Finger Lakes Trout In The Classroom

Trout Live Food Experiment

2012-01-26T15:01:00.001-05:00

The second graders at Cayuga Heights completed their first trout experiment today with the help of Trout in the Classroom instructors Bill, Michael, and Josh. (Big thank you to them!) Students had to make a hypothesis about whether or not the trout fry would eat the live food (daphnia) placed in a beaker with each fry. The students created a hypothesis based on their previous knowledge of the trout and their eating patterns. Then students tested their hypothesis with a group by feeding live daphnia to a trout and counting the number of daphnia eaten (out of about 10) over 5 minutes.

Most students predicted that their trout would instinctively know to eat the daphnia and the majority proved their hypothesis to be correct. One trout must not have been too hungry during the experiment and opted not to eat any daphnia. The majority of the trout ate all the daphnia presented to them during the experiment. Enjoy some photos below!

We also learned an important lesson from our trout this week... never bite off more than you can chew. This little guy didn't survive the week after he indulged on one of his tank-mates.

Color Adaptations in Trout

2012-01-02T12:44:00.006-05:00

Our trout are now in their "parr" stage and are developing distinctive colors and patterns. We have been visiting classes with a slide presentation science-inquiry illustration activity to explore these color adaptations. Our Brown Trout, in particular, are able to change colors to blend in with habitat features, and several classes will be setting up experiments over the coming weeks to observe this phenomenon.

Trout are not the only fish that can change color. Flounders, like the one on the right, are masters of this skill.

How do they do it? They use special cells called chromatophores! For a quick intro to fish coloration. You can see chromatophores up-close here. Fascinating stuff!

Fish living in darker locations tend to take on darker colors, but did you know that blind fish turn dark colors, as well? Check out the links in "On-line Resources" if want to know more.

Trout Feeding Advice!

2011-12-04T22:21:00.004-05:00

Advice on feeding your trout from last year's Experts!

NATIVE BROOK TROUT ARE HERE!

2011-12-01T15:11:00.000-05:00

We are very happy to announce year-2 of our foray into raising native brook trout! Four groups of students (Lansing 10th graders, Dryden 5th graders, Ithaca 4th graders at Northeast and Enfield schools) received brook trout eggs in late November, and we will check in on them periodically. Finger Lakes Regional Parks personnel have also initiated a stream survey to select appropriate stream sites for future releases. We would like to thank faculty and students at Cornell University, and Finger Lakes Regional Parks staff, for their invaluable input!

Josh Teeter (Fingerlakes Regional Parks- FLRP), TJ Ross & Cassie Garcia (Cornell Dept. of Nat. Res.) head upstream. TJ is wearing an electro-shock kit that will temporarily stun fish. Photo by Tom Hughes (FLRP).

One beautiful brown trout!

Naturally reproducing rainbow trout are also present in this stretch of Enfield Creek.

Leaving the Nest

2011-11-17T10:13:00.002-05:00

Hello from Caroline Elementary!! We are super excited to be hosting Brown Trout for the 3rd time! This year our trout are very spunky and have been darting and dashing around the hatch basket. They have just started leaving it and are seeking the depths of the tank.

We have been charting our data everyday and have had zero fatalities in the last 2 weeks! We estimate that about 75% of the trout will survive! We will continue with our updates and look forward to reading all of the others.

We have a small "hole" in the rocks at the bottom of the tank where some of the glass is exposed. This is where the trout have been loving to congregate. Others have been staying near the safety of the hatch basket.

2011-10-27T16:36:00.007-04:00

2011-2012 PROGRAM IS OFF AND RUNNING!

Very early on Monday, October 24, our intrepid volunteers made the trip to the Bath, NY, hatchery to pick up Brown Trout eggs for 10 of the 14 schools participating this year.

Thanks to Michael, Owen, Josh & Ken, we succesfully delivered eggs to Beverly J. Martin, Belle Sherman, Caroline, Cayuga Heights, Enfield, Fall Creek & South Hill elementary schools in Ithaca; Groton and Newfield Middle Schools and Trumansburg High School.

Additional schools will be receiving Brook Trout eggs in mid-November: Northeast elementary, Boynton Middle School, Lansing High School & Dryden Elementary. Our network of schools is growing each year.

Stay tuned for news and images from each participating school in upcoming weeks, as students get to know their fish!

Enfield Trout Release Day

2011-06-21T11:52:00.002-04:00

Belle Sherman Trout Release

2011-06-04T14:52:00.017-04:00

58 third graders, 54 brown trout, 65 degrees and sunny, 6 Mile Creek just above Water Street bridge:

We hiked to the creek and worked through 3 different activities. Camille Doucet led us in observing and drawing the place where creek meets land.

We had a woodland scavenger hunt.

We learned to use a kicknet! We found really cool macroinvertebrates and rated the stream health. The stream is a healthy one, so we could release the trout.

Bill gave the signal and we released our trout.

Kids, creek, woods, sun. It doesn't get much better than this!
Thank you Trout in the Classroom--see you next year!

2011-06-02T16:23:00.003-04:00

&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://theflyrods.bandcamp.com/track/trail-of-tears"&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Trail of Tears by the Fly Rods&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Hey Everyone - Check out our pals The Fly Rods, Friday on the Commons at the Ithaca Festival!

Scientific Illustration

2011-05-30T15:10:00.003-04:00

Belle Sherman 3rd grades enjoyed their second visit from visiting artist Camille Doucet. This time children worked on illustrating the life cycle of the brown trout.

Next week, Camille will join us at our Trout Release Party at Six Mile Creek where she will lead us in a "drawing from nature" activity.

A big thank you to the Fine Arts Booster Group for funding Camille's visits to Belle Sherman and South Hill!

Belle Sherman Mini Fishing Day

2011-05-24T19:39:00.017-04:00

Belle Sherman's Star Room 3rd grade had a "mini" fishing day in the classroom last Friday.
Matt Herman, co-teacher and TIC mentor brought in a collection of stream critters and fly-tying supplies. Children worked through 3 activity stations:

Stream critters: We got to try out our new stereo-microscopes (THANK YOU, IPEI!) to observe caddisfly larvae and stoneflies. The microscopes magnify 200x... I can't tell you how many kids shrieked when they saw a stonefly through the lenses. It looked big enough to be a SERIOUS predator instead of prey!

