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)
Monday, March 9, 2009
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
Feeding Time Update
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.
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