Creating Campus Watershed Pollution Solutions at Lansing Elementary

 

In our pilot Pollution Prevention program, students in participating classes conducted surveys around their school campuses to investigate potential pollution hazards that could enter the watershed and ultimately harm trout.

After identifying problems on campus, whether it had to do with chemicals, pesticides, litter or landscape features, students worked in groups to come up with solutions to these potential pollution problems. Students at Lansing Elementary decided to create signs around campus to bring awareness to the problems they identified.

One group discovered cracks in the walls which could lead to ants or other insects crawling in and eventually lead to the need for pesticide. They learned that pesticides are harmful to aquatic life when they enter waterways, so they posted signs to encourage students and staff to stop using pesticides, while presenting facts about it's harm.

Another group discovered a wide use of paper staple litter around campus, recognizing the harm of these staples entering a drain and making their way into streams where trout could ingest the staples. They created a sign to illustrate the harm of this kind of litter.

Finally, another group at Lansing Elementary identified a large amount of chemicals being used around campus, for hand cleaning, sanitizing as well as bathroom and multi-use cleaning products. They created a poster to post on campus that  shows before and after visuals of chemical use, displaying how these chemicals when entering waterways can be harmful to trout as well as for human drinking water.

The students decided their goal was to bring awareness to these issues on campus. In the pollution prevention program, they learned that they can "Be a Voice" for their trout, since they have taken care of them in classroom tanks all year and have grown to understand the trout's needs. 

Soon, classes will release their trout into the stream and the best way to keep caring for them is to take of their stream. What are other ways we can care for our local streams in our every day life?

Spring is here!

For our Trout in the Classroom crew, the start of Spring means a chance to get back into the water!  It's not time to get the Teal out on Cayuga Lake, but classes are signing up for "Stream Ecology" studies, and that means we get to go out and collect samples from local streams to take into the schools!

I got the honor of collecting our first macroinvertebrate sample of 2023 at Lower Enfield Creek on the very first day or spring this year.  Water temperature a balmy.... 42 degrees!

Students at EA Clune Montessori School got to investigate this stream sample and found an incredible diversity of insect larvae and other invertebrates, along with a salamander, two black nosed dace and a fantail darter.    Their consensus?  This is a healthy stream, and a suitable habitat for growing trout!

Stay tuned for more posts from classes, and from Katie and Astrid who will soon be joining me in waders out here.  And, not to worry- all creatures were returned safely to their chilly but healthy home in Enfield Creek at the end of the day!

Bill F.

Ithaca Fishing & Conservation Day 2023

 We had a blast at Ithaca Fishing & Conservation Day this past Saturday!

Boynton Middle School 's cafeteria was filled to the gills with activities, gear, displays from local conservation orgs, fly tying lessons and old friends. Additionally, the always incredible raffle of fishing gear and outdoors paraphernalia raised nearly $2000 in support of Trout in the Classroom and local outdoor education activities for kids!!

SPECIAL THANKS to Phil, Rick, Mike, Liz and all our friends at the Leon Chandler Chapter of Trout Unlimited for reviving this great tradition! Our advise? If you couldn't be one of the several hundred to attend this year, mark you calendars for Fishing & Conservation Day 2024!

Osprey On Their Way Back to Cayuga Lake

Around Cayuga Lake, we know Spring has arrived when Osprey return to their nests in late March. The birds return to the same nest with the same mate each year. Since last August, Cayuga Lake's Osprey population has spent their winter season in South America, typically as far South as Argentina where it the climate is warm enough. 

There are around 150 pairs of Osprey around Cayuga Lake, and last year most pairs had about 2-3 chicks in their nest. So that means there could be up to 450 Osprey flying around Cayuga Lake in the near future.

Osprey are tertiary consumers in the aquatic food chain around Cayuga Lake. They prey on bigger fish swimming in the lake, while those big fish hunt for small fish, and the small fish searches for bite-sized zooplankton (floating animals). Phytoplankton (floating plants) makes up the very bottom of the food chain. They are the primary consumers that use the sun's energy to create food, otherwise known as photosynthesis. 

