A dozen fourth graders at Hamilton’s Daly Elementary huddle around a table. Their teacher, Sunni Stuber, is carefully dispensing a chemical into a small test tube. The kids are checking for the concentration of ammonia in their 50-gallon fish tank humming away on a nearby counter. After that, it’s time for a water change.
In that tank are about 70 young rainbow trout roughly two inches long. They’re not your typical class pet. In fact, they’re not pets at all. They’re part of a partnership between schools and the Bitterroot chapter of Trout Unlimited that’s helping students learn what it takes to care for fisheries. Its backers hope the “Trout in the Classroom” program will spark curiosity for wildlife biology and management, and help secure the future of Montana’s aquatic resources.
Ms. Stuber’s class is new to the program. Their gear arrived early this year: The fishtank, chemicals, filters and a water chiller. The fish soon followed, first in egg form, more than 200 in total.
“They were just these tiny little orange eggs with a little speck of black,” Students Caden Gimpel and Emmett Mann say.
They were bummed to miss the eggs hatching over a weekend. But it took no time for the class to start naming the fish.
“We know this big one – the biggest one in there – is named Shaq,” Mann says. “Then we just guessed the rest.”
Caring for Shaq and his tankmates isn’t as easy as feeding and changing water. The class regularly tests the water for ammonia and nitrates and checks PH levels with help from Ms. Stuber. They know what each chemical does, and the right amounts to keep the tank in balance.
“It’s really cool,” Mann and Gimpel say in unison.
That kind of enthusiasm is why Ms. Stuber jumped at the chance to connect with Bitterroot Trout Unlimited to get a tank and fish of their own.
“Engagement is huge in teaching,” Stuber says. “And finding ways to get them involved in the learning just goes so far.”
Trout in the Classroom is not unique to Montana. Conservation nonprofit Trout Unlimited has been running the program nationwide for decades. It says it reaches more than 100,000 students, and for the last six years, some from the Bitterroot Valley.
The nonprofit’s local chapter president David Ward is coordinating with eight teachers across the valley this year. Ms. Stuber’s fourth graders are the first elementary group. He says students are always vying to sit close to the aquarium to keep tabs on the fish.
“And that sense of wonder and enthusiasm that you see in the fourth grade is there, but somewhat diminished, in high school,” Ward says.
Perhaps not too diminished.
Down the road at Hamilton High School, seniors Jenna Ellis and Mia Faulk don their safety glasses before treating the water in their own trout tank. It takes them less than half the time it took the fourth graders.
They’re part of the school’s “classroom without walls” course. The trout are inside, but many lessons take place out in the wide open. That was enough to convince Ellis.
“Everybody just said it was fun,” Ellis says. “All the kids last year were like, ‘CWW is the best class, you have to take it.’”
Neither of the students are pursuing a career in wildlife science, but they’ve both become fans of the field and gained new respect for what it takes to manage natural resources.
For Bitterroot Trout Unlimited president Dave Ward, that lesson couldn’t be more crucial.
“You can’t take that whole availability of a nice stream and healthy trout for granted,” Ward said. “You’ve got to monitor it and make sure to nurture it.”
The Hamilton students will release their rainbow trout into local ponds next month.
