POLAND, N.Y. — Poland Central School District third-graders recently stood in the Cold Brook stream behind the school turning over rocks, picking insects out of nets and releasing about 100 brook trout into the water.
One of the benefits of Mohawk Valley Trout Unlimited’s Trout in the Classroom program is that it’s all hands-on, Poland third-grade teacher Tracy Graulich said.
“They’re actually in the creek,” she said. “They’re not sitting behind a desk.”
Mohawk Valley Trout Unlimited puts on the Trout in the Classroom program for about 40 local schools including Poland. Students go through the whole process of raising the trout from eggs to fingerlings and then releasing them into streams.
Poland received the trout eggs on Nov. 2 and released the trout on Wednesday, May 23. The trout are kept in Graulich’s classroom, and all third-grade students participate in the program with Graulich and third-grade teacher John Allen.
‘Carries on’
Trout in the Classroom presenter Gary Bartell visited during the school year to talk to students about various topics such as aquatic insects and trout behavior. Students also learned about the trout lifecycle, anatomy and more. Bartell was joined by WUTR meteorologist Rachael Witter to assist students during the insect investigation and trout release on Wednesday, May 23.
Students from each class entered the stream to collect insects such as mayflies and stoneflies to feed to the trout in the aquarium. Following a break for lunch, students released the trout into the steam.
The students have embraced the program and do a lot of work taking care of the trout, Bartell said.
“They take ownership of a project,” he said.
Trout in the Classroom includes making sure the stream is clean and pollution free before releasing the trout, and it teaches students about responsibility, Bartell said.
“It makes them good citizens,” he said. “There’s no doubt that this carries on.”
‘Learned a lot’
Poland third-graders said they enjoyed participating in Trout in the Classroom.
Third-grader Logan Gemelli said his favorite part was feeding the trout, and he also enjoyed finding the insects.
“I liked it,” he said. “It was cool.”
Third-grader Cassariah Bronson said the students were assigned jobs related to the trout and learned a lot of interesting information such as that they can camouflage. Another “pretty cool” part was when the eggs hatched.
“My favorite part was that we got to experience an animal from little to just being close to an adult,” she said.
Third-grader Shyla Roberts also had fun and commented on what she would say to the teachers for providing the program.
“Thank you for the fish, and thank you for helping me release them,” she said.
Third-grader Connor Cowan said he hopes even more schools are able to participate in the program.
“I liked it. It was fun,” he said. “I learned a lot from it … I learned a lot about how to release trout and collect insects.”
Connor also had a positive outlook about the fate of the trout that were released.
“I feel like they are going to survive because they were pretty big,” he said.
‘Every year’
Some students have so much fun during Trout in the Classroom that they return to help. Poland seventh-grader Logan Cookinham and eighth-graders Shelby Rommel and Ava Malin have been involved since they were in the program, and this year, they helped transfer the trout from the aquarium to the bucket to carry them outside.
“We come every year,” Shelby said. “It reminds us of when we were little and did it.”
Logan said she likes assisting younger students with the program.
“It will help them learn new things about trout,” she said.
Ava said it feels good to see the students react during the trout release.
“I think they have fun with it,” she said.
‘Parents’ help’
An addition for this year’s trout release event was an outdoor “brown bag luncheon.”
“Really, I couldn’t do any of this without the parents’ help,” Graulich said.
It was Graulich’s own parents who inspired her to get involved in Trout in the Classroom in the first place, and they also attended the trout release day.
Dave Corr started Trout in the Classroom at New Hartford, and Bob Fields brought it to Poland with Poland teacher Carol Faville. After several years of Faville organizing the program at Poland, she retired and asked if Graulich wanted to take over at Poland starting in 2009.
“To me, it was a no-brainer, and it all started from my love of fishing and my parents’ love of fishing,” Graulich said. “So I’m excited to have my parents here.”
Her parents, Tom and Bette Lewis, said they used to pack up the kids, fishing gear, a small grill, hotdogs, buns and maybe some pork and beans.
“We used to go down to the West Canada after work and fish and fish and fish,” Tom Lewis said.
“Their father would fish, and I would cook, and the kids would fish,” Bette Lewis said.
Attending the trout release brings back those feelings, Tom Lewis said.
“To be a kid again,” he said.
Bette Lewis said she bursts with pride seeing her daughter help students participate in Trout in the Classroom.
“It’s excellent,” she said. “Kids learn so much more when they have hands-on activities. Coming out like this and releasing the fish, that’s something they’re going to remember.”
–Herkimer BOCES
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