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Chapter Information:
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Trout In The Classroom
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
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.
In Virginia, the 2009/2010 school year is the 5th for the TIC program. There are aquariums in approximately 125 classrooms, and students are raising both Brown Trout and Brook Trout. New programs have started this year throughout the state, including schools in Chesapeake and Glouster in the Eastern part of the state. We've got nine tanks in our Winchester area this year, at eight schools and the Shenandoah Valley Discovery Museum; the schools include Frederick County and Admiral Byrd Middle Schools, the Powhatan School, and Sherando, Millbrook, and James Wood High Schools. Students are again 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 and you would like more details, please contact:
References for TIC: Read Dave Whitlock's "Brook Trout Story" that was published in Trout Magazine.
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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Chapter Programs: Trout In Classroom
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