This story is part of our series, Wild Pennsylvania. Check out all of the other stories in the series here.
Small rainbow trout swam in temperature-controlled water in a clear plastic container in the back of Chris Hall’s Jeep.
Fourth graders from Clarks Summit Elementary School in Lackawanna County, in northwestern Pennsylvania, took turns saying “hello” to their tiny temporary aquatic classmates.
Hall, a fourth-grade teacher at the school, netted the fish, called fry at their life stage, out of the container. The students helped him count just how many trout his class raised.
Hall’s class is part of the Pennsylvania Trout in the Classroom program, which is a partnership between the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission and PA Trout Unlimited. Teachers and students raise trout to learn about not only the life cycle, but also coldwater conservation.
“It shows the kids different type of ecosystems and how they’re so fragile, and why on this day, like Earth Day, that we need to take care of planet Earth,” he said.
Teacher Chris Hall put trout into a bucket as his class counts them. Photo: Aimee Dilger / WVIA News
Once the fish were counted, Hall asked the parents to help carry the buckets down to the shore of the South Branch of the Tunkhannock Creek on Keystone College’s campus. The creek is part of the Susquehanna River’s watershed.
The college’s Environmental Education Institute (KCEEI) partners with Hall for the event. They later taught the students about macroinvertebrates and how to fly fish.
“I’m so encouraged by how you all just immersed yourself in nature today,” said Kelley Stewart, Director of KCEEI, while standing in the creek in waterproof rubber boots.
Rainbow trout are not native to Pennsylvania. The Fish and Boat Commission stocks the creek and other waterways with the fish annually for anglers. Ideally, Hall’s classroom trout will help boost natural populations.
Once at the shore, the students formed two lines and took turns netting their classmates out of the buckets and into the creek.
“Well, I love how they started so tiny, and eventually they just emerged, and they became so big, and now they’re just gonna now they’re gonna grow more and more and more,” said fourth grader Ariana Siddiqui.
Fourth graders Daniel Vannan, 9, and Ariana Siddiqui, 10, look for the released fish. Photo: Aimee Dilger / WVIA News
Her classmate, Daniel Vannan, said it was so fun to watch them hatch and grow in their classroom.
“Like every time I walk by that tank, I see them swimming and swimming, and it’s sad that they’re leaving, and then we’re gonna start a new life cycle,” he said.
Lessons began in October. Hall taught the class how to set up a fish tank. Then in January the trout eggs arrived. The class raised the trout in a 75-gallon tank in the back of Hall’s classroom. The eggs had to be kept at 54-degrees and in the dark. To be energy efficient, Hall put insulation boards around the entire fish tank.
The trout spent about the first month and a half of their lives in egg baskets until they hatched.
“It makes me know, understand, that they just become, they start so little and then eventually they actually do this big effect on our ecosystem,” said Ariana.
Hall saw the program in another classroom. He likes to raise fish and thought it would be a good idea to incorporate the program in his classroom. Hall got a grant for the tank and the chiller.
“The kids have really liked to watch them grow up. They get really attached,” he said.
Ariana, Daniel and their classmates were naming the trout until they swam away in the creek. Then they said goodbye.
Hall says it’s a real-world, hands-on project for his students.
“It gives them an understanding of what goes into raising trout and where they come from,” he said.
