Food and Fibre Production Design Brief – Chicken Coop

The problem We have lots of recyclable materials around the school, and
have also noticed that we after recess and lunch we have lots
of food scraps that end up in the rubbish bin. Therefore, we
decided to create our own chicken coop using as many of the
available materials as possible.
Grade 3/4
Technologies context Food and fibre production
Content description Investigate food and fibre production used in modern or
traditional societies (VCDSTC025)
Victorian Curriculum Exploring tools, equipment and procedures to improve plant
Elaboration and animal production, for example when growing vegetables
in the school garden and producing plant and animal
environments such as a greenhouse, animal housing, safe bird
shelters.
My elaboration Exploring tools, equipment and procedures to improve food
production, for example when growing vegetables in the
school garden and producing animal environments in the form
of animal housing for chickens.
Possible Solution We have decided to make a chicken coop with primarily
unused materials around the school. The food scraps can be
put to use in feeding the chickens.
Activities Ask students what they could do with food scraps.
Brainstorm ideas. Don’t tell them we’re making a
chicken coop, wait for them to mention it, then run
with that idea.
1. Research what a chicken needs for survival. Food,
water, shelter, etc. What can harm a chicken’s survival?
What conditions does a chicken like? This can be
presented in a profile.
2. Research what materials can be used to build a chicken
coop. What materials could we use from around the
school? What materials will we need to source from out
of the school.
3. Students create a design plan for the chicken coop
individually. Then, as a class with teacher assistance,
create a final design which will be followed in building
it.
4. Final assessment is on building a model chicken coop.
Assessment The student was able to:
- Create a profile which includes important information
about chickens and its needs.
- Research what chicken coops can be made of, and think
about materials we could use that are found around
school.
- Design a plan based off the chicken’s profile which
caters for the chicken’s needs. This needs to include
where they eat/ drink, where they sleep, where they