From the phytoplankton all the way to the Osprey, every aspect of the aquatic food web is essential to a healthy ecosystem. This includes the trout that are swimming in all of our tanks, soon to make their way into the streams in a couple of months. 

When you observe your trout and consider what all you have learned about their habitats, consider what your trout needs in its future habitat in the wild in order to survive and be a healthy member of the aquatic food web. 

Your Yard is a Giant Sponge

Did you know your yard can act as a giant sponge and can help keep pollutants from entering waterways and harming living aquatic creatures like trout swimming in the streams?

It's true. Grass in your yard absorbs excess nutrients and contaminants. Plant roots and soil microbes can filter out contaminants like excess phosphorous, nitrogen, pet waste, toxic chemicals, motor fluids and trash before it runs off into the streams, rivers, and eventually in the lake. Aquatic plants and animals, like the trout we will soon be releasing into local streams, are dependent on clean water to survive. So anything we can do to protect what goes into the water system is important!

You can help your yard better support a safer, healthy watershed with these few at-home practices:

• Maximize your yards ability to catch and hold water- making sure roof gutters and dripping water make their way into the grass and not on concrete driveways or sidewalks

• Pick up pet waste from the yard and dispose of it in the trash

• Plant trees and shrubs around the yard! This will help hold soil in your yard better and increase the nutrients the soil needs to filter out pollutants.

• Pick up trash out of your yard that could enter the storm drain and contaminate waterways

As we think about our trout eventually swimming around in local streams, it's important to start thinking about how we can be a part of protecting their habitat by ensuring they have healthy water to live in!

Cannibals lurking!

Our trout (and students) are beginning to discover, it's survival of the fittest out there!  

This hungry brookie has been dubbed "Chicken Nugget" by Mrs. Tilsen's class at Northeast Elementary.   

 

Water Testing is Key!

At this point in the year, our classroom trout have successfully graduated from eggs to alevin to the fry stage, or 'Parr' stage of their lives.  Can you see the Parr Marks on these Lansing Elementary brook trout?

Over the past month, we've seen that our trout can hunt and eat other small creatures, like Daphnia... or smaller trout.  They are always hungry, and ready to do some serious growing, but it is important to stick to a careful feeding plan.  You'll know if you are being a little too generous with the trout food when you conduct regular water testing.  If those Nitrogen levels (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate) are creeping up, you need to cut back.

This is a great time to engage your students is regular water testing, and growth charting, if you haven't already done so.  We have a complete set of instructional videos on water testing procedures for teachers and students!  Each is 3 minutes long.  All are available on the "Tech Support" page. 

 

"Will Trout Eat Live Food?" Experiment and Conclusions

 

Throughout January, Trout in the Classroom Visit # 3 has looked like students following the Scientific Method to answer the question- "Will trout eat live food?"

After asking the question, students assessed background information about the trout in order to inform their hypothesis on whether or not trout will eat live food. They examined the food the trout are already eating, recognizing the fish flakes contain fish particles and learned that trout are in fact carnivores. This at least indicated that daphnia, a type of zooplankton, was within the realm of what a trout would eat.

But since this was the first time introducing trout to zooplankton, there was uncertainty on how the trout would react. Would they eat the daphnia? If so, how many? And how much or little time would it take for the trout to eat the daphnia?

Students developed their hypothesis by completing the sentence, "If I add daphnia, then my trout will...." Across many classrooms visited in the past few weeks, the range of hypothesis' created were: "eat all of the daphnia right away," "be scared of the daphnia and run away," "take a bite of the daphnia and see if they like it first," "wait a few minutes to get used to the daphnia and then eat them."

In the beakers, the daphnia was added and the experiment started. Students watched diligently, as one student took on the role of "master recorder," and would make sure within every 20-second interval, the number of daphnia eaten was recorded until the end of the time period (anywhere from 3-5 minutes, depending on the class.)

After the experiment was over, table groups came to a consensus on the tally of daphnia eaten. Afterwards, groups presented what they expected to happen vs. what actually happened. Some predictions were somewhat close to the outcomes, some nowhere near. The students came up with theories to draw conclusions as to why their trout ate more or less daphnia than expected. 

