Great Pownal video! I love those fish hats! Schoolhouse Learning Center report and photos Danielle Levine submitted this report: The Schoolhouse had a great release day on Tuesday. The weather was glorious and sunny at Cota Field and Lewis Creek in Hinesburg. We had 3 stations and each class cycled through spending 25 minutes in each location. One station was releasing the trout, exploring the river, and catching macros (we even got a caddisfly larvae!). Another station was making trout puppets (the kind that move with brads and sticks). The third station was playing a running field game called Steal the Trout (our play on Steal the Bacon except we used our stuffed animal trout Mr. T. as the treasure). The kids had a blast, and it was a great culminating celebration. Every kid did get to release one trout and loved watching them disappear into the rocks. I sent you access to an album for photos. Thanks so much! We love the program, and I will definitely be participating again next year! Here are pictures of their activities. Camels Hump Middle School RD TIC volunteer Chuck Goller sent me this report on the CHMS Release Day. "Below is an attachment of an article for the Camels Hump school newsletter. We had a great day with 5 stations cycling 34 7th graders through each one prior to the release into the Huntington River. " This year Team Sequoia students participated in the Trout in the Classroom program, which was sponsored by Trout Unlimited. In January, they received 100 eggs, and for five months monitored the biological and chemical parameters of the tank. They watched eggs develop yolk sacs and grow into alevin, develop into fry, and most recently reach the fingerling stage. On June 13, students had a Trout Release Party, whereby they released the surviving trout into the Huntington River at Horseshoe Bend in Huntington. That day, students participated in a variety of programs with UVM naturalists and Trout Unlimited volunteers. They learned the techniques of fly fishing, compared flies with stream macroinvertebrates, assessed the habitat for bird species that are predators for trout, determined the wildlife corridor for species that inhabit the riparian buffer, and played games that showed how critical trout are to the food web and the obstacles that trout face in their life cycle. At the end, we celebrated with brook trout sugar cookies, Swedish fish and goodbye chants to our trout in the wild. Here are a few pictures from their beautiful day Amanda Pierce's story about Barre City's Release Day Barre City Elementary School third graders raised 128 trout from eggs beginning in January. We participated in a collaborative with a group of schools throughout Vermont which incorporated the Trout in the Classroom program, which is aligned with our third grade Next Generation Science Standards. Some schools actually lost all their fish! Clark Amadon, our local Trout Unlimited chapter president said he was “very impressed" with the number of fish the students were able to raise and bring to the stream. We started with 200 eggs. On Wednesday May 30th, the third graders were outside from 9:15 until 3:00! There were 5 outdoor rotating stations. We used the new outdoor classroom structure built this summer, the apple orchard, a corner of the playground and trails which led to two spots at the Steven’s Branch stream. We even ate lunch outside!! I asked a few of the students their thoughts on the day……”It was the best day ever!” said Mia Monti. Another student, Jaylin Rollins said, “ I wish we could do it again today!” Students who usually struggle with the regular classroom environment were so successful outside in a new learning environment. Hopefully, this snapshot will let our community see some of the amazing things that are happening at Barre City Elementary and Middle School. Below, Andy Evans, Quinn Premont, and Clark Amadon, president of the Mad Dog chapter of Trout Unlimited, search for macro invertebrates in the Steven’s Branch. They identified their various findings to check the health of the stream. |
Joe Mark is Lead Facilitator of Vermont's Trout in the Classroom program.In June 2012, I retired after 40 years in higher education, having spent the last 32 years of my career as dean at Castleton. One of the first things I volunteered to do in retirement was to work with a parent-friend to help the Dorset School, where his kids and my Vermont grandkids attend, start a TIC program. Gradually that commitment grew into my current role, which is both demanding and highly rewarding. Archives
December 2019
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