TROUT IN THE CLASSROOM

 

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 The following was prepared by John Fischer, former president of LITU and
current Education Coordinator for the New York State Council of Trout Unlimited.

Raising trout as a way of understanding our need for cold clean water

1 - Preseason

            While trout are important in themselves, they are like the canary in the coalmine, the vehicle for learning about clean water, its importance, and the difficulty of maintaining it.  

Encourage communication.

The promise TU makes to each teacher is to accommodate funding (often seeking grants), help handle all paper work, obtain necessary permits, arrange for delivery of eggs, and to be a facilitator when needed...

Getting Ready – setup the system and fill the tank with water and check that the filters and pumps are functioning.

Once the school year begins and setup has taken place, it takes one to three weeks of testing to confirm that water quality and temperature have stabilized and are ready to receive the eggs. These arrive mid October (Brown Trout), early December (Brook Trout) and will then hatch within two to three weeks.

2 - Parenting

Prior to eggs hatching, the students are already monitoring the conditions of tank and eggs. This includes daily testing of water and removal of dead eggs. The first tail that appears makes for a banner moment. As the eggs hatch, becoming alevin, children begin to feel the impact of parenthood. Students may maintain a daily log, into which goes any cornerstone event, such as alevin consuming egg sacs, or beginning to swim upright, or if there are noticeable deformities. They learn that nature is profligate, and about survival of the fittest. This cycle continues throughout the winter into spring, every day presenting the children with new occurrences.

As the alevin grow, becoming fry, they begin to take food provided by the hatchery, and are fed according to hatchery guidelines. Soon they need to be moved from the breeding basket to the larger area of the tank. Some fry are weak and do not eat and die. These lessons of life are discussed with the children as the trout mature and feeding becomes  more aggressive. One kindergartner calls, "Look, there's my fish, and another fish has it in his mouth." And the teacher replies, "Well, you've smelled the fish food. What do you think the fish eat?"

Note: Seven day a week care is optimal, but not likely, as weekend access can be problematic. Weekend feedings may be covered by loyal school custodians. The fact that the trout are given constant attention, early morning, evening, weekends, by the teachers is not lost on the children, who recognize the care required of the very young.

3 - Science

From the very first days., the children working in teams monitor the conditions in the tank. Students can be assigned to maintain a log book of personal observations. The grade levels, and how the teacher's build their curriculum, dictate the appropriate types of record keeping. Younger grades will check temperature, and visible filtration and begin to develop essay writing skills...one teacher had his fifth graders writing Haiku about water and trout. The older grades applying chemistry and math, will, among other things, test the Ph, ammonia levels, dissolved oxygen, and monitor percentages of surviving fish. As their collected data grows, they are able to analyze the daily readings and determine that everything is OK ...or not. When problems occur, which they inevitably do, the children need to determine both the cause and solution. They have access to a number of resources:

1.      Discussion among themselves: Through team interaction within a homogeneous group, they are often able to determine the cause and develop a resolution to a problem.

2.      Call or access your facilitator, or hatchery personnel when faced with problems. They will provide the guidance to correct and solve most of the problems that arise.

3.      Remember this: Sometimes….a solution to pollution is…… DILUTION

4.      Contact with peers and through the Web Site. Every team in every school has direct access to all the other participants. Through direct communication between teams via chat rooms, discussion groups, and reports included on their own pages, children are able to compare notes and reach solutions adopted by others.

5.     Local and State Environmental agencies may provide lecturers to start off the year in each school, with a talk on the Watersheds. This places the focus of our program on understanding the need for clean water – the baby trout do the rest.

4 - Release

Each Spring, the program culminates in Field Trips to release the cherished fry into their natural home. By this time, the students feel a growing concern for the welfare of their broods when they leave the tank. What will they eat, and what is the stream really like? Trips are preceded by class discussions of stream ecology. It is in this pre-release period that the environmental group speakers, armed with slides and flies and conservation-minded anglers' philosophy, focus their school visits. 

Traveling to a nearby Watershed stream, teams from all the schools  can join their  counterparts to offer a tearful farewell to their charges and a joyous hello to their new pals. Meeting in person for the first time, many of the students find they have already developed a bond, having completed a common task, although geographically separated. Not only do they discuss the experiences of the preceding semesters, but also, in the relaxed, outing atmosphere, they have an opportunity to talk of other things, and get to know each other better. Softening the loss of their fish, (one youngster was overheard saying "I feel pretty blue"), the children embark on the next level of research by collecting macro-invertebrates from the stream,  and may take back for classroom study.