STEM Magic on an Urban Farm
Top Row: Mama HenBO22, The Egg Comes FRom Where, Chicks In The City, Biodome chickens.
Bottom Row: Chicks Come Home to Their Father, Chicks Foraging, Charles Chickens Making a Home Movie of the City Chicks.
Top Row: Juvenile Chicken Humor Part 1 and 2, Chicks at Mid Ohio Farm and CCS Farm Day, Wet Chicks.
Bottom Row: The Roosters Start Crowing, Frantic Posts to Find a Home for the Chickens, Happy kids With Their New Chickens, Taking The Chickens Away - Alive!
#AppliedSTEM This is a story told through STEM on an #UrbanFarm. Chicks, curiosity, creativity, courage, grace, and surprise. Life Finds a Way and here is that story.
Chicks to Chickens
Last summer, my #MenTerns worked on an animal husbandry #DesignChallenge. They bred our rooster, Charles Chickens with Hen22BO. This created 7 chicks to go into our chicks for Kids program with five schools in Columbus City Schools - Ohio. The chicks were a hit! But the end of May came, and the chicks all came home.
Designed To Teach - And Be a Design Challenge
Our MenTerns used these chicks and THEIR STEM Design Challenge to develop #SummerCamps. Those kids loved them too! The Design Challenges were a lot of fun and tied to life science, and ecology standards.
Over 11 weeks those chicks grew into a fun and endlessly STEM journey. In October, they started coming into puberty, and the crowing started. 5 out of 10 of those chickens were ROOSTERS!
Cock-a-Doodle — Oh No!
Crowing at 5:30 on an #UrbanFarm in downtown Columbus. I tried hard to save them, but the time came when all five were crowing and causing Charles Chickens to strain to crow through his 3D printed no crow collar.
End Of The Line
The next day was culling day. But then the magic of STEM intervened. My arborist came with his crew and his seven-year-old daughter. She KNEW these chickens! They were the Mezzacello Urban Farm chicks she'd met at school.
She begged her daddy to save them. He agreed, I obliged. Now they live on a 12 acre farm outside Columbus, OH. I had the pleasure of telling ALL 600 kids who had been part of this Applied STEM journey they were safe.
STEM Is Relevant and Magical
STEM is relevant, endlessly adaptable, fun, and surprising. Mezzacello Urban Farm is committed to making STEM magic happen.
What's your favorite STEM Surprise Story? Tell me in the comments. A few words that have surprised you!
