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FEEDING THE FISH Students at Willowside Middle School are getting ready to release 26 juvenile salmonids into Dry Creek in Healdsburg this weekend. Beginning with 30 eggs, seventh grade students were responsible for feeding and monitoring the development of the fish.
Posted: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 3:23 pm
by Kimberly Kaido-Alvarez Sonoma West Staff Writer [email protected] | 0 comments
Seventh graders at Willowside School will bid farewell to over 25 Steelhead “fry” (juvenile salmonids) that they raised in the classroom over the past two months.
The fish, that have reached almost two inches in size, are considered ready for life beyond the aquarium and will be released into Dry Creek near the Warm Springs Hatchery in Healdsburg this weekend.
“The fish are growing rapidly and look very happy,” said Willowside Middle School science instructor Debbie Grima-Lowe, who took on the project for the first time this year in collaboration with the Russian River Wild Steelhead Society and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).
Raising fish in tanks can be a dicey situation, especially with kids involved, and survival rates are not always the best, but in this case they were well within the normal range.
“We only lost four fish, that’s pretty good,” said Grima-Lowe, who was first required to take a class with the CDFW before being given 30 steelhead eggs and an aquarium for the classroom.
Traditionally, the 6th grade science students and their teachers raise Steelhead from eggs to fry in the classroom, and have been doing so as part of the curriculum at Willowside for about six years. This is the first time that a seventh grade class took on the project.
“It was a really good reconnection/reinforcement of what (the students) did last year and we were able to build on that,” said Grima-Lowe.
A unit on genetics and adaptation coincided with the raising the fish and Grima-Lowe said she was “just getting her feet wet, and would like to do it again next year.”
Students began by incubating the eggs in a 10-gallon aquarium chilled at 52 degrees, but they were also responsible for feeding the fish and checking on their growth and development throughout the two-month period.
Hands-on programs like Steelhead in the Classroom, tend to make their mark on kids and that is the effect that organizers are looking for.
“Kids get really interested and we hope that it will inspire them to become good stewards of the Russian River,” said Dave Delmue, a board member of the Russian River Wild Steelhead Society and a volunteer that helps with the release efforts that take place at a number of creeks throughout Sonoma County.
Delmue likes the way the program teaches students about the Russian River ecosystem and he knows of students who continue to study fish well after Steelhead in the classroom is over.
There are students who have gone back to their pool or creek release spot later to count the number of fish left in the pool and to create reports, said Delmue.
© 2013 Sonoma West Publishers . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
FEEDING THE FISH Students at Willowside Middle School are getting ready to release 26 juvenile salmonids into Dry Creek in Healdsburg this weekend. Beginning with 30 eggs, seventh grade students were responsible for feeding and monitoring the development of the fish.
Posted: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 3:23 pm
by Kimberly Kaido-Alvarez Sonoma West Staff Writer [email protected] | 0 comments
Seventh graders at Willowside School will bid farewell to over 25 Steelhead “fry” (juvenile salmonids) that they raised in the classroom over the past two months.
The fish, that have reached almost two inches in size, are considered ready for life beyond the aquarium and will be released into Dry Creek near the Warm Springs Hatchery in Healdsburg this weekend.
“The fish are growing rapidly and look very happy,” said Willowside Middle School science instructor Debbie Grima-Lowe, who took on the project for the first time this year in collaboration with the Russian River Wild Steelhead Society and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).
Raising fish in tanks can be a dicey situation, especially with kids involved, and survival rates are not always the best, but in this case they were well within the normal range.
“We only lost four fish, that’s pretty good,” said Grima-Lowe, who was first required to take a class with the CDFW before being given 30 steelhead eggs and an aquarium for the classroom.
Traditionally, the 6th grade science students and their teachers raise Steelhead from eggs to fry in the classroom, and have been doing so as part of the curriculum at Willowside for about six years. This is the first time that a seventh grade class took on the project.
“It was a really good reconnection/reinforcement of what (the students) did last year and we were able to build on that,” said Grima-Lowe.
A unit on genetics and adaptation coincided with the raising the fish and Grima-Lowe said she was “just getting her feet wet, and would like to do it again next year.”
Students began by incubating the eggs in a 10-gallon aquarium chilled at 52 degrees, but they were also responsible for feeding the fish and checking on their growth and development throughout the two-month period.
Hands-on programs like Steelhead in the Classroom, tend to make their mark on kids and that is the effect that organizers are looking for.
“Kids get really interested and we hope that it will inspire them to become good stewards of the Russian River,” said Dave Delmue, a board member of the Russian River Wild Steelhead Society and a volunteer that helps with the release efforts that take place at a number of creeks throughout Sonoma County.
Delmue likes the way the program teaches students about the Russian River ecosystem and he knows of students who continue to study fish well after Steelhead in the classroom is over.
There are students who have gone back to their pool or creek release spot later to count the number of fish left in the pool and to create reports, said Delmue.
© 2013 Sonoma West Publishers . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.