High School Students Teach Fourth-Graders About Rainbow Trout
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Things were a little fishy Wednesday in the fourth-grade classrooms at Washington STEM Academy. The elementary classes were learning about rainbow trout from Warsaw Community High School students in Abbi Richcreek’s Project Lead The Way biotechnical engineering class. According to Washington Principal Tom Ray, the high school juniors and seniors had to research and raise trout this school year, then give presentations on the fish to the Washington fourth-graders. This is the second year for the project. In 2013, WCHS students taught sixth-graders about trout. “At the end of this, in several weeks, we’ll release the trout in a private pond,” Richcreek said. Fourth-graders will visit the high school to study the live trout before they’re released, and some of them may help the high school students release the fish. “It’s a project-based learning unit with high school students and Washington fourth-graders,” Ray said. “It’s a long-term unit because they have to raise them, research and teach about them and it culminates in the (trout’s) release.” Washington teacher Angel Blakeley collaborated with Richcreek on the project to make it work for the fourth-graders since it was used with the sixth grade last year. Richcreek said Blakeley told her what she wanted from her students and she provided Blakeley with the rubric for the unit. For the fourth-graders, Blakeley said the focus for the unit is on the scientific method. Three groups from Richcreek’s class presented to the three fourth-grade classes at Washington. “It’s pretty cool because it’s just doing science and not just learning on paper but actually doing stuff,” Ben Brander, fourth-grader, said. He added that not only does he like science, but he also likes fishing. WCHS senior Matt Jagger said he knows a lot about fishing because his dad is a fisherman. However, through the project he’s learned about the different environmental climates fish require, that the rainbow trout need a temperature of 52 degrees, and how important it is to keep a fish tank clean. He also learned about nitrate, ammonia and pH levels. Sam Allbritten, junior, said, “It’s been basically a big learning lab for me.” Before delving into the unit, Allbritten said he didn’t know much about trout including their environmental condition requirements or eating habits. “The most interesting part was taking care of the fish in the tank itself,” he said.
