S3 – Egg Incubation Investigation Curriculum/S3 -- Egg Incubation...S3 – Egg Incubation Investigation Adapted from ©J&P Murray, 2014 and World Osprey Week materials. Reproduction

S3 – Egg Incubation Investigation

Adapted from ©J&P Murray, 2014 and World Osprey Week materials. Reproduction for school use only.World Osprey Week is organized by the Leicestershire and Rutland Wildlife Trust as part of the Osprey Flyways Project.

Project OspreyTrackA project of the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center funded by:3M Eco Grant, Eversource, and Jane B. Cook 1983 Charitable Trust

Teacher Notes

Aims & objectives

1. Students will use the stimulus of a real life example to practice several fundamental science skills.

a. Drawing tables with correct headings and units

b. Setting up equipment.

c. Gathering data.

d. Graph plotting.

e. Extrapolating line graph data.

f. IT use.

2. Students will have to cooperate in working groups

3. Students will gain exposure to a real life conservation issue.

Advance Preparation 1. Hard boil chicken eggs and keep in an incubator or water bath at 37oC (98.6oF) for several hours to ensure a stable starting temperature.

2. Use whatever temperature measuring device you have available. In trials a small hole made in the side of an egg into which a temperature probe could be inserted worked well, as did the use of infrared gun type thermometers. However there is a safety issue with these due to their laser beam pointers. Whatever you use, the method of deployment will need to be explained / demonstrated.

3. Make provision for students to work in different ambient temperatures, for example could a group work outdoors or in the corridor where it is cooler? Use of fans or open windows could lower temperatures locally, heaters or infrared lamps could raise them. If this is all not possible, have a ready prepared set of data students can use.

4. See page 3 for a set of data collected by a group of 8th grade boys in a trial.




Teacher Notes -- continued

Lesson Plan

1. Use pictures or live streaming from one of several Osprey webcams (see links page at: http://www.nhnature.org/programs/project_ospreytrack/osprey_links.php) to introduce the subject and explain the aims and task.

2. Demonstrate apparatus use, including temperature reading for accuracy and reliability

3. Distribute worksheets, paper and equipment.

4. Allow students to follow the worksheet.

5. Make appropriate provision for the swapping of data.

6. Extensionworkandfinalizinggraphscouldbecomehomework,iflessontimeisshort. In longer lesson time it could be done in class if students have computer access. Or as a class discussion using live streaming from a webcam on the class screen.




Sample DataSet of sample data obtained at an ambient room temperature of 22.7oC (72.8oF)

Teacher Notes -- continued

Time /min Temperature/ oC 0 32.0 2 30.1 4 29.0 6 28.5 8 28.7 10 26.6 12 26.1 14 25.7 16 25.5 18 25.3 20 25.3 22 25.1 24 25.0 26 24.2 28 24.1 30 23.8 32 23.9 34 23.6 36 23.5 38 23.2




Student Worksheet

Introduction:

Like all birds Ospreys lay eggs in a nest and sit on them to keep them warm while they develop. This is called incubation. Ospreys make very large open nests so if a parent bird is not sitting on the eggs they can cool down very quickly. If the eggs get too cold they do not develop into healthy chicks or they may even die.Parent birds are sometimes forced to leave their eggs if an intruder needs to be chased away. Your task is to investigate how quickly an Osprey egg will cool to danger level.

Equipment:

Large chicken egg, which is at 37oC (98.6oF). The egg has been hard boiled

Thermometer or temperature probe

Timer

Egg cup made from the egg carton. This is your nest.

Instructions: 1. Draw a results table, so that you can write down the temperature of the egg at two minute intervals, for as long as your lesson time will allow. Do not forget to put the units in the heading of each column.

2. Take the temperature of the room and write this down.

3. When both of the above are done collect your egg which is being kept at 37oC, sit it in your ‘eggcup’, start the timer, take its temperature and record this in the table.

4. Take the egg temperature, every 2 minutes.

5. While you are waiting draw the scales of a graph so you can also graph your results as you go.




Student WorksheetQuestions

Name __________________________________________

1. Ospreys, like all birds, keep their body at a constant temperature of 40oC (104oF). Suggest why we started with the eggs at 37oC?

___________________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________________

2. (a) Apart from the fact that we used chicken eggs instead of Osprey eggs, describe another difference between our investigation and real life?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

(b) What difference might this make to the results?

______________________________________________________________

3. We do not know exactly at what temperature Osprey eggs would die, but experiments with ducks have shown that they die at 21oC How long did your egg take to get to this temperature? (hint: if your egg did not drop to this low temperature, use your graph to estimate the time)

___________________________________________________________________

4. Other groups in your class have done the same experiment at a different ambient temperature. Swap data tables with another group and plot their results onto your graph in a different color. Then answer the following questions. (a) What was the ambient temperature of the other group? ____________________

(b) What difference did this starting temperature make to the cooling of their egg compared to the cooling of yours?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________




Student Worksheet

4. (c) Ospreys breed from Canada to Florida. In which location is it more likely to be a problem for the adult birds to keep their eggs warm?

______________________________________________________________

Suggest a reason for your answer.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

Further investigation; If a bird left the nest and it was raining, would the cooling be faster?

______________________________________________________________ Plan an investigation to simulate egg cooling in rainy conditions. How would you make sure the test was fair?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________




Student Worksheet

Time /min Temperature/ oC Temperature/ oF

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

22

24

26

28

30

32

34

36

38

40

Documents

S3 – Egg Incubation Investigation Curriculum/S3 -- Egg Incubation...S3 – Egg Incubation Investigation Adapted from ©J&P Murray, 2014 and World Osprey Week materials. Reproduction