In the case where trout ate more daphnia than expected, conclusions drawn were that maybe the trout was hungry, or it was scared of the daphnia so ate them up, or it instinctually knew to eat live food, or that the trout had learned the behavior of eating food that was dropped from up above. 

For students who experienced less daphnia eaten than expected, conclusions drawn were that maybe the trout was already full from previous feeding that day, or had already been selected in prior classes to eat daphnia. Students also theorized that the trout was uncertain of this new animal and didn't want to engage. Or in some cases, the trout ate one daphnia but perhaps realized they didn't like it.  

At the end, the classes were brought back to the original question- "Will trout eat live food?" or more specifically, "Will trout eat live food when they are released in the streams in the spring time? Will they survive?" 

Students gave thumbs up for "yes" and thumbs down for "no." Results were mostly positive. But most opinions were based on the data collected at each independent table. Students were less likely to believe their trout would survive if it did not eat the daphnia during the experiment, and more likely to believe the trout would survive if the trout did eat some or a most of the daphnia. In the end, it all came down to the data!

Trout Camouflage Illustration Activity Full of Imagination

Students at Cayuga Heights Elementary School had some creative ideas when illustrating a trout camouflaging into a habitat they imagined. One student imagined there were buildings around the creek with graffiti on the walls, so they used the Disruptive Camouflage method of creating a pattern on the trout that mimicked the graffiti. 

Other students imagined more natural habitats, like a sand-bottom creek in the fall time, illustrating this with lots of yellow and red tones on their trout as it tries to blend in to the colors in its environment. Some kids were in the holiday spirit and created their trout based on holiday-related themes. One student, for example, imagined her trout in a candy land environment, and illustrated this with many vibrant colors on the trout to conceal within its surroundings.

Students were told to close their eyes and imagine a place where a stream could be, they were told to be as imaginative and creative as they wanted. Their goal was to illustrate a trout that lives in this steam and to utilize one of the three camouflage methods- Concealing, Disruptive of Countershading- to help the trout blend into their surroundings. By blending in, and using different camouflage methods to change their appearance, trout have more chances of survival, like sneaking up on prey and hiding from predators. This is especially important in young trout, who are still developing and gaining the strength and instincts to survive. That's why black markings, or "parr marks" are found on young trout but not on adults. Parr marks are a form of Disruptive Camouflage, they create a sense of confusion or distraction to prey and predators. When a school of trout with parr marks swim by, the markings make it very distracting to be able to tell one trout apart from another, especially with the addition of water movement and sunlight. All this is a natural adaption trout have gained over time to be able to survive in their environment.

Students across all schools seemed to really enjoy this camouflage activity and made many great observations about other animals in the wild that use types of camouflage for survival techniques. As the trout continue to grow in the Fry or Parr stage, these colorings and markings will become even more noticeable and quite the fascinating spectacle to appreciate, especially with the new understanding of the natural purpose behind their appearance.

 

How do trout change color?

As we've been coming around to classes this December to talk about adaptations, or a trait that helps an organism survive, we've been talking about camouflage methods as a way for animals to adapt to their environment and noticing colors and markings forming on the trout in our tanks. But as we notice parr marks forming on the lateral line of our brook and brown trout, it's interesting to think about how the trout actually change colors.

Many fish, along with reptiles and amphibians, use cells called chromatosomes to alter their appearance. Pigment granules within each chromatosome can be constricted, or pressured, causing the granules to spread out and become more visible. All the colors found in fresh water fish are made up of three pigments, Eyrthrin (red), Melanin (black) and Xanthin (yellow), each occurring in different chromatosomes. All the colors found in freshwater fish like trout, are a mixture of these pigments created a marking or colouring on the fish- like black and yellow chromatosomes coming together to make brown coloring on the trout. 

As we watch the trout in the fry or parr stage, continue to observe as the colors and patterns become even more visible and keep in mind the scientific process creating these fascinating colors that are simultaneously beautiful to look at and useful for camouflage strategies.