UGWIariTo run our current coop’ chicken door a group of four students created a robot out of VEX robotics to open the door from inside the building. VEX robotics is a company that creates different robotics kits. In this case the group used VEX IQ, a plastic set. This robot has an open function and a close function. When opening, the spool winds while closing, the brain is told to wait 6 hours and then unravel the spool which closes the door.
They decided to increase the torque of the robot so it can pull more. Even though the gear ratio decreases speed, it lets it open the door because the door need 50 nouns of force to open. Before we made this robot we needed a way to let the robot open and close the door without going outside. So we created a pulley system that goes through the interior of the coop and hooks onto the door. This system uses three pulleys that are dispersed throughout the coop. -The chick pecks at the food but I can'tell if it is eating the food or not
-The chick just sits on the edge of the food bowl -The chick can drink water -She eats with the side of her beak -She eats but a lot come out of her mouth -If food is on the ground she will eat it -She tries to eat the bedding -She can almost eat most of the food but might need help -She can Itch itself -She can preen her feathers -She can rest/sleep while she is standing -She can lift her bottom eyelid up -She tries her best to eat -She finds dead mosquitoes very tasty -Chirps a lot -Every time we feed her food on the ground it seems to encourage her to eat more too -Likes to eat from the ground -Eats more chick food than full grown chicken food -If the food is high in the bowl she will eat the food One of the chicks had a beautiful photo shoot. She actually did turn every time Mrs. Moore moved her camera! Here are some photos of our picture perfect chick:
On 5-15-17, two chicks had a “meeting” with one of the chickens in our coop. The chicks were placed on the window sill near the coop, and when the chicken came onto the sill they started staring at each tithes, and just looking each other over. It was a meeting with their future selves!
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