Trout In The Classroom

Winchester Trout Unlimited
Chapter # 638

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What has two heads, one tail, and a single egg sac? It’s an anomaly, for sure; a two-headed alevin that hatched from a fertilized brown trout egg in one of our 60 Virginia “Trout in the Classroom” tanks.

The Trout in the Classroom (TIC) program, which is over 20 years old, is taking off in our state now. Students and teachers from elementary through high school are raising trout from fertilized eggs supplied by VDGIF hatcheries, in aquariums equipped with special chillers designed to keep the water near 50 degrees F. The students make daily temperature measurements, and monitor pH and ammonia levels with test kits. They record their data, plot trends, and make sure that the water quality is sufficient to support trout development. In the spring, they’ll release the trout fry into a local stream.

New programs have started in 2008 at Buena Vista, Waynesboro, Aldie and Winchester. In Winchester, four classes are participating in the project during the 2007/2008 school year, including Frederick County Middle School and Sherando, Millbrook, and James Wood High Schools. Students are raising brook trout from eggs donated by the Paint Bank hatchery near Covington. The fingerlings, which hatched in late October, are almost three inches long by by mid-February. And towards the end of the school year, students will release the fry into Redbud Run, a spring creek in Frederick County which historically held a population of brook trout -- and hopefully will again in the future.

If you’re a teacher in our region who is interesting in participating in the program you’d like more details, please contact:

Mark Zimmerman

VP of Education/Outreach for the Virginia Council of Trout Unlimited

VA Regional TIC Coordinator

mbzimmerman@comcast.net

540-722-4914

There’s also an excellent website at www.troutintheclassroom.org which has all the information you’ll need to get started. You can follow these links to find info on how to get started, how to care for trout, as well as tank and equipment info that is needed to get started.

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Trout In Classroom

Click here to go to the TU's TIC website. TIC