Chickens are used for a variety of reasons which include eating and experimenting. Mrs. Hamby, a seventh grade science teacher at ROMS is using them for something entirely different.

By observing other schools that used dogs to help students who didn’t interact with others much, Mrs.Hamby believes she can do the same thing, except with chickens.

“I saw other schools doing something similar with dogs,” Ms. Hamby explained. “But I can’t keep dogs. I can keep chickens.”

Dogs can make a lot of noise and disturb classrooms. Chickens make better study partners.     “[Chickens] are friendly, quiet and just nice to hold since they are soft,” she added. 

So how exactly are chickens going to help shy or anxious students come out of their shells? These animals are used to show food webs and food chains, but in this case, they are trained to help students interact. By reading to them and talking to them everyday, Ms. Hamby knows she can have the chicks sit peacefully and listen to the person (student) speaking in a two to three month period.

To help this effort she will take HeiHei and Nugget (the chickens) to classrooms and the Band Objective Party. In addition to this, studies have been done by other schools, in which young chicks were raised to help autistic children.

Ms.Hamby believes she can get students who are quiet to better interact with others. She also hopes that in the next two weeks, she and her students can build a bigger yard so the feathered friends can run around freely.