Third-graders from Wolfsville Elementary School spent Monday afternoon getting their hands dirty and their shoes wet during an informative trout release at Little Catoctin Creek in Myersville.
The trout, which the students had been raising in their classroom since December, were finally ready to be released into their natural environment. The students delicately transported them from a big bucket to a red plastic cup to the creek. They then waved goodbye to the trout fingerlings they’d been watching over for months.
Wolfsville Elementary has been doing a trout release every spring for the last decade as part of a national program called “Trout in the Classroom,” which provides students with trout eggs to care for and eventually release into water as fish.
Through the partnership, students learn various topics such as water pH, animal lifecycles and environmental science, said Rebecca Butler, Wolfsville Elementary’s third-grade teacher.
It helps the students not only gain a sense of responsibility, but also learn why having a healthy planet is important.
Further, it gives them some exposure to nature.
“We try to get them outside and away from the video games, and hopefully they learn that clean water is important and nobody else is going to take care of our resources, so hopefully they gain stewardship,” Butler said.
Middletown High School also participates in the annual trout release. Sharon Steger, a science teacher at Middletown High, usually brings a handful of her students to help the elementary students at the various stations.
In addition to releasing trout, students rotate through stations where they learn about fly fishing and macroinvertebrates that live in the creek. They also participate in a nature scavenger hunt.
“It gets the kids outdoors, it gets them caring about their environment, and I think when they learn about their environment and they learn to care for it, then they will carry on that legacy … it gives them some ownership and some pride in their community,” Steger said.
Emma Tunis, a 10th-grader at Middletown High who was on hand Monday afternoon, said she thinks it’s a great program for young students, especially this year when their lives have otherwise been dominated by screens.
“They get to be outside and be in nature, and then they get to see their classmates and learn new things about the environment,” she said.
Tunis herself unexpectedly learned a lot, too.
“It was pretty cool to release the trout and learn things about them and the water ph. It was nice to see them in nature,” she said.
McKinna Hidalgo, a third-grader at Wolfsville, said she learned it’s important to have a healthy creek so animals can be safe. She loved letting the trout go in the water and seeing them swim away, after first meeting them as eggs.
The favorite part for Hidalgo’s classmate Macie Lader, however, was getting to go into the creek.
Macie didn’t have any rain boots or waders. Her socks and sneakers were soaking wet, but she didn’t care. Right before moving on to her next station, Macie took off her shoes, dumped all the water out and flashed a wide smile.
Follow Katryna Perera on Twitter: @katrynajill
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