The students in Carol Tensen’s sixth-grade class still eat chicken.
That’s despite gutting a bird and putting up with its decomposing smell the past six weeks, all in the name of ancient Egypt.
“We learned what happened when pharaohs got mummified,” Balboa Elementary School student Teni Amadian said. “We thought the chicken could be our pharaoh.”
Enter King Kluckhamen, whose rancid stench took 30 minutes to leave the room, at least initially, according to student Connor McGarrah.
“The smell is the worst,” he said. “It smells like a dead body, with cinnamon.”
Mummifying chickens hits the social studies standard for ancient civilizations. While it may be a tad radical, students said it was also one of the more memorable lessons.
“Out of all the subjects, I think Egypt and history was really the most fun,” Teni said.
That’s because Tensen’s social studies lessons center on decomposing bodies, the afterlife and the symbols of ancient cultures — all of which play critical roles among ancient civilizations, whether in Cairo or Athens, Tensen said.
“This one tilts us off the planet, but who wouldn’t remember this?” he asked. “My only regret is not doing it sooner.”
Tensen began mummifying chickens in class last year.
“It’s what you call an extension activity,” she said, noting the project will take two months to finish.
Throughout the process, which involves completely drying the bird, building a sarcophagus, and learning the context of pharaoh burials, students are taking a hands-on approach to Egyptian political, religious and social structures, she said.
“There’s also a scientific component,” Tensen said. “Measuring.”
Students have kept a line graph tracking King Kluckhamen’s weight, and have seen some odd changes. The dead bird gained four grams at first.
That was puzzling, students said.
“We kept our potato chips away from it,” Erik Isayan said. “We were afraid it might get it.”
The weight gain was also a teachable moment, Tensen said.
“You can measure, but data may not enlighten you,” she said. “You have to be careful in the procedure.”
Students speculated that salt was weighing down the bird.
