Teaching with Trout?
Ok, we’ve settled into a new school year…back in the blog saddle:
This is a new project I’m trying with my non-AP Environmental Science students here at Providence Day School in Charlotte, NC. With the help of the Rocky River Chapter of Trout Unlimited, we’ve acquired the equipment to raise and release hatchery trout. Trout Unlimited has developed a nice program to help teachers and students raise fish in the classroom, called Trout in the Classroom. Students can learn fish anatomy, physiology, embryonic development, life cycle, genetics, water quality testing, etc… A teacher has so many angles to work from with this program. I’m impressed with the quality of the program–you don’t have to be a science teacher to be successful at this, but a little aquarium experience would help.
So, we got our equipment in on September 25th, 2009. It took an hour or so to assemble the equipment. Then, it took another hour or so for me to hook up the filter, chiller, and other plumbing so that it now looks like this:
Our 55 gal. Trout "Stream"
On October 5th, Rocky River TU Chapter President Jim Mabrey, delivered our little friends. While we had hoped to raise trout from eggs, the eggs had started hatching just prior to arrival. So we had a bucket full of “sac fry” or alevin. If I understand correctly, they were conceived about 20 days prior (around September 15th). You can see the remains of the yolk sac on these sac fry in my hand:
Sac Fry (note orange yolk sac)
The sac fry are kept in an egg basket on the side of our aquarium until they absorb their yolk sacs and can swim freely. Yesterday, some of the fry started doing just that! Check out this short video of our first swimmers:
Check back soon for more changes! Our goal is to successfully raise the trout until they are big enough to release into a mountain stream in the spring.
