Blue Ridge Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited

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Trout in the Classroom

A joint program by Blue Ridge Mountain Chapter

of Trout Unlimited

and Fannin County Middle School

Latest Information on Trout in the Classroom . . .

Trout in the Classroom Gears Up for Another Year

Thanks to the support of members of the Blue Ridge Mountain TU chapter, the Trout in the Classroom (TIC) project is now into its second year at at the Fannin County Middle School. Science teachers Jeff Weaver and Tony Tichler -- who initiated this educational/conservation program at the school -- and some 250 7th graders are rearing the rainbow fingerlings which will be released at the end of the school year next spring.

The following is a summary of last year's TIC project: From the trout eggs that arrived in the fall, over 300 rainbow fingerlings were reared in the two cold-water aquariums and they were released into the Toccoa River, much to the delight of the 260 students who participated in the program.

The eggs were provided by TroutLodge -- http://www.troutlodge.com/ -- a commercial hatchery operation in Washington State who donated the eggs for the Blue Ridge Trout in the Classroom program. The eggs arrived on October 5th and were placed in egg baskets in the aquariums.  By the by the first of November, the eggs had hatched and the little fry had begun leaving the egg baskets. Some of the fish were coming to the surface, which according to Jeff Weaver, means they're looking for food. During the year a couple of experienced trout hatchery folks visited the middle school project and said everything was set up properly and progressed just as it should have.

 The art work at the top of this page was done by Fannin County Middle School art students to help promote the Trout in the Classroom raffles at Art in the Park and it got a lot of attention. In fact, some visitors to the TU booth wanted to purchase the poster. The creative young artists did such a great job we’ll adopt this as our TIC artwork.

For any of you who unfamiliar with this program, Trout in the Classroom involves setting up a cold-water aquarium in a classroom where students incubate a batch of trout eggs, raise the fingerlings during the school year and then release them in an approved stream on a class field trip. A curriculum has been developed to go along with this aquarium project which involves math, social studies, language arts/reading and science. For example the students must complete an algebraic equation to determine the amount of food to feed their fingerlings at various stages of development. Besides the educational opportunities offered by TIC, the program will expose the students to some valuable environmental lessons. With Trout in the Classroom aquariums in two classrooms, the entire seventh grade at Fannin County Middle School will have an opportunity to learn from their involvement with Trout in the Classroom.

Teacher Jeff Weaver said Trout in the Classroom has really captured the students’ attention. He said, “We’ve got students who didn’t give a hoot about science. But  they got interested in raising these trout and now they’re paying attention. They’re starting to make a connection between the science in their books and real world situations.”

Besides science, Tony Ticher said, Trout in the Classroom is being used to illustrate “hands on” applications for many of the students’ other textbook subjects. “Trout in the Classroom is making science exciting for the kids. But it’s not just science, Trout in the Classroom is being used with math, language, art and more to integrate classroom learning with real life applications.”

According to Rochelle Gandour, Trout Unlimited’s Trout in the Classroom national coordinator, the program is presently in 25 states; however, she said the Fannin County Middle School program was the first in Georgia.

Little Trout Continue To Grow – Pictured are the fingerlings in early December, 2006 in one of the Trout in the Classroom aquariums at Fannin County Middle School. According to Tony Tichler, one of the teachers working with this program, the fingerlings were released on April 26 when the participating students went on a field trip to Tammen Park. The Blue Ridge TU Chapter, sponsor of this program, had applied to DNR for the stocking permit. Details on the field trip can be found below..

As mentioned earlier, Trout in the Classroom has been around in several states for a few years and while much good information was available to get the local program up and running, Tony and Jeff found themselves scrambling around shortly after the eggs hatched last fall trying to overcome an ammonia build-up that threatened the fry. They were monitoring the ammonia content around the clock while adding fresh water to dilute it in an effort to keep the

 baby fish safe and sound while at the same time searching for a remedy to this problem. Acting on the advice of David Cochran of Whitepath Water Gardens who has much hatchery and aquarium experience, Jeff and Tony rigged up barrels filled with plastic strips which the water would filter through and introduced a certain bacteria that adhered to the plastic. This kind of bacteria converts the ammonia into a nitrate or some other substance that is not harmful to fingerlings. The whole process is too complicated for a layman to understand, but working through this dilemma illustrates not only the knowledge that Tony’s and Jeff’s are capable of sharing with their students  but also these teachers’ dedication to their students and the Trout in the Classroom program. Jeff said Trout in the Classroom has been an educational experience not only for the students, but for the teachers too.

Under science teachers Weaver and Tichler’s initiative, Trout in the Classroom grew out of Adopt-A-Stream monitoring that is a project for their advanced 7^th grade science classes. Under this program, students in their two advanced science classes monitor a stream on the school’s campus each month, but this project can only accommodate a limited number of students. Jeff and Tony were looking for a project that could involve the entire 7^th grade when they came across Trout in the Classroom in some Trout Unlimited literature. After doing a little research and contacting the Blue Ridge TU group, it was determined that Trout in the Classroom could be just the program they were looking for to involve all the 7^th grade students. The Blue Ridge Mountain TU chapter put together the funding for the program.

