Juniata Watershed Alliance...

JWA Logo

     We are in the process of forming our county's first watershed organization!  This has been an evolving process that began almost 3 years ago when I was approached by a parent of former students to become involved in local water conservation efforts. These students collaborated in creating the logo for our organization! Makes me smile every time I see it.

    We have had tremendous support through the Juniata Conservation District guiding us through the process providing direction and purpose to our cause. This year we will release our trout at Sis and Brent Robinson's residence in the Lost Creek and hold the other release activities at the Lost Creek Golf Course to highlight our local conservation efforts through our newly formed watershed group!

     It is my desire to connect our Trout in the Classroom Program with real life conservation efforts in our community! We share our release with the Juniata High School's TIC Program to allow the older students an opportunity to connect with our younger students around a common goal. Counting the days until our release...and praying everything continues to go well! Take a peek at our Brook Trout!

Worm Wednesday! March 8, 2017

     Our science lessons have been focusing on the interconnections between plants, animals, and humans as we strive to meet our needs for survival sharing the world we live in. We have been discussing how worms enrich the soil for our plants as they inhabit the same space in the ground. We have also discussed how worms are forced to the surface after prolonged rain to seek air as the ground becomes saturated. Several of the students shared how they gather worms for fishing which eventually lead to...I bet our trout would love some worms!
     One day last week after it rained all morning, we took a walk around the playground in search of worms. We were unsuccessful as the ground had not yet become saturated enough to force them to the surface. One morning this week as I woke up to the sound of the rain hitting my roof, I smiled. I knew we would soon have a worm day. Today was our lucky day...Worm Wednesday!
     Year after year the students are eager to make predictions about what will happen as we present our trout with their first sampling of a worm. Once again this year, we made some accurate predictions. However, as typical with this program, no one predicted that one of the trout would engulf  the worm so quickly that it would protrude from its gill causing it to become the target for attack by the other trout in the tank. I decided to intervene. Below are some pictures of the worm removal process...TIC always an adventure!

 

Rain, rain

Let it pour...

'Cause our fishies

Want some more...

WORMS!

 

Every wish

Yields a delicious dish

For our fish!

 

     Feeling grateful...even silly wishes can come true! Take a peek at our Worm Wednesday!

 



https://youtu.be/51M3EOL52W4 

Happy Fry-day 2-28-17, On Tuesday!

     We all look forward to Fry-days! We are eager to share that our Brook Trout are growing! They are now big enough to sample some worms...looking forward to some good soaking rain to bring the worms up out of the ground because we so love to feed them to the trout. Hopefully soon we will be able to post a video of their first worm feeding of the year!

 

     We are 81 days away from our trout release which has me a little worried because so many things can happen in that length of time...hoping everything continues to go well! Here's a peek at our school of fry... hope we brightened your Tuesday!



Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

     They say time flies when you are having fun...well we must be having a blast because I cannot believe Christmas has come and gone in a blink and so has the month of January! Thankfully, we received another shipment of trout eggs prior to Thanksgiving. This shipment looked much healthier and we have only lost a few as they either did not learn to swim to look for food or were deformed. To help the students adjust to this difficult reality, we used them to fertilize our plants.



     My students have been busy as authors and illustrators of our trout book with our publishing date quickly approaching. We are so eager to share our finished product, but for now we will give you a peek of some of the things we have been learning through our Trout in the Classroom Program! Enjoy!

Eggciting News!

 My first graders have been eagerly awaiting the
arrival of our brook trout eggs for our Trout in the Classroom Program! We tested the water quality by checking the ph, ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite levels of the water to make sure everything was perfect for our trout. To my students, its just fun to see the water change colors as they count the drops of the chemicals that I add as we perform the chemistry tests...they simply learn that trout need certain conditions to live and grow which includes cold, clean water!

 The students announced the arrival the UPS truck and our driver agreed to celebrate our delivery with a picture!

The students observed a first hand lesson on
living and nonliving things as many of the eggs this year arrived dead. This was a little hard for them. However, we celebrated the ones that we placed in the tank hoping for the best. We received 235 eggs total. Unfortunately, we had 172 eggs dead upon arrival...We placed 63 living eggs in two baskets in our aquarium.  overnight some hatched, but died immediately. Over the weekend they all hatched with more dying. We currently have 27 alevin in our tank. The students remain optimistic, but also begin questioning what we will do if we do not have enough for them to release in the spring.

Here's a peek at how excited they were just prior to the eggs arriving! Wish us luck as this teacher is also concerned about each student being able to place a trout in the stream in the spring...every year is a new challenge...stay tuned to see how we make out!

Mr. Winey Goes To First Grade

    One thing I love about our Trout in the Classroom Program is that it is truly different every year! This year as I was setting up our trout tank I had quite a surprise! I couldn't wait to share it with my first grade class...little did I know it would lead into a shared writing post, new class mascot, a lesson on the voting process, and a first hand look at what happens to animals if they do not have their needs met.

 Below is our shared writing of the experience:

     Mrs. Winey was excited to get the tank ready for our trout. She was cleaning the tank and saw a skink. She thought it was alive and was a little scared.  She gently nudged it with a sponge to discover it was nonliving. She could not wait to show our class.  We talked about how it got in the tank and why it did not stay alive in the tank. We learned it did not have its needs of food and water met in the tank over the summer break.
     When Mrs. Winey showed our class, we wanted to keep it as a mascot and name it!. We thought about naming it Alex, Crawler, Tom, Bob, Peter, Jake, Max, John, Jewles, or Breadstick. But the winning vote was Mr. Winey. We learned that when we vote we may have a say but do not always get our way. We plan to show the school our new mascot at the bug fair and our families at our open house. We can't wait!

Our tank is ready for our Brook Trout eggs
set to arrive in November. We are building
good bacteria so our trout eggs will have what they
need to survive in our trout tank! Check back to
see what we learn as we take care of our Brook Trout!

   
The smile says it all...

 

     On May 14, 2016 Lack Tuscarora Elementary and Juniata High School's Trout In The Classroom Programs combined to release 280 Brook Trout into East Licking Creek at Karl B. Guss State Park with eighty-four total adults and children releasing Brook Trout raised through the two TIC programs this year.

     Mrs. Jessica Morgan's high school students raised 140 fry outnumbering Mrs. Winey's Lack Elementary fish by 3. However, Mrs. Winey enjoyed boasting of releasing fingerlings rather than fry with the largest one measuring 5 inches! Lack's students lovingly named the largest fish Jumbo and the smallest one Fishy-fish who measured only 2 inches.

    The attendees also enjoyed tree planting with Lucas Book from DCNR,  Fish Print T-shirts with the Juniata Conservation District, Fly rod casting and macro invertebrate identification with Penns Creek Trout Unlimited,  learning of local conservation efforts presented by Juniata Watershed Alliance as well as conservation games lead by Mrs. Morgan and  Juniata High School students.

     So thankful the weather held off...it began to rain as we were packing up for the day!