Trout observation: careful observation of a fingerling.

Fly-tying: Children looked at pictures of stream critters and chose fur and feathers for Matt to use as he tied flies to match the pictures. We field tested the flies and found the trout were equally interested in Matt's flies as they were in the real thing!

Groton Release

2011-05-06T09:30:00.000-04:00

We finally got some good weather and mud-free banks on the Owasco Inlet in Groton to let our Browns go. We released them this morning in the midst of a midge hatch...nature's reassurance that our little guys will be properly fed! We're all looking forward to the upcoming Floating Classroom trip!

Stream Insect Studies Underway!

2011-05-03T12:25:00.000-04:00

Third graders at Belle Sherman Elementary have been studying macro-invertebrate populations (these are stream insects and crustaceans which are visible without magnification) in stream samples. They are getting help from our amazing Cornell Ed. 2400 interns Amanda and Yuhang.

The students have used their knowledge of insects, combined with dichotomous keys to identify a variety of insect larvae- stoneflies, mayflies, caddisflies and more. Using Isaac Walton League stream survey forms, they have also determined that samples from Enfield Creek and Lick Brook indicate very health streams. Either would be good habitat for trout!

At the end of the class, we feed insect larvae to the trout- and the trout go nuts! Insects are an incredibly important food- as fly-fishermen know- and our trout recognized them right away. There was one exception however... the trout fry were not in the least interested in HORSEFLY larvae, pictured to the right. Why might that be???

2011-04-27T22:26:00.004-04:00

TROUT LILIES ARE BLOOMING!

These beautiful flowers are now in full (but brief) bloom throughout our woods and along many streams! We highly recommend are walk in the woods along your favorite stream. Check out the Cayuga Trails Club if you'd like to join a family-friendly hike, or scout the stream where your student will be releasing trout during the coming month!

2011-04-16T17:18:00.004-04:00

ART & ILLUSTRATION!

Belle Sherman third grades (and South Hill fourth grades) have had their first session with visiting artist Camille Doucet, thanks to a Fine Arts Booster Group grant. Camille began teaching us the fundamentals of scientific illustration and the art of observing very carefully.
The most interesting thing that happened is that Camille noticed our fish at Belle Sherman were noticeably pinker than those at South Hill. Could it be our purple-red tank background? We'll observe our fish again after break with Yuhang and Amanda and officially compare the colors from "before" and "after."

Trout Coloration Experiment at Cayuga Heights

2011-03-18T09:53:00.000-04:00

The second graders at Cayuga Heights want to give a big thank you to our friends at Belle Sherman and Caroline Elementary Schools for sharing some trout with us! They are doing well and seem to be enjoying their new home. All the fish are getting along right now, but we have noticed some of the bigger fish are starting to chase the smaller fish.

Because we were lucky enough to receive trout from different locations, we decided to conduct a coloration experiment. Our hypothesis is that the trout coloration will change to match the background of our tank. A few weeks ago, with the help of Bill and his trusty interns, we created a dark green background for our tank and made scientific drawings to document the trout coloration.

When the trout from Caroline arrived on Wednesday we noticed a clear difference in coloration compared to the trout that had been in our dark green tank. Our Cayuga Heights trout were darker than the trout that arrived from Caroline. We suspect that the tank in Caroline has a lighter background than ours. We will be observing and documenting the trout's coloration over the next few weeks to see if the Caroline trout start to blend in with our Cayuga Heights trout.

Caroline Trout

2011-03-16T10:31:00.002-04:00

Here's a photo of us in front of our tank. Recently, we have been enjoyed observing a large trout, we named Jaws, terrorize the small fish in the tank. Jaws lurks behind the bubbler and has been seen with a tail coming out of his mouth. He is about 8cm long and looks much different from many other fish in the tank. His color is much lighter than the other fish and he has lighter, smaller spots. The dorsal fin closest to his tail is a bright, orange-red color. We are looking forward to seeing what other trouble Jaws gets into. Hopefully we can capture a picture of him in action. We will certainly post it if we do! Come check out some of our "Trout Tales", some involving Jaws, at the Ithaca Fishing Day on Saturday!

Ithaca Fishing & Conservation Day!

2011-03-14T11:18:00.000-04:00

Ithaca Fishing Day 2011

Lansing High Brook Trout

2011-03-10T14:56:00.003-05:00

A few days ago we were cleaning out the tank with a tube. It took us a little while to figure out how to use it but in the end we did. We had one part of the tube in the water and the other in a bucket, one person sucked on the end out of the bucket and the water started to come out, then the other person vacuumed the bottom of the tank with the other end of the tube. This was a very effective way to clean. While the one person had their arm in the tank trying to vacuum all of the algae up. One of the fish continuously head-butted the persons arm, which was very interesting. This was interesting because a few weeks ago when we put the daphnia in with them they all tried to stay away from them but now that they have grown they have no problem with a whole human arm. As a quick side note, it is a few days after we cleaned the tank and it is already dirty, which is quite amazing.

Here is some nice video- check out the parr marks!
FlipShare - Private Video Sharing - Email
-Zack Smith

Groton Voicethread

2011-03-10T09:40:00.002-05:00

Lansing High Brook Trout

2011-03-03T15:30:00.003-05:00

We have observed a very small brook trout, that is very skitish and fast. It seems to be afraid of the other bigger fish and it stays in a corner. When it moves, it moves incredibly fast, but it seems to be a runt. On a further note, we have not had any casualties in about a month. which I believe is because there now is enough room for all 31 remaining fish. We had started with 100 fish and have lost 69 of them, but I do not expect us to have many more casualties.