The TIC equipment for the two Fannin Middle School classrooms represents an investment of almost $2,000 by the local TU Chapter and the sponsors. The most expensive pieces of equipment are the chillers which will keep the water at the cool temperatures required for the trout eggs and fingerlings. After consulting with Ms Gandour, we selected the ¼-hp Aqua-Chill chiller. To make things simple, a supplier called The Fish Place has begun assembling all the TIC equipment (which in addition to the chiller includes various filters, aerorators, pumps, thermometers, tubing and fittings, UV sterilizer, etc) into a kit ($798.86 each) – everything except for the tanks and stands. Jeff Weaver located appropriate 55 gal. tanks at a local pet supply store which we purchased for TIC. He said the school will purchase metal stands with wheels to complete the Trout in the Classroom set up. Information on TIC including setting up the equipment can be found at the TU website: http://www.tu.org/site/pp.asp?c=7dJEKTNuFmG&b=404755.

Crowd of 350 celebrates success

of Trout in the Classroom

 While many thousands of trout have been stocked in Georgia waters over the years, the Blue Ridge Mountain Chapter of Trout Unlimited believes it can safely assert that none have ever received a finer bon voyage than those released recently in Fannin County.

 Complete with T-shirts adorned with artwork designed by students and a theme song composed and performed by another group of students, a celebration was held on the banks of the Toccoa River on April 26 to mark the successful conclusion of Georgia’s first Trout in the Classroom project.

 Trout in the Classroom (TIC) was developed by Trout Unlimited, originally in New York but now

implemented in several states. But a TIC program at Fannin County Middle School this year was a first in this state. Participating in this project, students hatch trout eggs in an aquarium in their classroom and raise the fingerlings during the school year, finally releasing them into a local stream. Along the way they are exposed to a variety of academic and environmental exercises.

 At the TIC fingerling release field day in April, 260 seventh graders gathered on the river bank and in the water at Tammen Park to release the 300 rainbow trout they reared. They were joined by a delegation representing the Blue Ridge TU chapter, sponsor of this TIC program, along with a host of school officials and dozens of interested people in the community. The crowd estimated at easily over 350 included special guests Georgia Department of Natural Resources Commissioner Noel Holcomb, DNR’s Regional Fisheries Supervisors Wayne Probst and Jeff Durniak, Georgia Adopt-A-Stream Director Allison Hughes and representatives of Project WET. State legislator David Ralston was present to show his support for this project.

Angela Berrong, principal at Fannin County Middle School (FCMS), said the large crowd that attended the event illustrates the level of community support that developed during the school year for the Trout in the Classroom program. She said the school administration is thrilled to see a school project receive this much community support and interest.

Georgia DNR Commissioner Noel Holcomb said he has a longstanding interest in environmental education and is especially appreciative of programs like the FCMS Trout in the Classroom program that “moves from awareness to action.”

 Commissioner Holcomb said that when he was growing up, most of the state’s population was rural and kids on the farm grew up learning about the outdoors. But Georgia is increasingly becoming an urban state, he said, and children don’t have the opportunity to be exposed to nature. That’s why programs like Trout in the Classroom are so important and why the Department of Natural Resources supports Trout Unlimited and what it does to educate students, Holcomb said.

 “Trout Unlimited has long been a strong DNR partner,” Commissioner Holcomb said. “TU is a ‘go

to’ organization for making something positive happen.” He commended the Blue Ridge Mountain TU chapter for their initiative in working with the Fannin County Middle School TIC program. “I hope your program sets the standard for putting Trout in the Classroom in other North Georgia schools,” he said.

 Jeff Weaver and Tony Tichler, the teachers who were looking for a project that could involve the entire FCMS 7^th grade when they discovered Trout in the Classroom, said the program had far surpassed all expectations in bringing in elements across a broad curriculum range. In addition to the anticipated lessons in biology, chemistry and math, other subjects like language arts were incorporated. And in the end even art and music students got involved. (The Blue Ridge TU group hopes to obtain a recording of the professional-quality song by the students which in the chorus praises “The folks at TU – Mother Nature’s helping hand.”) Weaver and Tichler said TIC helped many students make the connection between the lessons in their textbooks and real life applications, with the trout sparking that interest.

 In addition to the “book learning,” Blue Ridge Mountain Chapter President John Pool said the environmental aspects of TIC embrace TU’s mission of coldwater conservation.  “Releasing 300 fingerlings into the Toccoa tailwater in and of itself has a miniscule effect,” he said. “But the environmental awareness created by Trout in the Classroom can have a significant impact. Because of TIC, this group of students has a keener awareness of trout and the habitat they need to survive. Some of them will be tomorrow’s environmental stewards. And this is especially significant in light of the growing pressure on this area’s environment. Hopefully we’ll be building on this year’s TIC success in years go come.”

