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Fifth-graders at Rich Acres Elementary School took turns handling crawfish, snails and fly larvae during a lesson about what trout eat in their natural habitat. Above, Wayne Kirkpatrick of the Dan River Basin Association (right) shares a “tub of bugs” with students (from left) Matthew Mills, Dakota Moore, Hanna Bensadik and Rahshea Mitchell. |
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009
By KIM BARTO - Bulletin Staff Writer
A “tub of bugs” gave fifth-graders at Rich Acres Elementary School a hands-on lesson about what trout eat in the wild.
Students in Joanna Griffith’s science and social studies classes have been feeding a tankful of brown trout since December as part of the Trout in the Classroom program.
After the fish are released into the Smith River at the end of the month, they will live on bugs such as the ones Wayne Kirkpatrick, a volunteer with the Dan River Basin Association, recently showed Griffith’s students.
This is the fourth year and the biggest one yet for Trout in the Classroom in area schools. The program was started by Trout Unlimited and sponsored locally by Martinsville orthodontist David Jones. This year, 26 classes in Henry, Patrick, Franklin and Pittsylvania counties are raising trout.
Kirkpatrick and Brian Williams, DRBA education outreach and conservation coordinator, talked to the fifth-graders about trout and the aquatic ecosystem. Then, brave students had a chance to touch and examine some of the creepy-crawlies from the tub of bugs.
Fifth-grader Matthew Mills showed no fear picking up crawfish, snails and fly larvae.
“I like insects,” Matthew said. “I like the crawdad. It’s really cool.”
Hanna Bensadik shrieked and giggled as the different bugs crawled over her palm.
“This one’s cute. Hey, little fella,” she said to one of the insects.
Rahshea Mitchell watched her classmates pick up the bugs, but at first, she said she was too scared to touch them. Then, she mustered the nerve to pick up a true fly larva that Kirkpatrick described as “like a big maggot.”
“He feels like Jell-O,” Rahshea said.
This is Griffith’s fourth year with a trout tank in her classroom. Her classes started with 200 eggs, but a few did not hatch and two died, she said.
Other than those exceptions, Williams said, the fish are “perfect. They’re right on target or a little bit bigger than normal.”
Classes raise the fish until they are fingerlings, about the size of a finger, and then release them into the wild. When the fish reach 6 to 8 inches, they will be big enough to breed in the Smith River, Williams said. They will live, on average, five to seven years.
Until the release, the students take turns every day changing the water and feeding the trout in the classroom tank.
“They really love it,” Griffith said. “I use it as behavior management, because if they’re not doing their work, they don’t get to take care of the fish that day.”
Above all, she said, the trout tank is a good visual aid for a wide range of lessons.
“We use the examples all the time when we talk about conservation and life cycles, even cells,” Griffith said. “I try to tie it into as many SOLs (Standards of Learning) as I can.”
Griffith even ties the trout into her history lessons. When students learn about Jamestown, she mentions how the settlers would have eaten fish.
Testing the water for the pH and ammonia also is a hands-on chemistry lesson. Chemistry formulas “don’t mean much to them on paper, but when they do the chemical formulas, this is an example,” she said.
Students also used a digital microscope to look at the trout eggs, and when one of the fish died, “the kids wanted to look at it,” Griffith said.
The trout release is “usually very exciting and a little chaotic. I always think it’s neat,” she said. “They get their fish and put it in the water, and they want to watch them swim away.”
Students Alexis Hodges, Dakota Moore and Kenya King agreed the trout make science more fun.
“I like being around the fish,” Dakota said.
Kenya said some students name the fish.
“I like to feed them and change the water,” she said.
“We can’t feed them a lot. We just sprinkle the food on the top,” Alexis said. “It takes them a long time to get big.”
Students also seemed to take the conservation lessons to heart.
“We have to keep the river clean so the fish won’t die,” Alexis said. |
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