The first graders at Meadowlark Elementary School have been studying life cycles, and to make the experience more memorable and indelible, their teacher Mrs. Tammy Edwards decided to give them a visual. So, a month ago, she contacted René Brown and secured eighteen chicken eggs for incubation. Carmen Van Voast also donated eggs to the project.

After twenty-one days of monitoring incubator conditions, observing embryo development, reading stories, drawing life-cycle diagrams, writing about the stages in a chicken's life, and learning terminology like blood vessels, air sac, and membranes...