Check out the video here:
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Lansing High Brook Trout

2011-03-02T14:39:00.002-05:00

The growth of the brook trout popoulation and their interactions are an interesting topic to study. When the eggs first hatched, there was more than a hundred of the young trout. However, as they grew, their population went down.
When counting the population of the fish in the tank, we ran into some trouble. Although it sounds strange to have trouble counting fish, we found that the fish blend in to the rocks used at the bottom. At first we tried to count from left to right as fast as we could. It was a practical method, but wasn't working because the trout would swim around, making us unsure of what fish we had counted and what fish had not been counted. To try and counteract this, we put food in the water to try and get the fish to swim to the top and eat while we counted. This technique didn't have very much success as the fish would swim to the top one or two at a time, seeing as how all the fish didn't realize that food had been put into the tank. This method of counting was also unsuccesful because the fish became more agitated when food was put in and they moved around more, making it more difficult to count them. One method that we may try in the future is to take a picture of the fish and then count them all.
About two weeks ago Mr. Foster came into our school to feed our fish daphnia. About six kids came after school and we watched a very interesting powerpoint about daphnia. Before we watched it we isolated three fish into 3 seperate beakers and put blue paper around each beaker to soothe them. After we watched the powerpoint, we took the blue paper off and inserted some daphnia. Our fish shied away form the daphnia and did not eat many of them. The fish that I was watching only ate one Daphnia. The fish actually appeared to be marking its territory at one point. It swum around half of the beaker repetitively. We believe it is a possibility that the fish would have eaten more if we had put a rock or something to shelter them inside their cage because it would provide a more natural and safe feeling habitat.

We grow 'em BIG at Caroline

2011-02-18T14:33:00.003-05:00

Hello fellow trout enthusiasts! It's Miss Bong here at Caroline finally making an appearance on this blog! We have been enjoying watching our trout eggs hatch and grow from alevin into young fry. We must have nutrient-rich water up on this hill because we have had very few fatalities. Our survival rate is about 75%! The tank is becoming crowded at these fry range in length from the smallest estimated at 2cm to the largest measuring in at roughly 6cm! They are voracious eaters and love to surf the current. Our class also wrote some "Trout Tales" to share with readers in the future. Stay tuned!

Bug Show at Enfield

2011-02-14T20:41:00.003-05:00

Today, our wonderful Trout Unlimited mentor, Rich, came out to Enfield to share his expertise on aquatic insects. He specifically spoke about trout, their eating habits, and types of insects. Rich brought out the bug collection from Trout Unlimited. These insects are permanent samples they collected from Enfield creek. The same location our trout will eventually call home.

Plant Propagation

2011-01-28T09:40:00.001-05:00

The Groton Middle School Environmental Action Club is currently trying to "green up" the hallways by introducing some houseplants on each floor. We've decided to try using the trout water to root some spider plants. As you can see they're doing quite well and the trout love the extra foliage!

TROUT FEEDING DEMO FROM SOUTH HILL!

2010-12-15T10:59:00.002-05:00

Here it is, our first student-produced instructional video. Great job Noel and Julianna!

2010-12-12T19:17:00.008-05:00

At Belle Sherman our 3rd grade class has been having a blast with our trout! We started with about 300 alevin-- we actually counted them. Lately we have had a huge die-off, though the water chemistry looks fine so we aren't sure why. We are at about 150 now.

The children designed an experiment earlier on to determine if the fish were ready for food. We put several fish into containers, fed them and observed their response to the food. The results were inconclusive, but it was very exciting anyway.

Our class has been formally observing the fish about once a week. Each observation has a focusing question or questions. Last week's questions were, What markings do the fish have? Why do you think they have those markings? Children record their observations in the form of drawings and written notes.

Matt Herman (our mentor and co-teacher in our class) and I took the class down to Six Mile Creek near Water St. for an up close and personal look at trout habitat.

We checked water temperature (39.1 F) and pH (7.8, just like in our tank) and threw lots of rocks in the water. When we returned to the classroom, children painted pictures of trout habitat, from the trout's point of view, which we will attach to the tank to help the fish feel more at home.

Children feed the fish and check pH daily. We are working up to the more complicated water tests.

2010-12-01T13:42:00.000-05:00

In Groton, we're learning about diffusion and osmosis in class. We used the opportunity to talk about dissolved oxygen in our tank and related the concept to our Brown Trout gills. If you've never used Brainpop, they have a great video on fish gills and countercurrent exchange: http://www.brainpop.com/science/diversityoflife/gills/ Give the free trial a shot. On another note, all of the trout seem healthy and active. We've only lost about 8 fish since the beginning.

2010-11-04T15:55:00.013-04:00

Here are some images from Chad DeVoe's 7th grade life science classes at Groton Middle School.
BEAUTIFUL. Thanks, Guys!

First up- the "eyed" egg. Notice the visible eye and head. Its just about ready to hatch...

And here is a new-born "alevin", or "sack-fry". The attached yolk-sack will provide nutrition for the first 3-4 weeks in our aquarium setting.

We will be able to observe capillary formation, as the alevins utilize their food source. The yolk sacks will gradually be incorporated into the growing digestive tract. The alevins will also be growing gills, fins and a mroe complete body-structure in teh coming weeks. All viewable in class!

Eggs begin Hatching!

2010-10-25T19:36:00.005-04:00

During my visit with 3rd graders at Belle Sherman this morning, we witnessed the first of our brown trout eggs hatching. The newly hatched alevins will spend a good deal of time building strength before they are ready to swim out of their nursery basket, but they were pretty active already this morning. Newfield reports that they have eggs hatching today also- we anticipate that everyone's eggs will hatch within the next couple of days.

Send in your pictures & make your survival predictions (See Student Data page for charts of survival expectations from each school!)

2010-10-22T16:35:00.003-04:00

TROUT EGGS ARE HERE!

On Thursday, October 21, we visited DEC's Bath Hatchery and collected roughly 1000 brown trout eggs, which were distributed to classes at nine schools over the course of the day. Students are awaiting hatch day at the following schools, so watch for reports from participating classes!

Belle Sherman Elementary
Cayuga Heights Elementary
Northeast Elementary
South Hill Elementary
Enfield Elementary
Caroline Elementary
Newfield Middle School
Groton Middle School
Boynton Middle School

Special thanks, also, to the folks at DEC, and to Michael Lenetsky, Owen Lenetsky, Josh Filter and Colleen Kearns for all their help!
- Bill Foster, Project Mgr.

