Two-Headed Alevin!

Students at Caroline Elementary discovered a rare two-headed trout alevin today.  We occasionally see these Siamese twins... we'll see how long this little one survives.

"If the two-headed trout becomes a fingerling,
I call carrying it out to the creek."
- Everett, from Mrs. Beigel's 4th grade. 

Flow Charting at Caroline Elementary

One of the great things about Trout in the Classroom is the broad range of day-to-day applications it can support.   Anna Chapman, at Caroline Elementary, recently took advantage of her students' aquarium monitoring responsibilities to practice creating a flow chart with her class.  Very cool!

Aquaponics at Cayuga Heights

They're growing some giant trout at Cayuga Heights Elementary this year, but all that eating means the trout are creating quite a bit of waste.  Over the past few weeks, the water have been getting cloudy, and waste has been starting to build up.  Regular water tests by the students indicates high ammonia, nitrite and nitrate, and increasingly acidic water! 

Of course, in a natural system, there is no unused waste, and nitrogen compounds are normally used by plants.  As luck would have it, the 4th grades at CHES are just completing their "Structures of Life" unit, which involves growing and studying seeds.  So, on Friday, April 17, we started an aquaponics project on the Cayuga Heights Elementary trout aquarium with help form Planted Earth Hydroponics of Ithaca!  The waste produced by our trout will feed a small garden on top of the tank!



Students plant beans and peas sprouted during "Structures of Life"
into ceramic growing medium.

 

April 20 - After three days, the filtering action of the hydroponics media
(in the black tray) seems to be clarifying the water.  Sprouts are taking off,
also! 

April 23 (day 6) - Water continues to clear.  Ammonia and Nitrite have decreased
from 10ppm to nearly zero.  Be amazed; we are!

 Stay tuned for updates!



Cannibalism Strikes Across the Region!

Zombies sited??  Not so much- just natural selection (whew!)   2015 is starting to look like a particularly gruesome year in the annals of Trout in the Classroom, though, as several schools have reported incidents sibling-consumption already. 

This is Union Springs' top predator, JAWS, running nearly 3.5 inches at four months of age.  Stay tuned for images of "Big Burger Boy", terrorizing more timid trout at South Hill Elementary.

Measuring Trout Growth

New Roots intern Irene Case works with BJM students to chart the growth rate of their trout.

 

 

1.  Trout fry are collected by students from the aquarium.

 

 

 

 

2.  Multiple trout are measured using metric graph paper

3.  Students calculate and plot the maximum, minimum, mode and average sizes for each measurement date.