“It’s fun to watch them,” said one student as he held a ruler up to the side of the fish tank hoping to get an approximate measurement of their length.
Mrs. Boersma’s class was selected to be part of the Michigan Department of Natural Resources Salmon in the Classroom program and received a grant from the Thornapple Area Enrichment Foundation to assist with material needs. It’s been an eye-opening experience and a challenge for the students from both Mrs. Boersma’s and Mr. Hanna’s classes. Students from both classes weekly monitor water quality, measure feeding, clean the tank, refresh the water, and make weekly observation notes in a journal.
“I like doing the science stuff with them like the observations,” said Zoey. “It’s fun to see what’s different about them and how much bigger they are getting. They’ve changed a lot -like when they were really little they didn’t even look like fish, but now they do.”
The class started with 150 eggs. Within a few weeks, the eggs hatched with the egg sac staying attached to the underbelly of the young salmon. Eventually, the sac was absorbed and the young salmon entered the next phase of their growth cycle called parr.
“That’s when they start to look like normal fish,” noted Zoey.
Brianna says sometimes it’s easy to see changes from week to week and other times, not so much. Colton noted the color and number of stripes on the fish were changing. “I find them cool to watch and I like to see them grow,” he said.
These weekly observations give students a record of how the fish have changed since they were first delivered as eggs. Each week their observations note changes in appearance, behavior and even habits.
“They are all bunched up together and there are lots of different sizes,” noted Liz in one of her weekly observations.
Mrs. Boersma said the project incorporates science, math, language arts, social studies and history. “Students write about the fish in their observations and they learn about testing the water. They measure the amount of food to give the fish. We’ve also talked about how the salmon first came to Michigan and why they are important.”
By participating in this Michigan Department of Natural Resources State program, Boersma receives professional development, a class activity guide, a program manual and video playlists to support the program.
“A big part of it for us at this stage is learning how to monitor the water and keep it fresh for the fish,” said Boersma who is doing the project for the first time this year.
The salmon in the classroom project is available to classrooms from third through 12th grades with more than 300 classrooms reportedly participating this year. According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, some of the main objectives of the program is to provide students with an opportunity to participate in hands-on learning about the natural history of the Great Lakes. They also hope the program builds a connection between the students and natural resources so students will hopefully become good stewards of natural resources.