Students Step Into Deep Brook For Trout Lessons

By Kendra Bobowick

With water sloshing between their feet and riverbed stones rolling beneath their boots, students from St Rose Parochial School waded into Deep Brook November 2 hoping to find macroinvertebrates.

As teacher Marde Dimon’s class prepares to raise fish in a tank placed in their classroom as part of a program organized with the Candlewood Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited (TU), students will need to understand water quality, temperature, and the best conditions for keeping the fish alive, explained chapter president James Belden. The relationship between the smaller aquatic life and the fish indicates a stream’s health. For example, macroinvertebrates — small insect living in the streambed — are indicators of exceptional, excellent, very good, or other water qualities.

“When they have to keep fish alive in a tank they’ll understand,” Mr Belden said. Both Mr Belden and Ms Dimon like the idea of closing the textbooks and leaving the classroom for an outdoor field trip.

Ms Dimon said, “I wanted to get the students out here…they’re using field guides, sampling the river, and what they find will tell us the quality of the river.”

Taking lessons from the classroom to the outdoors, Mr Belden and Ms Dimon helped students into waders and rubber boots before sending them into Deep Brook to hunt for varieties of mayflys, stoneflys, or caddis — the most desirable stream life— to the moderate species, to the least desired leeches, isopods, snails, worms, and black flys. Other categories of life, some of which sifted out of students’ nets, included at least one crayfish.

Huddled either in groups on the riverbank and dropping specimens into trays, or standing in pairs, knee-deep in the water and swishing nets in the current, students completed their hands-on lessons last week. St Rose Principal Mary Maloney also slipped into waterproof boots and accompanied the class. “It’s great, a nice discovery for them, and hands on.”

Students also appreciated the sunny day outdoors in crisp October air. Kyle Morrissey said, “It’s amazing, and we can come and enjoy wildlife.” Adrianna Mihalek said the field trip was “cool.” She said, “I like to see the specimens in the river.” Nick Gierbo added, “This is pretty fun learning about the river and the things in it.”

The Trout in the Classroom lessons involve science, math, and biology, Mr Belden explained. “They can understand how the trout live in the natural world.”

Through the Trout in the Classroom program, TU chapters install tanks and cooling and filtration systems so students can raise eggs into fingerlings. For more information, visit troutintheclassroom.org.