Groton is ready!

2010-10-20T18:28:00.000-04:00

Today we spent some time today getting the trout tank ready for tomorrow's egg delivery. We are very excited! Mercedes prepped the tank by testing water pH, ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels. A special thanks to all of our sponsors and volunteers for making this happen.

NORTHEAST TROUT RELEASE!

2010-06-25T17:29:00.003-04:00

ON May 28, fifth graders from Mrs. Mayer's class release their trout to Fall Creek at Monkey Run. Mysteriously, only two two browns survived to release day at Northeast, but "Big Bertha" and "Big Bart" were healthy and ready to go, and everyone had a fantastic time. Fall Creek, by the way, was rated as "Good Habitat", according to our Izaak Walton League assessment protocol. Enjoy some wonderful pictures, courtesy of Cayuga Lake Watershed Steward, Hilary Lambert! Thanks to Mike Kniffin and Gian Dodici of the US Fish & Wildlife Service, Cortland Office for helping out!

Click on this picture to for a set of beautiful photos, taken by our own Cayuga Lake Watershed Network Steward, Hilary Lambert!

Enfield Trout in the Classroom Wiki is UP!

2010-06-18T08:50:00.005-04:00

If you would like to read about the THIRD GRADE Trout in the Classroom Project, enjoy some artwork and HEAR ABOUT IT IN THE STUDENTS OWN VOICES, please click the link below:

http://voicethread.com/#u348038

Our Wiki page is located here:

https://enfieldbrooks.wikispaces.com/

2010-06-12T11:11:00.007-04:00

BELLE SHERMAN & SOUTH HILL TROUT RELEASE!

The 2009-2010 Trout in the Classroom program drew to a fine conclusion on Thursday (Jule 10) with the release of 26 healthy brown trout fry at Lower Buttermilk State Park. South Hill 4th Graders from Ms. Wilkie's, Ms. Lee's and Ms. Eckley's classes did a fantastic job, raising and learning about their trout during the year.

Along with their own trout, our South Hill students also agreed to release an additional eight brown trout, raised by 4th graders at Belle Sherman Elementary. Students in Mr. Millers class, along with helpers in Ms. Port's, Ms. Gainess and M.s Devers' classes also did an excellent job this year - and won the prize for most successful aquaponics experiment!

Special thanks goes out to Matt Herman at Belle Sherman; Regional Wildlife Biologist Tom Hughs and the Finger Lakes Regional State Parks naturalist crew; Michael Lenetsky and the restof the Trout Unlimit volunteers; and the parents to made this all possible. Check out this VIDEO FOOTAGE from BUTTERMILK FALLS, provided by parent Larry Clarkberg!

Caroline Release

2010-05-29T12:57:00.001-04:00

Friday was our final day with our trout! What a journey it's been! We've studied them since they looked like this:

Now they are all 3-4 inches long and are ready to be released into the Cayuga Lake watershed. Luckily, 6-Mile Creek is right in our backyard! We put our trout in buckets,
and hiked out to the creek behind Caroline.

Bill did some exercises with us, like examining the plant growth, insects, temperature, and pH of the stream environment we were to be releasing our trout into.

Finally, it was time to release the 40-50 trout we had! (We used to have around 80-90 but had a horrible low pH problem last Monday which caused us to lose half the fish).

Goodbye fishies! Good luck in nature!

Hydroponics in our Aquarium

2010-04-06T17:12:00.002-04:00

Miss Coffey here from Caroline Elementary School... We're currently on spring break, but that doesn't stop me from working or taking care of our trout!!! Yesterday I went into school for awhile to get some stuff done. As I fed the excited fish, I saw that our hydroponics experiment was working! The grass floating on the top of the tank is growing!
(Click the picture to see a closer view)

Over at Caroline Elementary...

2010-03-24T16:45:00.003-04:00

Out trout are getting SO big!!! And they're always hungry! We did a little experiment yesterday with all of the worms resurfacing outside on that wet day and dangled some over our trout aquarium. We were laughing as they actually leapt out of the water to get them!

Join Us At Ithaca Fishing Day - Saturday March 20! (Click on image to enlarge!)

2010-03-18T15:17:00.003-04:00

Groton

2010-01-29T07:45:00.000-05:00

Today Bill was in to do this month's brown trout lesson. The above shows a food chain. We have a sample of algae on the right and one of the brown trout on the left. In the middle we are missing an important link in the chain that eats the algae but acts as a food source for trout; the Daphnia, or "water flea." We fed daphnia to our trout to see if they would recognize it as a food source because up until now they have just been feeding on fish food. We concluded that these fish instinctually fed on these prey even though they had never encountered them before.
Curtis observes his hungry brown trout.

Hungry Browns

2010-01-27T10:16:00.002-05:00

Our trout have amazing appetites! We are feeding them about 5 times a day to help discourage them from "going cannibal". Here is video we took at the surface during feeding time.

GONE CANNIBAL!

2010-01-26T22:18:00.003-05:00

So far, trout at most of our schools are achieving a 75%-80% survival rate, but a new facter has arisen. Students at Newfield, Lansing and Northeast have witnessed.... CANNIBALISM!

While a number of schools have reported seeing trout par with tails sticking out of their mouths, no one has actually witnessed cannibalism as it happens. Are these trout stalking healthy neighbors, or are they removing sick/dying fish? More observations are needed!

Caroline

2010-01-14T15:04:00.000-05:00

Today Bill Foster and a helper, Colleen, came to Caroline and led us in an experiment with our ever-growing hungry little trout! So far we've been feeding our trout three times a day this dry, crumbly, non-living fish food. But does that happen in nature? Do we go to streams and lakes and dump in enough fish food for all of the things living in it? NO! Our trout don't have parents to help teach them what to do in nature, so we took several trout out of the aquarium, put them in beakers, and dumped in some living Daphnia. The tiny Daphnia swam around and we wanted to see if our trout would have the instinct (a natural or intuitive way of acting or thinking) to eat the Daphnia or not.

