Get to Know Your Streams

Hi everyone! 

If you click on this picture to enlarge it: I see leaf food for
insects, creating a food chain for our trout.

We have a fun activity for you to explore. You can try this virtually from your living room or in person out at a stream, creek, or even in the ditch by your house. 

When we release our trout with each school, we have students assess the stream habitat. To ensure that the trout will be happy and healthy in their stream, we split the stream habitat into groupings and assess how different features might affect the survival of our trout. We have this worksheet to help guide you and for you to fill out as you go. You will notice picture captions to help you interpret what you are seeing and to get you thinking for analyzing your results.

If you click on this image: I see a tree fallen across the stream,
isn't that cool?! Looks like a good place for trout to hide.

To do this activity at home, you will need to get creative. Start by analyzing the pictures in this post carefully for each stream feature outlined in the worksheet. Then use your imagination/memory of streams to fill in anywhere you have trouble directly seeing an answer in our photos.

To do this activity at a nearby stream, you will want to print the worksheet or use a phone. Then take your worksheet and curiosity to the safest socially distant location (it will not matter whether or not trout would live there, as would be the case for a ditch).

If you click on this image: Think about the colors your trout
might turn in this stream.

This post is an expansion on our post celebrating Earth Day earlier this month, so you can find more pictures by clicking on that link. Additionally, the Earth Day post pictures highlight some pollution and human impact issues that could affect the trout, which are worth taking into consideration in your stream assessments.


If you try this activity, please let us know your results! We would love any feedback!