Trout release a learning experience for LCS students
By Lethbridge Herald on June 2, 2022.
Herald photo by Al Beeber
Kassidy Slinglerland, a Lethbridge Christian School Grade 1 student, checks on tiny rainbow trout fry before her class, under the direction of teacher Katie Brooks, released them into Nicholas Sheran Lake on Thursday.Al Beeber – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – abeeber@lethbridgeherald.com
Katie Brooks and her Grade 1 class at Lethbridge Christian School have just finished an eggs-ellent learning experience that went swimmingly well.
For the sixth year, Brooks has teamed up with the Bow Habitat Station in Calgary to give her students lessons in rearing rainbow trout for release.
The trout, raised from eggs, were released by Brooks and her 16 students into Nicholas Sheran Lake on Thursday morning.
In the program, called Fish in School (FinS), the Bow Habitat Station gives rainbow trout eggs to the class which hatches them starting in January. The program gives students and teachers in Alberta a chance to work together “to maintain and monitor the development of rainbow trout from egg to fry in a classroom aquarium,” says the Bow Habitat Station website.
“Because in Grade 1 we study the needs of plants and animals, it’s kind of our close look at a specific animal,” said Brooks.
“We take turns feeding them and learning about why staying in a fish tank is not the best thing for them,” said Brooks as she did various tests on the lake water to check such things as oxygen, pH levels and turbidity, the results of which are reported back to the habitat station.
The Bow chooses which water body they are to be released in. On Thursday, the fish swam in a small cooler before they were acclimatized by students who released them.
Eggs are about 15 days old when the classroom gets them. After a week to 10 days, they start hatching.
“That’s everyone’s favourite part because all of a sudden there’s a little egg and then they see them start swimming around the tank,” said Brooks.
To be considered for FinS, a school must have two project coordinators and meet various criteria which can be seen on the Bow Habitat website at bowhabitat.alberta.ca. Anyone with questions about the program can email FinS.Program@gov.ab.ca
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13-12
I want to try such a type of entertainment!