Identification of eggs

James and I identifying eggs

            A few weeks ago, I spent a couple hours identifying bird eggs with James who was kind enough to bring eggs for the bird display case. This was quite a challenge identifying the eggs since there wasn’t a guide, but us working from one book with pictures of the eggs.

            We identified probably 8 or so eggs some were easy due to the size and color combination. Since the book, we used was not to scale the eggs were harder to identify because the color could have been correct but the size could have been wrong. To identify them we first looked at the color in one of the books and then we would research the size online as well as other details like how many eggs the bird lays. If the egg measured to be the right size and everything else seemed good is how we determined the type of egg it was. Since we only had very little to work with it took depending on the difficulty of the egg 10-20 min for one egg. 

Main goal for the kits

outline of bird kit 

            All throughout the process of brainstorming ideas to planning everything out I realized some of the main objectives I want to get out of the kits. For the animal fur and bird kits I want to have kids who use them to be entertained as well as educated. I want them to use their creative side to think through the adaptations that animals have and think through questions like why do they live in a certain habitat? Finding the balance between fun, but educational can be quite tricky since an activity could be too fun and not have them think about certain aspects like their habitat, while on the other hand if it’s just boring facts they aren’t as engaged in learning but rather bored. That’s why it needs to be educational as well as interactive.

            Eventually I want the kits to match up to a season like spring would be pollinators and flowers. With the future kits, I would love to have them be educational as well as raise awareness about certain misconceptions or dangers happening. For example, most kids see bee’s or wasps and think dangerous since they have stingers, but the kits could teach about which are valuable or which are more on the dangerous side. As well as teach about how the bee population has dropped and the impacts would be disastrous if we didn’t have bee’s.