Student naturalist teacher Joan Radakovich and her students have brought eight baby chickens into their classroom. “We got four of our chicks this year from Tractor Supply and four more were donated by a student,” Radakovich said.

Radakovich teaches students how to take care of the chicks as well as maintain them in the classroom.

“Students [can] formulate questions about these incredible animals,” Radakovich said.

Students in each class become chicken experts and help take care and learn about them.

“Students learn about the reproductive cycle of birds and the resulting eggs.  They [also] learn about incubating eggs and what you need to raise chicks,” Radakovich said.

After learning about the animals in the class, about one thousand elementary school students come on a field trip to see the animals.

“We got the chicks for our bird unit and because we needed additional animals for our students to present to these elementary kids that come to Olathe South for our animal talks.” Radakovich said.

Each baby has multiple names from each class, but there is one chick that stands out from the rest.

“They are not a permanent part of our animal collection so there is not just one name for each… except for the fastest…..her name is Speedy Gonzalez.” Radakovich said.

Having the chickens in the student naturalist classroom helps inspire and teach the students about the life cycle and how to produce eggs for later consumption.

“It stimulates their curiosity and they come away with a great amount of knowledge about an animal that can help feed them with their egg production,” Radakovich said.

The students can use the information learned in the unit in real life situations.

“Who knows….It might inspire some students to raise backyard chickens in the future,” Radakovich said.