Cool picture of Daphnia in the shadows:

Watch what happened:

Picturing Writing

2010-01-01T16:40:00.008-05:00

These are some of the activities we have been working on. These first paintings are of the habitat trout are know to dwell (rivers and lakes) and then we will begin to paint and write about each life cycle stage of the trout. Hopefully, we will have a completed book at the end of the year.

Enfield Trout

2010-01-01T16:36:00.002-05:00

Happy New Year! Our trout have been doing wonderfully. Everything has been functioning properly with good reading from the water tests. So far we've only lost 8 fish. Considering we lost about 85% of our fish at this time last year, our mortality rate is superb. One contributing factor that might be indicative our survival rate is that I placed the ammonia chips into the filter before the fish arrived as opposed to last year when I put the chips in during January. Check out our other blog to see what our class has been up to. Mr. Brooks' class

Caroline

2009-12-08T17:57:00.003-05:00

Our trout are doing great. Yesterday we got rid of the basket and led the last lingering ones out into the "big sea." We've lost about 20 fish so we're thinking about 80 remain swimming around our newly-decorated tank.

2009-11-25T21:06:00.003-05:00

What is Aquaponics? from OrganicNation on Vimeo.

Here is an innovative way to take care of our trout waste problem. The owner of "Aquaranch" uses it to grow organic crops. "In nature, there is no waste".

Greetings from Enfield 11/23/09

2009-11-23T19:30:00.007-05:00

Hello out there to all those who are participating this year. This is our second year. We're very excited about it! Today, Bill and our Trout Unlimited volunteer, Rich, came out to our classroom, introduced themselves, and led us through our observations of the alevin. Everyone showed great enthusiasm, made observations, did some sketching and had some of their questions answered.

There have been some changes since our last "official" observation. We noticed the alevin are more active with swimming around and making smaller movements. Several have fled the basket and entered the tank. We can spot them pretty well although they do blend in with the gravel quite well. Other things that students noticed was shrinking of the egg sac around the belly, some fin growth and the spine and how big their eyes are.

Enfield Third Grade

Student Posts from Belle Sherman Elementary

2009-11-23T18:28:00.001-05:00

Right now our trout are alevin. Even so, they are starting to grow fins and swim more. Their yolk sacs are almost gone! They are all developing stripes. Three of them are dead. Different classes are coming in to test the water. For a while the alevin were one big clump in the corner of the basket. Now they are all over. In a few weeks, we will release the trout into the vast tank. I am looking forward to that. ~ Laurel

Our young trout were born in a hatchery and were brought to us by Bill on Nov. 3 and are growing fast. Sadly, over 10 fish have died. On the other hand, the ones that have lived are growing fishes and are turning a darker color. Hopefully, they will grow in peace. ~ Tomer

One's Out

2009-11-20T12:21:00.003-05:00

Today we lowered the basket into the tank a bit. We had seen some darting around, and thought they might be ready for the freedom of the tank. Lo and behold, one was indeed ready. She/he was spotted at the bottom of the tank...hanging low. Good strategy!

A Closer Look

2009-11-19T16:33:00.002-05:00

Today Bill Foster came into Miss Coffey's 4th grade class at Caroline Elementary. We put a few of the alevin under a digital projector to get a really close look at them now! We noticed that their egg sack is receding as they are absorbing it. We discussed that soon we'll need to feed them food and we might even see them swim to the surface (the top of the basket) to hop into the larger area of the entire tank!

Groton

2009-11-18T10:35:00.001-05:00

Yesterday Bill came in to Groton Middle School to introduce our trout in the classroom program and explain a little about some of the things we'll be doing this year. Students predicted that somewhere between 25% and 50% of the trout will survive for release in May....we will see.

ZooPlankton - Living Fishfood!

2009-11-09T09:23:00.000-05:00

Another test....

Trout In The Classroom

2009-11-06T16:16:00.003-05:00

Here's a cool video from a Minnesota class! Check out my list of favorite trout videos here.

4th graders test the pH

2009-11-06T14:33:00.003-05:00

Greetings from Miss Coffey's class! This is our first year with the Trout in the Classroom program and we're trying desperately to keep our little guys alive! Unfortunately, we're having trouble keeping the pH level down and so far we've lost 11 trout. Here is Silas, Allyssa, and Tommy learning how to test the pH level.

Anticipation

2009-10-30T09:42:00.003-04:00

4th graders at Caroline Elementary are so excited to get our trout Monday!!! Our tank is ready...

A NEW YEAR IS UNDERWAY!

2009-10-27T12:17:00.002-04:00

The 2009-2010 schoolyear is well underway, and we are happy to announce that NINE area schools will be participating in Trout In The Classroom this year! We are setting up our aquariums, and all schools will be receiving Brown Trout eggs (or alevins) on Monday, November 2!

Welcome to our 2009 schools:

Cayuga Heights School 2nd Grade

Enfield Elementary 3rd Grade

South Hill, Belle Sherman and Caroline 4th Grades

Northeast 5th Grade

Newfield and Groton 7th Grades

Lansing 10th Grade Biology Students

Stay Tuned for updates!

2009-05-27T11:04:00.008-04:00

Yesterday, 115 students from Boynton Middle School in Ithaca released 64 brown trout fry to Fall Creek, in Plumbers Pool, just below Ithaca Falls. The students raised their fry from eggs over the course of 6 months, had fun, and learned a great deal along the way!

Prior to releasing the trout, we checked conditions of the creek. The students found it to have a pH of 7.6, which is slightly basic and correlates well with conditions in the aquarium where the trout were raised. Additionally the water temperature in the pool was still in the mid-fifties, although temperatures in the shallower water were about 62 degrees F. Its getting warm for most trout and salmon, in Fall Creek, but the browns will be OK. A quick check of insect life in the stream reveals quite a few stonefly larvae, which are indicators of good quality habitat and provide excellent food for brown trout.

The students concluded that Fall Creek will provide a good habitat, and completed the release. Now the trout will need to fend for themselves in a new environment. The habitat may be fine, but they'll need to content with the fishing Great Blue Heron we observed, bass, and other predators. To see more pictures, click here!

