My Science Teacher said something I do not particularly agree with....

[lyndatu]

Hmmmm....I don't think that's true....because their color comes from the DNA from their parents.....and the yolk is just their food inside the egg.....

I just want to share this idea: if you feed your chickens with dyes, the eggs they lay will have different-colored yolks!

Example: Feed your hen with blue dye. When it lays an egg, the yolk is colored blue! You won't want to eat it, though! But only the color change; the nutrients and taste remains.

 

[ivan3]

Dinos Rock wrote:

"the reason chicks are yellow, is because the yolk is yellow"

Alas, dyes, staining in situ, radiation, etc. that can either alter mechanically or by expression the `color' of down/feathers (not to mention the rest of the chick's body `parts'), all become suspect after an assertion like the one above.

Had he mentioned melanoblasts and melanocytes he'd have been home free.

However, that said, it is essential to gauge the consistency of the teacher's accuracy over time and subject (this is important from a social engineering perspective), and we all say stupid things from time to time. As has been already mentioned it is best to smile, write down what is said and then search out the references/citations on your own (wish I'd had access to the web back in the day!). Even if you decide discretion is the better part of your grade, you'll be learning to learn on your own and, IMHO, that is the most useful skill you can take with you regardless of the quality of the `authorities' you'll continue to be subjected to throughout the course of your education.

Back to the quote: This is probably the best `free' information/illustration of the subject that I could find after a brief search. You'll need Adobe Acrobat to access it (scroll to pg. 186 - The Color Of Feathers).

www.ijdb.ehu.es/web//paper.php?doi=15272383&a=f​

 

[Henrietta23]

Quote:
You have all the information you need to prove him wrong at your disposal at websites like this one! It is possible to bring him the facts and tactfully show him the truth of the matter.
I'm replying to the original post because as the wife of a public high school teacher some of the generalizations about bad teachers got my dander up. I've known great, mediocre and horrific teachers in my day. I work as an instructional assistant myself and see some of each every day. Hopefully this guy will see that he was wrong. I'm just hoping he doesn't also think a hen needs a rooster to lay eggs. But I wouldn't hold my breath.

 

[speckledhen]

lacy, just because someone does not have chickens in their life experience does not mean that they're dumb. Yes, he should have done a little research, if he really thinks all chicks are yellow, but he may not know enough to know he doesn't know enough, if you understand what I'm saying. And perhaps he did get the dying of the Easter chicks confused somehow in his lesson, but we didn't hear exactly what he said, so we can't be certain of that. Dino did right, coming here to get some persective on the situation before blasting the teacher. That shows restraint and maturity and I commend him for it.

 

[herechickchick]

Well said Cynthia! I agree.

 

[PurpleChicken]

No one should let their feathers get ruffled here. The original
question was whether or not Dinos' teacher was accurate. I think
most uf us saw this as an opportunity to help a kid out. I, like many
here, have strong opinions of teachers and the educational system
in general. Sorry to get off topic.

The truth is I'm still scratching my head about this issue. Without
sitting in that class and hearing what exactly was said I don't know
if it's accurate or not.

Dinos, it's situations like this that help you build wisdom. The search
for one question reveals answers to many others.

Don


Note to the teachers: I'm an Emergency generator technician by
trade. Most people in my trade are hacks. I find this fact to
be universal, regardless off occupation.

 

[Henrietta23]

Quote:
Nah, not all that ruffled, really. My reply was mostly to keep myself from getting too ruffled. DH works for a school system that gets a lot of bad press. We tend to be a little defensive. We see first hand that there are some teachers who have no business teaching. But we see many more who are wonderful.

I will be following with interest to see what people think. Even if there is some truth to what Dinos' science teacher said, I do wonder how he'd explain non-yellow chicks?

 

[FutureChickenMan]

Quote:
Clearly this dope has never seen a farm of any sort. Print a bunch of chick pictures off the web and ask him/her to explain the different colored chicks and how sex-link chicks work. And yeah, you do need to bring it to their attention, teaching wrong information isn't teaching. Try to do it politely or you'll spend a lot of time in the office like I did for being a troublemaker. But most certainly educate this fool.

 

[dlhunicorn]

the following links 9university) explain and answer the question...your teacher is not a dope

http://lancaster.unl.edu/4h/Embryology/TheAnswer1.htm

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3615191.stm

...and finally , all you ever wanted to know about the avian embryo:
http://www.msstate.edu/dept/poultry/avianemb.htm

 

[Rafter 7 Paint Horses]

Since we all agree that your teacher did not have all the correct information, but we disagree on methods for you to "teach" your teacher, my suggestion would be to do this:

Gather reliable information, print it, put it in a folder with an index.
Go to your teacher & say "I was thinking about what you said that day we did the experiment with the egg. You got my curiosity up, so I decided to research it further. I found a lot more in-depth information that you might be interested in. Maybe we could do some experiments here in the classroom from what I found. Would you look this information over & see if there is anything here that you feel the class would benefit from?"
Let him know you would like your information back when he has finished looking at it, so you can keep it for future reference.

This way, you can educate him further without making him defensive.
He should be impressed with your initiative, and willingness to take his teaching to another level.

Sometimes it's all in how you explain it. You can get a lot farther with people when you can make them feel good about themselves while you are telling them they may be wrong about something.

Jean