Chicken Mummies

Wow! It's been a while since we updated this blog. Spring semester always seems to get so busy! Well, the chicken mummies took about eight weeks to dry out. The didn't stink up my room too much except when we had to open the bags and change the salt. I had some very brave students that volunteered to work with the chickens and some very strong deodorizing spray. I couldn't even get near them or I would gag! The chickens lost a considerable amount of weight over the eight weeks, but the measurements the kids took weren't always accurate because of the type of scale we were using, so I'm not sure of exact amounts.

In the end, we decided we would only wrap up one chicken because the gauze was so expensive and the things smelled so badly. During study hall some very brave girls wrapped the chicken with the gauze dipped in glue. It took a couple days for the gauze to dry. During that time the class didn't smell so great. Some of the kids expressed an interest in taking the chickens home, but I didn't think any parents would be too keen on that, so one evening I stayed late, threw all the chickens away, and thoroughly cleaned my classroom.

The chicken mummies were an interesting project, but they took too much time out of my class. We probably spent the first two weeks just changing salt everyday, so that put me way behind schedule for the rest of my lessons. Also I couldn't eat chicken for a few weeks! I'm glad we experimented with this project this year, but I doubt I'll do it again anytime soon.