Congratulations to Mrs. Morton's 6th graders, and thanks to the Leon Chandler Trout Unlimited members, and all who helped! Check out our article in the Ithaca Journal!

Lansing High School results of Cayuga Lake Measurments

2009-05-21T14:17:00.009-04:00

Out on the floating laboratory on Cayuga Lake, we collected data on many aspects of the lake's environment including depth, water clarity, temperature, and types of organisms in the water. These were our results:

The measurements were taken in the middle of the lake, just North of Meyer's park. Specifically, the laboratory was stationed at 42° 32.125' North latitude, 76° 33.723' West longitude. On May 11th, conditions were calm and sunny; On May 12th, conditions were overcast and windy. Lake surface on both days was relatively calm with a few small waves and ripples.

The average air temperature recorded was 54.8 degrees, with a range between 46 and 64 degrees at different times in the day. Water pH and temperature samples were taken at varying depths, some as deep as 75 meters below the surface. Listed below is a range of temperatures and pH readings at various depths:

Depth(m) - Temperature(F) - pH

1 - 46 - 8

5 - 47 - 8

20 - 46 - 8.5

30 - 47 - 8

40 - 43 - 8

50 - 43 - 8

75 - 42 - *

* = no reading

Secchi disks, the devices used to read light penetration through the water, indicated an average visual depth of 4.78 meters, with reading ranging from 4.25 to 6 meters. These readings categorized Cayuga lake as Mesotrphic. Actual sunlight penetration depths are closer to twice the visual depth.

Plankton samples were also collected. Samples were taken from depths ranging fromhalf a meter to 20 meters, with an average sample depth of 9.3 meters. Most samples were collected at 8 meters. At 10 meters, samples collected contained lots of plankton and algae, coloring the water green. Samples at depths shallower than five or deeper than 10 were mostly clear, containing very little life. The most common types of phytoplankton found were Diatoms, small plankton that resemble snowflakes. The most common types of zooplankton were Calanoids, which look like very tiny fish with feelers.

2009-04-01T08:01:00.002-04:00

Yesterday in Groton we released our trout into the Owasco Inlet across the street from the school. This stretch is a public fishing access so hopefully one day a fly fisherman can admire the brown trout's beauty the way we did for 5 months. Thank you Bill and Trout Unlimited for this experience.

CURRENT Events....

2009-03-09T08:04:00.006-04:00

New York State is considering a ban on phosphorus in dishwashing and other detergents, do to the impact of this mineral on streams and lakes. For more info, check this out.

The Town of Ithaca is considering new rules to limit construction and development along streams. Is this a good idea? What do you think?? (Find more info at http://www.town.ithaca.ny.us/setback.htm)

Feeding Time Update

2009-03-03T09:22:00.003-05:00

All of our trout are doing wonderfully well. I raised the temp by 2 degrees to encourage more growth. We also participated in the live feeding experiment of zooplankton the week before break. I have some great video clips that I would like to upload if anyone knows how to import these. I have made many attempts to update my drivers, etc, but the video file cannot be read by a PC because of the .VRO string attached to the file. The experiment was an exciting opportunity for students to observe some trout behavior.

Most students were accurately describe the features of the trout. They either listed the parts (head, tail, etc), colorizations and red gills during eating time.

Students felt that the trout were mostly scared or nervous and stayed pretty still. Some groups had active trout and were observed swimming around fast in circles.

Hypothesis: Most groups felt that their trout would quickly eat the zooplankton once they recognized it. Two groups had the hypothesis that the trout would not know what the zooplankton was so they would not eat it.

Results: All the groups reported that they observed the trout actively feeding, chasing the zooplankton and swimming fast. Although some groups over counted (by a lot) at times the number of zooplankton that was really consumed by the fish and as a result this threw off some numbers. Some groups numbers were too high because they miscounted an aggressive action by the fish as eating. However, this was a fantastic test for the students to participate in and they are still talking about it today.

Busy Week!

2009-02-25T11:21:00.002-05:00

Hi everyone, and welcome back from break!
The week before break was a busy one- we conducted feeding experiments at all six schools, and I think we got some very interesting results, which I will try to post in the next few days. Many trout seemed to respond to our zooplankton and begin feeding; others did not. Does anyone have specific results to share?

I would also like to thank Colleen Kearns, from Cornell's Department of Evolutionary Biology & Ecology, and Michael Lenetsky from Trout Unlimited for their tremendous help. We had a great time, and I know they are awaiting any questions form the classes!

Check out a slideshow from our experiment at Boynton on the sidebar to the right (just click on the picture), and the movie from Groton, below!

Bill F.

Great Week

2009-02-14T08:18:00.002-05:00

Our third grade class would like to send a very special "THANKS" to Ms. Rubin and her class at CHE who graciously donated trout to our classroom. Our class was touched by this and wanted to let you know how much we appreciate it. Speedy and others are doing great and Mr. Brooks will be going over there everyday over break to check in on them.

Bill and our mentor, Rich, came out to Enfield on Wednesday to perform an experiment with Daphnia and trout feeding behavior. This was a wonderful time full of great questions and interactions between students, trout and our mentors. We've put together a video and we are hopeful it will be uploaded soon.

Thanks,

Mr. Brooks' Class

Feeding Time

2009-02-02T14:23:00.003-05:00

Today Bill came to Groton with a great activity to test feeding behavior in our young trout. At this point our trout have only seen the supplied fish food which we've sprinkled on top. We were testing whether or not the fish would instinctively recognize live daphnia as prey or not.

update from South Hill

2009-02-02T10:38:00.002-05:00

Our approx. 20 fish are getting quite big...some more than an inch...very active and feisty. They love the larger size of food! pH remains 8, ammonia 1, nitrate 0, nitrite 1. We are adding Stress Zyme weekly still (almost out...!) and nitrate's don't seem to be coming along.

2009-01-16T14:24:00.002-05:00

In class we're doing bacteria investigations around the classroom and one group wanted to see if a deceased trout carried anything....and here you have it. It wasn't as bad as some of my counter-tops. Ewww.

