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

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

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

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

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

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!

Another test....

Trout In The Classroom

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

4th graders test the pH

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.