LUMBERTON — The Robeson County Cooperative Extension is using social media as a platform to educate children on the science behind embryos.
Each day, 4-H Youth Development agent Shea Dejarnette is going live via Facebook to educate viewers young and old on Embryology by giving updates on chicken embryos. The live posts have resulted in hundreds of views daily in the past two weeks.
“It’s not just the children, it’s the parents too,” Dejarnette said.
The live updates were posted in response to 26 second-grade Embryology classes that are geared toward the study of embryos being cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the Embryology teachers opted to take the eggs home with them and others brought the eggs back to the Robeson County Cooperative Extension to hatch, Dejarnette said.
Posts include updates on potential fertile eggs, proper egg care and information on how to build a “home tweet home” for new hatches. In one live feed Dejarnette shines a light in an egg to show viewers how to see the progression of the embryos. Viewers also have the opportunity to name the hatched chickens. Some of the recent names were Bushel, Peck, Carona, FBLive, Dixie Chick and Loretta Hen.
“It just warms my heart good to know that out there people are actually learning from some of what we’re doing,” Dejarnette said.
Each video is available to view at N.C. Cooperative Extension Robeson County on Facebook at 9:30 a.m., but Dejarnette will go live if eggs are hatching. Next week Dejarnette plans to live stream the hatching of Guinea fowl eggs.
Dejarnette warns that when watching the video be prepared to hear lots of egg puns and jokes.
“It’s really egg-citing,” she said.