2009-01-16T08:39:00.004-05:00

Time for Some Fresh Food!

Exciting activities are in store for the coming months- first up is our living food experiment. Colleen Kearns from Cornell's Lab of Evolutionary Biology & Ecology is ready to bring in zooplankton samples for trout feeding experiments. (Daphnia pulex is pictured to the right. Click on the image for a video link!) Will our trout recognize living food? What will affect their feeding rate? We need to schedule classes anytime after January 25 and before the winter break, so please contact me.

We'll have a chance to study the plankton, themselves, and get up-close and personal with the foodweb. It a great opportunity for projects that your students might want to share at upcoming events, such as Ithaca Fishing Day, in late March, or Earthday. There is even talk of creating a marching aquatic foodweb for the Earthday and Ithaca Festival parades!

Finally, we're seeing some high mortality rat a couple of schools. From what I've read, this is not unusual- and the benefit of having a network of schools is that we can help each other out. So, if any class feels they can spare a few trout fry, I will be available to facilitate the re-adoption process. Let's share the wealth!

-Bill

Enfield Update

2009-01-13T16:52:00.002-05:00

Hey All,

We meant to write an update last week but most of us have been devastated by the loss of fish during break. Everything in the tank was running properly and the water readings were great. I came in the day before xmas eve to feed the fish only to find a major fish loss. The filter stopped working which caused the ammonia levels to soar off the charts. It took several days to get the ammonia levels down and get the filter operating. We would gladly accept any other donations of fish from schools who might think they will have too many for the size of the tank

We completed some sketching, colorization and trout identification in the U.S. with Mr. Brooks and Mr. Andrews twice before break. Currently, we have about 10 fish left. They are well over an inch (we measured them through the glass during math). Their spots are darker and more defined. We have noticed that some of the fish still have a small bump on their stomach.

Mr. Brooks' third grade class

update from South Hill

2009-01-08T07:23:00.002-05:00

WE have @34 fish at last count. We lost 6 over the 2 week break. The ones we have look BIG (easily an inch). Current readings are pH 8.0, ammonia .50, nitrate 0, nitrite 0. Should we do anything to raise nitrate, and lower ammonia? Thanks!

Close Call

2008-12-26T19:19:00.002-05:00

I came in tonight to check on the tank and feed the classroom pets. After running the tests I found the pH had jumped to 8.8 and my ammonia was 2.0-3.0 ppm. I quickly reduced the pH and added the stress-zyme. When I first came in and turned on the lights they were all on the bottom...very still. After I reduced the pH and added the stress-zyme they became more active. I'm not sure if it was because of the pH reducer or the fish getting used to light but they looked a lot better than when I got here.

Groton Update

2008-12-10T14:42:00.000-05:00

Here's a quick update on our trout. Here are 2 pictures at 6 weeks of development. All yolk sacs have pretty much been absorbed into the fish and most are now actively feeding on fish food from the top. The above picture is of our lone deformity. We had 5 fish die since the beginning but this one had a mutation where (from what we can decipher) the yolk sac was enclosed within the fishes belly. This skin did not recede as the yolk sac did, leaving this bubble. The bottom represents a typical healthy Brown Trout. Anyone else experience any developmental deformities?

2008-12-08T10:53:00.005-05:00

Hello Trout Teams!
During November, I polled each of our classes on how many trout fry they thought would survive to be released in May. Remember how you voted? Well, I've added up the results for 170 STUDENTS WHO RESPONDED, and out of about 100 eggs, delivered on October 30, here's how many you think will survive! -Bill F.

Monday December 1, 2008

2008-12-01T09:17:00.002-05:00

Well, it has been some time since we lasted posted anything. There continues to be lots of activity in the tank. The water levels, PH, and ammonia levels have been looking fine for some time. Last week, Mr. Brooks dropped the breeding net to the bottom so the remaining fish could freely move in the tank. Many alevin had escaped. We found one dead fish and Mr. Brooks put it under a microscope for us to look at. We have also begun to feed them the fish food too.

We have made these observations:

-The fish are freely swimming in the tank chasing food and eating food off the surface.
-Some fish like to float in the bubbler and move up and down in the bubbles/facing current.
-The fish have developed fins.
-They have lost the egg sac
-There is spots and bars on the sides of the fish now.
-There is a yellowish, fuzzy build up on the intake pipe of the filter system...thats all for now.
Trout Team III

2008-11-24T10:40:00.002-05:00

About a dozen trout have escaped from the basket into the interior of the tank. They are going between the top and bottom easily, and look strong! Ph remains at 8.0, ammonia, nitrate and nitrite, at 0. That's all from 4th grade at South Hill

Tank Stats in Groton

2008-11-20T10:53:00.002-05:00

Water Temp: 42.9 F/5.9 C
pH: 7.6
Ammonia: .5 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0 ppm

Questions from Cayuga Heights

2008-11-13T18:56:00.002-05:00

Here are some pretty good questions from Mrs. Rubin's 2nd grade class at Cayuga Heights school- anybody up for tackling some of these? The answers will require a little research!
1. How do alevins get out of the basket?
2. Will they lay eggs when they get older?
3. How do they feed off the yolk?
4. Would they ever eat each other?
5. Why do they change? (from stage to stage)
6. How can we tell if it's male or female?
7. Do they have different markings in winter and summer?
8. If so, how do they change colors?
9. How do they get out of the egg?
10. Do the alevins have teeth?
11. Do the eggs sink or float?
12. Does the female mate with many males or just one?

Groton Update

2008-11-13T10:46:00.004-05:00

We've been studying cells in class and took some killer video of red blood cells in action as they distribute oxygen to every body cell in our fish. We noticed that our fish are really starting to develop their distinct black splotches. We've also come up with a study as the fish develop. We've been running our tank around 45 degrees F to see if it slows down our fish's metabolism. We are closely monitoring the yolk sacs to see if ours lasts longer than the other schools participating.

