01-05-2025
Virginia school students learn from fish!
AMHERST COUNTY Va. (WFXR) — What if when you were in school, your classroom was a river and some of your teachers were fish?
You can find the answer to that in various schools across Virginia that are taking part in the Virginia Trout in the Classroom program. It comes courtesy of Trout Unlimited and the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.
Amherst County Public Schools have adopted the program. Students there are raising brook trout in their classrooms and eventually releasing them into the Pedlar River, a native trout stream.
'We get eggs from the Department of Wildlife Resources in the fall, and they hatch those eggs and raise them in the classroom in tanks,' said Amherst County Public Schools Superintendent William Wells. 'The trout that make it into the spring are about an inch to two inches long; we put them here in Pedlar River.'
Wells actually leads the streamside study that includes releasing tiny brook trout, then surveying the river for other aquatic life, and assessing the water quality in the stream. On this day, it was a third grade class from Temperance Elementary School releasing their trout.
'I think I'm going to find a couple of crawfish, maybe like those, maybe like mayflies, or minnows,' said third-grader Grace Ramsey.
After releasing her brook trout, she was one of several students who broke up into groups to flip rocks to collect was then flowed downstream in a net. Based on the types of aquatic life they found like insects or other macro invertebrates, the students could follow a formula to measure water quality.
Based on what they discovered, the student found the quality of water in the Pedlar River to be in the excellent range.
The program is stealthy in the way it teaches. The children thought they were just having fun, but in reality, they were getting lessons in chemistry, biology, math, hydrology, earth science, and a host of other academic disciplines.
'It's definitely hands-on,' said Dr. Wells.
And, because it is hands-on, the lessons are likely to stick. Education experts have found children who practice hands-on learning develop a connection to and a better grasp of the concepts involved. That translates to greater knowledge retention.
That is good for the kids and good for the rest of us, because these are lessons that will last a lifetime.
'They need to understand that as stewards of the environment they have to be able to take care of what we have, and if we don't take care of it, no one else will,' Dr. Wells said. 'As much as I can get the kids out here to experience this, I think the better we are.'
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