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Trout In the Classroom Trout in the Classroom Project- This will be an incredibly interesting school year with the addition of the Trout in the Classroom Project (TIC) to our science curriculum. Last year I received a $2,000 PTA Grant to bring this project to Ironia School. The TIC Project is sponsored by the New Jersey Division of Fish and Game http://www.njtroutintheclassroom.org/ in conjunction with the North Jersey Chapters of Trout Unlimited. The program not only encompasses science, but many other curriculum areas including language arts, mathematics, social studies, ecology, and art, while allowing students to participate more in hands-on science, by bringing the outdoors into the classroom on a daily basis. The TIC project gives students raising trout in the classroom many opportunities to use their observation skills, while generating opportunities for record keeping, measuring, formulating and answering questions, writing, illustrating, hypothesizing, and drawing conclusions. Our Brook Trout eggs will arrive from the Pequest Trout Hatchery on or about October 14th 2008. Stay tuned for another year of live streaming brook trout. Last year we began the year with 300 eggs in October and when all was said and done in June we released 81 Brook Trout into the Hibernia Brook in Rockaway Township. We are looking forward to another great year raising Trout. If you intend to watch our stream when we go on-line you may need the following Flash Player plug-in to watch. It is a quick and simple download from the Adobe Flash site. Click this link
The 2008 Freshwater Fishing issue of the New Jersey Fish and Wildlife Digest ran an article called "Eastern Brook Trout; Species in Peril". The article addresses the many threats to wild Brook Trout populations nationwide. It is a very interesting article. It puts into perspective the need for children to learn about wild Brook Trout conservation first-hand through actual hands-on experience with rearing Brook Trout in the classroom, to make them more aware of the threats that exist to the species and the important role the students play in becoming good stewards of the environment. For more information on Trout fishing in New Jersey visit the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife website. Photos from our "Trout in the Classroom" Project On Friday January 4th 2007 the Daily Record paid us a visit to do a story on our "Trout in the Classroom Project" We were all excited to have the opportunity to share what we are learning about our Trout with the entire community and the rest of Morris County.
Morris students getting hands-on with trout
RANDOLPH -- Students in Bob Szuszkowski's fifth-grade class are able to pick one special fish out of more than 100 tiny brook trout they are raising in a science lab at the Ironia School. That fish has a hump on his back, is a bit small, and students say he probably should have ended up some time ago as food for his tank buddies. But the little fish hides in the rocks, students say, to avoided being eaten. "We named him 'Chance' because he's very lucky," said Juliana Lubrano, 11. Fifth-grade students at the Ironia School are part of a statewide project called Trout in the Classroom, sponsored by the conservation group Trout Unlimited. It grew out of a program that began at Sparta Middle School more than a decade ago, expanding to 25 schools last year and to 64 schools this year.
Szuszkowski said he received an $1,800 grant from the local PTA to purchase a 90-gallon tank and other materials necessary to raise trout in a new science lab at Ironia School. He teaches his students that trout are indicators of a healthy ecosystem, that they need cold water to survive, and that a change in temperature caused by water runoff from developments, for example, can be fatal for brook trout. A teaching moment His students had a lesson on the subject of water temperature this past November, when the chiller for their fish tank failed, and the water temperature soared to 70 degrees. The tank usually is kept colder than 54 degrees. Szuszkowski made an emergency trip to a deli to purchase ice -- a stopgap until a new chiller arrived -- but then realized it was made from chlorinated water and might kill the fish. "So I put the ice in plastic (zip-lock) bags," he said. Brian Cowden, who coordinates the statewide program for Trout Unlimited, said the idea is to teach children between grades 5 and 9 about cold water conservation. "If you have brook trout, then the water is clean and cold and relatively unpolluted," he said. Many schools involved The students at dozens of schools around the state -- including Valley Road School in Stanhope, middle schools in Jefferson and Pequannock, and Hopatcong High School -- have been raising trout from eggs since October. The state Division of Fish and Wildlife supplied the eggs from its Pequest Trout Hatchery in Oxford. The trout now are about 1-inch long, but will grow to between 4 and 6 inches by the time they are released into rivers this spring. They will be about 15 inches long when they are mature. "Then they have eggs," said Ashly Kurian, 11. "Then it starts all over again," said Colin Luken, 10. Eggs fertilize The Ironia students began with 300 eggs, but about 50 apparently hadn't been fertilized. They now count 118 brook trout in their tank. They are told many of the missing have ended up as fish food. That's why some of them say Chance is their favorite, because he has defied the odds. Other students have noticed more than one lucky fish. "I named one 'Rock Climber' because he's always swimming by the rocks," said Ethan Lynch, 10. "He never goes to the top. He's smaller and stays under the rocks so that (other fish) can't eat him." Last week, students also noticed a fish with light pigment, almost opaque, and were told that such albino trout were unlikely to survive long enough to be released into a river. Tanks in other schools usually have one or two deformed trout, Cowden said -- some with two heads, some with no eyes. Cowden said severely deformed trout rarely survive to be released into rivers. Students, meanwhile, said that they have learned about the delicate balance of nature. "I learned how much work and effort it takes to raise the fish," said Chris Maxwell, 11. "It was really cool when we learned how to test the water (for pH balance)," said Brittany Poulo, 10. They will release the trout this April into a nearby river where trout are known to flourish. State environmental officials have designated the nearby Black and Rockaway rivers, among others, as places where the trout may be released. The program is geared to teach students about science, but Cowden said he had a call from a teacher who apparently had other ideas last year. He realized after talking to her that she didn't understand the purpose of the program. "She was a cooking teacher," he said.
Abbott Koloff can be reached at (973) 428-6636 or akoloff@gannett.com.
Mr. Szuszkowski's 5th Grade
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