10,000 Eggs: 20 years of Hatching Ducks in the Classroom

In 1989, Mink Hollow Farm started providing “ready-to-hatch” duck eggs to local schools. Over the years we added resources, first on paper (I lost track of how many hours I spent photocopying packages for teachers), and in 2001 on the Internet. The website now features hundreds of webpages that include everything from reference material through activities and beyond. Our photo album contains thousands of photos of ducks, hatching, and other sights around the farm.

I set approximately 500 eggs per year in my incubator, so, after 20 years that works out to 10,000 eggs. That's where the title comes from.

In those 20+ years this program has reached on the order of 500,000 children and adults, many of whom will remember the hatching experience for the rest of their lives. For some, it was a profoundly moving experience.

Do you have a story you'd like to share?

This call for participation is directed at anyone who has been part of our hatching program: teachers, students, caretakers, parents, volunteers, and anyone else who is connected with our program. (more information also available here)

Essays, photos, and anecdotes will be compiled and combined with some of my personal accounts of experiences with the hatching program over the last 20 years, and turned into a book.

In case you are interested, here is a presentation I did for the Calgary City Teachers Convention in 2009: duck-hatching-in-the-classroom

Schools are meant to educate the next generation and prepare them for what lies ahead. Yet more and more schools are also concerned with safety and security and more and more, these concerns overshadow our choices for what and how we teach. While increased literacy with technology is important, it should not come at the expense of real life experiences - BOTH are important.

In his book, ”Last Child in the Woods”, Richard Louv says that contact with nature is crucial to the normal development of children and by keeping our children 'safe' inside or by making sure that their days are filled with useful 'productive' activities, we are depriving them of an element that is essential to their development.

Richard Louv

Last Child in the Woods-Revised: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder

ISBN 156512605X

Schools cannot make up for all of this (nor should they), but there are some things that can be done to help children stay connected to the natural world of which they are a part, and animals in the classroom is one of these things.

The purpose of the book is to let other educators know about the significance of the hatching program, from a perspective of personal, first-hand reflections.

We are looking for stories, reflections, anecdotes, etc. from people that have experienced the hatching program.

• How did this program affect your school as a community?
• What did you do if one of your ducklings failed to hatch, or if one died?
• Were there any children in the class who were deeply affected by this experience?
• Did anyone suffer any adverse health effects as a result of having ducklings in the classroom?
• Did you notice if your students' writing was affected (more? less? better?)
• Were there any 'teachable moments' in particular that you remember that would not have been possible (or unlikely) if not for this experience?
• How long do the children remember this experience?
• Were there any surprising curricular connections?
• How do teachers share what they have learned with other teachers, or how do they pass this knowledge/unit on to the next teacher when they leave?

If you wish to contribute, but don't feel you can write something for the book directly, I am happy to take essays and stories and edit or re-write them for you.

For more information, or to submit an essay, please contact:

Katrin Becker at book [at] minkhollowfarm [dot] ca

Link to use of student work permission form.

Transfer of Copyright Agreement Form

If you wish to submit an essay, short story, or other anecdote, please include the following:

Please include the essay title, name(s), and affiliation(s) of author(s) and current contact information for correspondence (including e-mail).

Include the essay title (double spaced and in a 12-point font if possible). If necessary (i.e. if you are referencing anything or including tables or images), please try to adhere to the guidelines of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.). Feel free to ask me if you're not sure what I'm talking about.

Essays should be at least 250 words (i.e. approximately one half typed page) and no longer than 3000 words.

If you have a shorter tale, anecdote or quote that you would like to share, you can do that too. These will be included as I find space for them.

Please include the following information describing your connection to the Hatching Program:

• when (you can be approximate if you can't remember exactly)
• what school/organization & grade/subject area
• your role: (i.e. student, teacher, administrator, other school staff, parent, volunteer, etc.)

This does not need to be part of your essay, but could be if you like.

A short bio of no more than 100-150 words that you would be willing to have published along with your essay.

Submissions can be in any of the following forms:

• as a email sent to Katrin Becker, book [at] minkhollowfarm [dot] ca
• as an email attachment (Word, OpenOffice, PDF, or plain text) to Katrin Becker, book [at] minkhollowfarm [dot] ca
• share the document or link via Google Docs
  • share with: becker [dot] minkhollow [at] gmail [dot] com
• on paper by regular mail to:
  • 10,000 Eggs
  • Katrin Becker, Mink Hollow Farm
  • RR #2, Cochrane, Alberta, T4C 1A2

Deadline for submission: December 31, 2010

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