Mini Advance Incubator wins 2011 Learning® Magazine Teacher's Choice Award

The annual Learning® Magazine Teacher's Choice Award is one of the most recognized and prestigious awards in the educational market. A panel of teachers across the country evaluates each product in real classroom situations on quality, instructional value, ease of use, and innovation. We are proud that the Brinsea® Mini Advance incubator and OvaScope scored highly on all counts.

• 

  What aspect of the product did you like most?

  "EVERYTHING! This is my 11th year incubating chicks in my Kindergarten classroom, and my 1st year that it has been worry free! The ease of programming and having it all be automatic was so reassuring of a successful hatch... The OvaScope was awesome too. For the first time, I was able to easily candle the eggs and display the images on the Smart board using my webcam."

  "For teachers who have never incubated eggs before and don't know much about it, this is a great way to get started. The digital set up does all of the monitoring which takes much of the guess work out of incubation for novices."

  "It's ease of use was most important to me. Once I had keyed in the temperature, number of days to incubate, and auto turn, the rest was a breeze. I didn't have to do anything but add water every day or two."

• How did you make use of the product or integrate it into your lesson plans?

  "As a unit on life cycles, I incubate chicks every year... The OvaScope provided a clear, easy way to see the inside of the eggs. I was able to show and explain how some of the eggs didn't have anything in them, meaning that they wouldn't hatch. In the past the kids were left with the question of whether or not the chick had died inside the egg, but this time I was able to show them what it looked like."

  "I used this product to enrich my unit on the human body. This was an excellent hands on way to engage students and extend beyond the regular curriculum to introduce students to embryology. Students enjoyed checking the eggs every day. They were excited to record new observations in their lab journals."

• What skills did your students learn from this product?

  "My students learned patience (waiting 21 days for the hatch, without any visible signs of activity on the outside. As we candled them through the process we were able to graph and compare the developmental stages which were occurring to those in a book."

  "Students were able to further develop the scientific skills of observation and recording data. They were also introduced to embryology using real life examples."

• Would you recommend this product to a teacher?

  "I would ABSOLUTELY recommend this product to any teacher at any grade/age level who would like a convenient, no-hassle way to study life cycles by hatching baby chicks."

  "Yes! This product is well constructed, easy to understand and operate. Its simple use made this a great product."

  "I would recommend the kit! It was perfect, especially for a teacher who did not have any experience hatching eggs in the classroom. It was student-friendly and easy to use."

---

More Classroom Resources

You can download a list of fertile eggs suppliers and get answers to the FAQs for hatching eggs in the classroom.

Join us on Facebook for great images of developing embryos seen through the OvaScope and neat videos of eggs hatching in the Mini Advance incubator.