Conservation: PFF Trout in the Classroom February 14, 2017
Or “How to return more fish to the water than you catch”.
Les Junge is the chairperson for the PFF “Trout in the Classroom” program. Through this program young kids have their first shared experience with the “wild” in California outdoors. Through a classroom experience of hatching eggs and coordinated learning activities, students experience firsthand the value of aquatic environments, the balance in life that must be exercised to preserve and maintain the aquatic habitats. Plus, how their personal actions affect these valuable resources.
Les, teachers, and the students set up a chilled aquarium in the classroom. They receive fish eggs under a special CDFW permit, and observe, discuss, and learn about the fish and their environment as they hatch and develop. The experience culminates in a field trip to a local lake where the fish are released along with songs, poems, and Les’ stories to remember the experience. This is a hands-on, interdisciplinary project for grades K-12 and has the following objectives.
- Provide a positive learning program for classrooms on the value of aquatic ecosystems through the hatching and release of trout
- Help students learn about their local watershed and how human activities affect the quality of water in local streams, lakes and the bay.
- Provide support to teachers to enable them to participate in this learning experience.
In 2016 there were 11,000 students in the greater bay area schools that made eye-to-eye contact with a baby fish. Just imagine the experience and what they learned. That was 11% of all program students nationwide. In 2018 there is the opportunity to increase those numbers. If you are interested in volunteering to connect fish and outdoor stories with kids, please contact Les Junge.
Article by Gary Trott. PFF Secretary. Keeper of fish stories.
