Want a great hands on activity that teaches students about fish and aquatic habitats? Salmon in the classroom, also known as Trout in the Classroom, Steelhead in the Classroom or the Salmon and Trout Education Program, is an inquiry based hands on program that will teach students how to preserve and maintain aquatic resources.
Students Learn the Essentials of Stewardship
This program is designed to facilitate students' knowledge and discovery by experiencing the value of aquatic environments. Students maintain ownership over the activity by active participation in the events of watching a fish species grow within its natural habitat.
Through this classroom experience, students also learn about the balance that must be maintained to preserve and protect fisheries and aquatic habitats. The importance of how personal actions may affect these valuable resources is also addressed through this program. Students learn, through their own actions, how to become environmental stewards.
Holistic Program Facilitates Students' Ecological Knowledge
What types of skills can students learn with this program? It really is up to the educator to focus on specific topics, but this holistic program can tie together many of the environmental and ecological components in your curriculum.
Teachers can begin the program by having students learn the necessary ecological vocabulary for studying this topic. Students can learn the basics of the Linean classification system regarding trout and salmon species.
Study can study fish anatomy, and learn the life cycle of these species. Students can also learn about what life in a stream is like. On a larger scale they can also learn about watersheds; and the rivers, streams, and lakes that are encompassed within them.
How the Salmon in the Classroom Program Works
Educators and students set up an aquarium in their classroom, obtain fish eggs from a special Department of Fish and Game permit described by their individual state, and observe the fish as they hatch and subsequently develop. The experience usually culminates in a field trip to a local stream or river where the fish are then released. The program is designed as an interdisciplinary project for grades K-12.
What States Offer the Program
Many coastal and inland states offer the Salmon or Trout in the Classroom Program. Completion of a teacher training workshop is required to receive the eggs. This workshop offers a valuable opportunity to learn more as an educator about this important resource.
Trout Unlimited also has a very inclusive list of Trout and Salmon in the Classroom programs throughout the US. There is also a link for the UK.
Other highly recommended inquiry based water lessons: Water Cycle Lesson Plan
Ellen Wilson - Studied in Shakespeare, biology, astrology, and psychology, Ellen Wilson is a Renaissance woman extroardinaire.
