By Sanjana Sanghani, Staff Reporter

“We see eggs all the time—granted that they’re always in our refrigerator, but to see chicks break out of the shell and to hear them chirping is just an amazing process. To see in three weeks something that is basically nothing turn into a living, breathing organism that is staring at you is just what is fascinating to me,” biology teacher Mrs. Wolfe said.

Eleven Moyer Slow Grower Baby Chicks hatched for the first time at Conestoga during the week of March 27, 2017.  The Chester County 4-h agricultural program has an embryology curriculum that provided the fertilized eggs and the incubator, the food, the bedding, etc. to care for the chicks. The chicks were given for a 21-day gestation period starting from March 17 to April 6, 1017.

According to Biology Club co-president Jennifer Lee, the club had helped Wolfe take care of the chicks.

“When they were eggs we just checked on them occasionally and just left them there, but when they were chicks we had to watch them more often. For example, we had to watch them when they were drying off their feathers and we had to make sure the feed and water were full but they mostly just took care of themselves,” Lee said.

According to Wolfe, the chicks were used to create connections between what her classes were currently learning.

“You can make a lot of connections with embryology regarding the reproduction asset with Anatomy and Physiology. With my biology classes we talked about what the characteristics are that humans and chicks share and how embryology can be used as evidence for evolution,” Wolfe said.

This has been the first time chicks were brought into the high school. However, at elementary schools like Devon and New Eagle a similar program had occurred.

According to both Lee and Wolfe the chicks had garnered an “overwhelming” amount of attention and had become “famous.”

“I think it was the essentially the cute factor that brought the attention. They were just so little and fun and my students would bring their friends and then those friends would bring theirs, and the first thing people did when they came in was go see the chicks,” Wolfe said.

Sanjana Sanghani can be reached at [email protected].