 After a hotdog lunch provided by the Blue Ridge Mountain TU group which was coordinated by chapter member Mike Maginn and the raffle for a L.L. Bean flyfishing outfit that was won by 7^th grader Brett Davis, the students broke into groups for various mentoring sessions. Jay Campbell headed up a flycasting session assisted by Everett Hall and Jeff Weaver. Allison Hughes and the Adopt-A-Stream staff did a stream monitoring workshop while Kermit Littleton conducted a flytying demonstration and the Project WET folks did a “Some of the Parts” exercise where students consider conservation of riparian habitat.

 While intermittent showers on April 26 (along with that 7^th grader urge to splash around in a river) left the students a little wet at the end of the day, there was no dampening their enthusiasm for Trout in the Classroom. And for TU volunteers, what could be more rewarding?

 For more information on the Fannin County Middle School TIC program visit the Blue Ridge Mountain TU Chapter’s Trout in the Classroom page at:

http://blueridgemountaintuonline.com/trout_in_the_classroom.htm

And on the national level, check out TU information at:

http://www.troutintheclassroom.org/site/c.juLTJ6MTKvH/b.1302851/k.BD7E/Home.htm

Another Great Year for Trout in the Classroom Culminates in Celebratory Release

By Ralph Artigliere

            On April 24, Tammen Park on the Toccoa River once again provided the backdrop for an exciting and educational experience:  release of hundreds of fingerlings tenderly hatched and nurtured by the students in the 7^th grade classes of Jeff Weaver and Tony Tichler at Fannin Middle School. 

The entire seventh grade turned out, bringing 250 students to the park with a bluebird skies above, mild temperature, and flowering dogwoods.  But the focus for everyone was on three coolers whose temperature and oxygen level were carefully managed to ensure a safe trip from school to river in the back of Jeff Weaver’s pickup truck.  It is hard to tell who were more excited, the adults represented by members of the school board, teachers, Trout Unlimited, DNR and hatchery personnel, and proud parents on the one hand;  or the energetic students, who emerged from yellow school buses in waves and jockeyed for a spot along the river for a view of the release.  As the natural event of freedom and new homes for the fish unfolded, everyone present, teen and adult, appeared to revel in the rebirth of a new generation of rainbow trout.

            This was the second annual release, and last year’s successful event was widely reported:  the first Trout in the Classroom program in Georgia, one of the most successful in the nation, with participation by the entire student body, who created art, wrote and sang songs, and unabashedly supported the effort to raise tiny fish and learn about science, nature, environment, math, and personal responsibility for the life of another species totally dependent on man until they are released to fend for themselves.  While it does not seem possible, this year was bigger and better.   With two new 200 gallon tanks in Fannin’s classrooms, the number of fish released multiplied to a level that achieved one of the largest, if not the largest number of live trout grown to size suitable for release in such a school program anywhere in the nation.  Credit for success goes to the students who enthusiastically worked on the project, school officials who authorized it in the curriculum, Blue Ridge TU and its leadership for funding the effort, but MOST OF ALL teachers Jeff Weaver and Tom Tichler whose work on this project is above and beyond the call of duty with learning how to successfully raise trout from eggs, spending extra weekday and weekend hours, troubleshooting problems, motivating and mentoring students, and recruiting support and help from other faculty.

            To ensure maximum survival, the day’s activities began with the release itself, getting the trout into the river as soon as possible.  Under the supervision of Mr. Weaver and Mr. Tichler, students donned waders, entered the river, carefully filled pots and pails with trout dipped from the coolers by classmates, and carefully freed the fish in the Toccoa with hundreds of witnesses on the bank.  After the release, the student choir sang the song written for Fannin’s TIC program followed by  fitting remarks and thanks  from school officials, John Damer, a DNR trout expert and biologist, Blue Ridge TU President Mike Maginn, Mr. Weaver,  Mr. Tichler, and Jay Campbell.  Then TU members served up a hot dog lunch followed by a door prize of a complete trout rod outfit donated by Jay Campbell.  The student winner of the door prize was Chris Brewer, who also happens to be the student selected to go to TU trout camp.  What a wonderful coincidence!  Then David Hulsey of Unicoi Outfitters, a newly certified FFF fly casting instructor, provided rods and excellent fly casting instruction with assistance from several TU members.  Students also had the option of a “fish fighting” tent put on by Georgia Wildlife personnel.

            The event was also attended by Deborah Burger and Crystal Thomas of the federal hatchery and school board and school administrative and teaching personnel.  It was reported by local print and broadcast media. 

            Few projects can have an impact like Trout in the Classroom.  The students who nurture trout and return them to the wild will surely be better stewards of the resources of the future, especially fishing resources.  The enthusiasm of the instructors responsible for this program is remarkable, and together with the other teachers and aides they inspire or recruit to this program, they teach kids practical and social lessons they will use their entire lives.  I say “hats off” to Jeff Weaver and Tony Tichler and to Blue Ridge TU for teaming up with them for a winning program.