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Roanoke Valley Trout Unlimited Chapter 308 |
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PO Box 11725, Roanoke, VA 24022-1725
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PO Box 11725, Roanoke, VA 24022-1725 |
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ABOUT US ACTIVITIES FEATURES Other Links Virginia Stream Restoration Guide
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Teaching trout - Printed in Roanoke Times - 3/13/2009It's no secret that seventh graders sometimes need a little extra prodding before they plunge into their school work. Yet long before Marilee Weikel's first life science class got started on a recent morning, her classroom at Hidden Valley Middle School was bustling. As they do every morning, several students had come in early to help clean a large aquarium, test its water and feed its finned inhabitants. "They're very particular about them," Weikel said of the students' relationship with the 2-inch-long trout. That sense of ownership can translate to a sense of stewardship when the students release the fingerlings into a local stream. Connecting students to nature is a key goal of the Trout in the Classroom program, which is under way at Hidden Valley and two other schools in the Roanoke Valley. Trout can also spice up other instruction. "They can be useful to teach chemistry, math, biology, life cycles, food webs, journaling and literature," said Rochelle Gandour, who oversees the Youth Education program for Trout Unlimited, the conservation group behind Trout in the Classroom. "It brings relevance to their studies." Trout can even be used in lessons tied to Standards of Learning tests, she said. Gandour used an example of a math problem about population changes.
Photos by Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times - Matthew Rowe, 12, a student in Marilee Weikel's seventh grade life science class at Hidden Valley Middle School in Roanoke County, pours trout food into his classroom's aquarium on Tuesday morning. Hidden Valley is one of three Roanoke-area schools participating in the Trout Unlimited-funded program, which local TU volunteers hope to expand to all sixth and seventh grade classes in the Roanoke Valley by next year. Use trout in the problem, Gandour said, and "all of a sudden that math problem is interesting." There's a benefit for teachers, too. "I've been teaching for a long time and it's provided a new thing to do," said Weikel, who comes in on weekends and over breaks to care for the fish. Gandour said more than 50 schools in Virginia are participating in the Trout in the Classroom program, which is in more than a thousand schools nationwide. Roanoke Catholic School and Glenvar High School also are participating in the program, which is being coordinated by the Roanoke Valley chapter of Trout Unlimited. Karl Miller, the local coordinator, said TU hopes to put trout in all sixth and seventh grade classrooms in the Roanoke Valley next year. Volunteers are already in place to serve as liaisons with most schools. The key now is funding to cover the estimated $20,000 cost of aquariums, water chillers and other supplies. While the national organization of Trout Unlimited helps fund staff positions to support programs such as Trout in the Classroom, individual sites depend on local funding from sources ranging from grants to personal donations. Fundraising efforts are under way, with TU members hoping the success of this year's program can help generate donor interest. While some students have taken particular interest in the trout, all are getting something out of the fish, as teacher work them into various science curriculum. During a lesson Tuesday morning, Weikel took her 24 students outside and had them play a game in which some students played fish, while others were things fish need to live. With their backs turned, the fish had to pick a sign for habitat, oxygen or food, then turn and run to a student displaying the same sign. Those who couldn't find a match "died" and transformed into habitat, oxygen or food. At one point, Weikel sent the non-fish inside the school. The fish were perplexed when they turned around to find no matches. "Pollution wiped out the stream," Weikel said. "You're all dead." In the classroom, the students graphed the population cycle. Thirteen-year-old Brittany Bowyer paid close attention during the lesson. "I think this is a good way to learn to take care of our streams," she said. Roanoke Catholic seventh grader Matthew Gwin of Vinton said the Trout in the Classroom program has given him new perspective on natural habitat. "Now, when I see a waterfall, I think, 'Oh, trout might live in there,'" said Matthew, who said he was fascinated by the field trip the Roanoke Catholic students took this past fall to the state hatchery in Paint Bank, where students watched workers carefully strip eggs from female trout. The Roanoke Catholic students got a harsh lesson early on when a fungus attacked the eggs in their tank. Just a few of those eggs hatched, and many of the fish showed mutations. "We had some trout with two heads," Matthew said. The school eventually got a few healthy fry from Hidden Valley. Because Roanoke Catholic has only about 30 fish, compared to the roughly 115 in the Hidden Valley tank, the fingerlings are substantially larger. "Part of it may also be that at first I was playing the Italian mom and feeding them too much," life science teacher Mary Lupsha said, laughing. In April, the classes will take field trips to Roaring Run in Botetourt County to release their little trout. The students will personally haul the fish to the streams. "When they walk the fish to the stream," Gandour said, "they're connecting with that river." Brittany is looking forward to that day, but admits she has mixed emotions. "I can't wait to release them," she said. "But it's going to be hard, because I've enjoyed watching them grow." |
