NEBRASKAland Magazine is dedicated to outstanding photography and informative writing with an engaging mix of articles and photos highlighting Nebraska’s outdoor activities, parklands, wildlife, history and people.
Issue link: https://mag.outdoornebraska.gov/i/377644
52 NEBRASKAland • OCTOBER 2014 New York's well established program of nearly 20 years to South Dakota's brand new program in its first season. Their ideas and advice informed the development of a curriculum package tailored to Nebraska's needs. Nebraska's Trout Unlimited (TU) chapter, TU 710, cooperates with the Commission on numerous stream rehabilitation projects and also puts an emphasis on conservation education. Several members are active as volunteer instructors with the Commission's Youth Fishing Program and promoted Trout in the Classroom to the board. The chapter agreed to use its education funds to sponsor two classrooms annually and provide volunteers for classroom field trips. A coldwater aquarium system capable of supporting trout approaches $1,000, a prohibitive cost for most classrooms. In 2014, the Nebraska Environmental Trust funded Trout in the Classroom to provide equipment to 50 schools over three years. The Trust awards funds annually with proceeds from the Nebraska Lottery to projects that conserve, enhance and restore the natural environments of Nebraska, and helped to expand the program across the state. In the Classroom Participating classrooms in the 2014 pilot year were connected to the program through existing partnerships with the Commission. Shon Mosser, fourth-grade teacher at Millard Public School's Upchurch Elementary, Lynne Lyons and Jade Hughes, fourth- and fifth-grade teachers at Millard's Disney Elementary, Julie McKeone, second- grade teacher at Papillion-LaVista Public Schools Patriot Elementary and Steve Schmit, high school agriculture teacher at Osceola Schools, all signed on to be guinea pigs for the program's first year. Teachers attended a training workshop at Ak-sar-ben Aquarium to learn how to assemble and operate their aquariums. They also learned how to maintain water quality and troubleshoot potential complications in trout rearing. Everyone participated in classroom activities and received certification to teach Nebraska's Trout in the Classroom and Project WILD curriculums. Each classroom set up its aquariums in early winter, and on February 4 the teachers returned to the Aquarium to pick up their fertilized rainbow trout eggs, just delivered from the Calamus Fish Hatchery. Upon arrival, the fertilized eggs had already developed to the "eyed egg" stage and continued to develop under the students' close scrutiny. Prior to hatch, the eggs were protected from light exposure with an insulating cover over the tank. This mimics their natural incubation habitat, the redd, where eggs are buried in the gravel of a streambed. The cover could be removed for viewing and students PHOTO BY JEFF KURRUS Students prepare to release rainbow trout fingerlings, raised in a classroom aquarium, into the canyon ponds of Schramm Park State Recreation Area in Gretna. f E g P S t o