Trout in the Classroom

Across the state, students are releasing brown trout they have raised since the beginning of the year through a program called Trout in the Classroom. The lessons are endless from food chain to genetics, the program provides opportunities for hands-on learning all year long.

On a blustery May day, Wells science teacher Kirsten Ruskino and one of her classes of 7th graders walk from Wells Middle School to the trails behind Brewster High School where there is a stream that flows to the Great Swamp and ultimately the reservoir. A few students carry a cooler filled with 19 brown trout they have raised. Ruskino has been raising trout in her classroom through the program and releasing in the same stream for the past 20 years.
 

“We received 200 eggs at the beginning of the year and had a very good survival rate,” said Ruskino. We will ultimately release 120 fish. I like the program because we set up the aquarium at the beginning of the year, students take care of the eggs which come from state fisheries, they witness the life cycle of an organism, their role within the food chain, the importance of conservation, and we even use it to discuss genetics when we have abnormalities like our two headed trout, or three eyed trout. The students are responsible for feeding the fish daily. We have done statistics of the trout, looking at their size, color changes, and overall differences between the same species of fish.”

At one point over winter break there was a near fatal system breakdown.

“We came back and the chiller broke,” said Olivia Castellano, “but we got to work to save the fish.”

“And we learned that not everything has to be perfect for the fish to survive–the temperatures, the pH balance, the food,” said Erin Maloney.

There were other surprises along the way.

“We discovered a fish with two heads! It was some sort of genetic mutation,” said Ryan Kercelo.

“There should have been a molecular split–the fish should have been twins,” said Karim Daho.

All of it–the chiller break, the two headed fish and the survival and release of the trout in the Brewster watershed–was incredible hands-on learning and for the good of science.