Thursday November 13, 2008

2008-11-13T09:57:00.002-05:00

Hello All,

Bill came out to our classroom yesterday. He showed us a PowerPoint presentation on the trout eggs we have, where they came from and what we will expect in the future. It was exciting. This morning we started working on developing stream habitat drawing to give our alevin a better scene to look at rather than a blue wall.

Tank Report: Today, the temperature on the chiller was 53 degrees and the digital thermometer read 53.4 degrees. The ammonia and ph levels were good. The pump and filter were working poperly. We haven't found any dead trout yet. We have caught a few alevin escaping the breeding net and disappearing into the gravel. One of us noticed that a small group of alevin were huddled in the corner where the outflow pipe comes out.

2008-11-12T13:09:00.002-05:00

Hello Everyone!

I visited Mr. Brooks' 3rd Grade class at Enfield this morning, and I've got to say- these kids know about trout! I bet they are going to challenge all of us with some pretty complicated research questions and observations.

As is happening in most of our classrooms at this point, some of the alevin at Enfield are "swimming up" and getting more active- a few have even escaped the hatch basket. As our alevin begin to use up their yolk sacks, each class is going to need to determine when to begin using the powdered trout food provided for the program. If we start feeding them too soon, it could adversely effect their natural development (making them less healthy); if we wait too long, some could become undernourished.

Depending on where you look, you can find advice for beginning the feeding process anywhere from 7 - 31 days after the eggs hatch. How old are your alevin? Many factors influence how soon an egg hatches, and how soon an alevin is ready to begin hunting for food. What factors can you think of? For a pretty complete description of the brown trout life cycle, check out http://eis.bris.ac.uk/~cckhrb/physiology/lc_brown.htm. This website from the United Kingdom has a lot of useful info, and links to photos from rivers around the world!

When you decide to start feeding your trout... keep us posted!
Bill

CHES 2nd Graders Receive Their Trout Eggs

2008-11-10T15:09:00.002-05:00

On October 30, 2008, Bill delivered our trout eggs. Some had already hatched into alevins. A week later, all the eggs had hatched. We pulled 5 dead eggs out of the hatching basket.

Monday November 10, 2008

2008-11-10T08:59:00.002-05:00

Good Morning Bill,

Thanks for the response to our frosted tank questions We discussed it during our morning meeting today. The heat was on when we came to school today and the tank was clear. We think your theory was a good one. Today the temperature on the chiller was 53 degrees and 51.5 on the tank thermometer. The ph level is still at 7.6. The ammonia level is at .25. The water is clear and at the correct level. Both the pump and bubbler were working fine.

Some of our Observations for today; an alevin was attempting to get of the egg. When one of our group members was trying to remove an egg from the breeding net, the net tipped and released some alevin into the tank. They swim quick and fast. Once it disappeared into the gravel, we couldn't find it. We thought the were about 1.5 cms long

Friday November 7, 2008 An important question(s)

2008-11-07T11:54:00.002-05:00

Today the tank looked like a frosted window.Can anyone tell us why and what to do? Today the temperature was 52.5 degrees.The pH level was 7.6 and the ammonia level was 0.75.The water was clear and at the correct level.The pump was working and there were no dead trout. We saw one baby stuck in the egg this morning. That was pretty cool. Avery, Bailey, Auburn, Devon

Thursday November 6, 2008

2008-11-06T08:47:00.002-05:00

Today the water temputure 52 and was 51.4 on the thermomiter. The p.h was 7.6 .The pump and bubbler were both working good. There was only one dead egg in tank that we took out. The ammonia is 0.50. We will be making mortality predictions soon.

The Brown Trout group

2008-11-05T16:00:00.001-05:00

Today Bill was in the give an introduction to the Groton students. Here are some images taken today of our brown trout. The top shows the alevin stage of development, which all of our trout are currently in. You can see the yolk sac, which is the the source of 100% of the fish's food supply right now for the next couple weeks. The bottom photo shows red blood cells traveling through capillaries, delivering oxygen and nutrients to all of the body cells.

Mr. Brooks' Class

2008-11-05T08:59:00.003-05:00

Wednesday November 5,2008

Today the temputure on the chiller was 52 degrees and was 51.5 on the thermomiter.The p.h. level was 7.6.The water was clear and at the correct level.The pump and the bubbler were working good.There were no dead trout in the tank. We removed some eggs.

We are pretty excited because this is the second time I've had some type of pet in the classroom and the trout are much more exciting than mealworms- Devon

I am hoping to learn more about trout and how they live.- Auburn

I'm excited to see how big they grow.- Bailey and Avery

Brown Trout Group,

Bailey,Devon,Avery and Auburn.

Trout Delivery Day

2008-10-31T09:55:00.002-04:00

Hello Everyone!
Well, I'm happy to report that our brown trout have been delivered, and each of our six classes now has about 100. It was a busy day for us, and for our trout. When Michael arrived at Enfield Elementary, coming directly from the DEC hatchery in Bath, NY, only a few eggs had hatched. But, several hours later, when I transferred the last batch into the aquarium at Groton Middle School, just about all the eggs had hatched!

I expect that all of the living eggs will hatch within the next day or two, and each class will need to carefully remove any unhealthy eggs before teh end of the day today. Certainly remove any remaining eggs on Monday. Empty eggshells may be left to float in the tank. As they quickly decompose, they will encourage the establishment of important bacterial cultures that will help to keep the water clean.

Remember, you trout have just hatched and are living off their yolk-sacks. They may not swim around too actively for the first few days, so don't be alarmed! Just make sure they've got a cold, clean, low-light environment and they'll be fine.

The second grade classes at Cayuga Heights Elementary got a chance to see eggs and alevin up close as they participated in a lively discussion with their TU mentor, Chris Stuhl. I know there are some pictures from that event out there- I'd love to see them!

Everyone- keep us posted on happenings in your aquariums...
Bill F.

Groton Trout

2008-10-29T14:17:00.002-04:00

Here is the Groton 7th grade setup. Today we took pH readings in each class and are hovering around 8.0. Looking forward to Friday...

2008-10-27T19:50:00.000-04:00

Hey! I've just set up our "official" blog! Wahoo!