STEM Learning
3-D Topographic Maps
Last Updated: October 4, 2021Piloted for the NYC and NYC Watersheds Trout in the Classroom program by Tina Miner-James, TIC Teacher Designed by the Catskill Center for Conservation and Development Objective: To teach students that a topographic map represents three-dimensional space and to find their place on the landscape. Background: Topographic maps are a critical tool for understanding any terrain. Isolines
Back the Brookie
Last Updated: October 4, 2021The creators and participants who donated their time and effort for this education module included Trout Unlimited members and other professionals. Teacher packet funding came solely from donations to the Joe Bogle Memorial Fund. The Back the Brookie Education Module is about clean air, clean water, and the only native trout of the Southern Appalachians known
Brook Trout Survival Pyramids
Last Updated: October 4, 2021From the Pennsylvania TIC program Overview: As a class, discuss the survival percentages of brook trout that survive to spawning age (2-3 years old) in Pennsylvania’s healthy headwater streams. (Only 1-2% of eggs laid survive to spawning age of 2 or 3 years.) Refer to the Life Cycle Background pages in the PA TIC Aquarium
Bus Trip Scavenger Hunt
Last Updated: September 23, 2021Designed for the NYC and Watersheds TIC program Background: Many students travel a long distance to reach the watershed streams that are home to trout. Mapping the journey to visit the watershed can be a engaging way to learn about local infrastructure, geology, and geography. How many bridges or streams will you cross? How many
Catch the Critter Game
Last Updated: September 23, 2021Designed for the New York Trout in the Classroom program Objective: To help students learn the different pollution-tolerance levels of various species of macroinvertebrates, and to understand how scientists use macroinvertebrate sampling to determine the health of a stream. Background: The streams of New York City’s watersheds are home to many species of macroinvertebrates. Scientists
Chiller and Heat Pump Science
Last Updated: September 23, 2021Fish tank chillers work just like refrigerators! Our drop-in chillers work just like your home refrigerator does. They use a liquid that evaporates easily, such as hydrofluorocarbons or chlorofluorocarbons, in order to pump heat out of a system. The refrigerant liquid ,in the chiller coils, take in heat from the surrounding water. As a result,
Crumpled Paper Watershed Exercise
Last Updated: October 4, 2021Courtesy of Alice Ferguson Foundation, Hard Bargain Farm Environmental Center The entire lesson, including student worksheets, is accessible as a pdf Overview: Students will use a model to create a watershed. By observing how surface water flow is determined by the shape of the land, students will visually and dramatically observe the physical characteristics of
Crumpled Watershed Model
Last Updated: November 14, 2022Courtesy of University of Nebraska, Lincoln Extension This lesson also available as a pdf Background Information: In this activity, you can make a watershed model. Remember, a watershed is all the land that “sheds” water from rain and snowmelt into a specificstream, river or lake. The boundaries of a watershed are the mountains, hills, or
Cut It Out: A Trout’s Habitat
Last Updated: October 4, 2021Designed for the NYC and NYC Watersheds Trout in the Classroom program. Made possible with funds from the Catskill Watershed Corporation in partnership with New York City Department of Environmental Protection. Conceived and written by Chris Carter. Objectives: Students will understand the anatomy of a healthy stream, purposes of various parts, and vocabulary to describe
Drawing Water
Last Updated: May 30, 2023Designed for the NYC and NYC Watersheds TIC Program Presented at the 2009 NY Fall TIC Conference Conceived and written by Emily Hartzell, TIC teacher Objectives: Inspire participants to explore the NYC water supply system Show how art can demonstrate what students know about science Help students visualize the watershed Explain how gravity helps water
Feeding Behavior
Last Updated: May 30, 2023Trout feeding tendencies: Surface These trout are a decent size (1.5-2 inches) and seem to be more aggressive. One looks like he had a few “fish dinners”. Subsurface Trout eating food as it sinks/drifts to the bottom (our smaller fish who like to stay close to cover) Bottom Some of our trout roam the bottom
Field Journal for Classes Raising Rainbow Trout
Last Updated: May 30, 2023Courtesy of Hope Cahill, New Mexico Trout in the Classroom Objective: Students will understand the basic needs of the trout they raise and how the classroom aquaria meet those needs. Students maintain a record of water quality parameters and record regular observations of the trout as they grow. To see more about this lesson, access
Fish Population and Proportional Reasoning
Last Updated: October 4, 2021Designed for the NYC and NYC Watersheds Trout in the Classroom program Made possible with funds from the Catskill Watershed Corporation in partnership with New York City Department of Environmental Protection Conceived and written by Nathan Affield and Suzanna Sellars at Brooklyn’s Green School. Objective: To build numeracy as well as algebraic and proportional reasoning
Follow the Water: A Giant Map Puzzle
Last Updated: October 4, 2021Designed for the NYC and NYC Watersheds Trout in the Classroom program Grades 5-up A lesson for Trout in the Classroom: Earth Science, Environmental Science, Geography Objectives: Students will learn about the path of water from the watershed to their homes. Students will read and use maps to find the path of the water delivered
Jelly Bean Genetics
Last Updated: October 4, 2021Background: In JELLY BEAN Fish, a population genetics simulation, students observe and record the genotypic and plicnotypic make-up of a fish population. which change in response to environmental conditions and an event that changes these conditions. Events similar to the catastrophic event in this activity (vegetation dying because of pollution) could happen in real streams
Journals and Blog: Year-long writing project
Last Updated: May 30, 2023Conceived and written by NY TIC teacher Sandy Cunningham Objective: Students will capture their TIC experiences in both creative and scientific language Materials: Notebook/journal Pen, pencil Colored pencils or markers. Procedure: The 7th grade will be keeping a scientific journal and writing poetic impressions of the trout as they grow through this year. Selected entries
Links to Additional STEM Resources
Last Updated: October 4, 2021TIC classrooms may be interested in some of these STEM-related web resources EnviroAtlas Check out the Environmental Protection Agency’s mapping resource GLOBE protocols Learn more about this worldwide science and education program How’s My Waterway? Help inform the conversation about your waters via this Environmental Protection Agency resource SeaPerch Build your own underwater remotely operated
Measure Stream Flow using the float method
Last Updated: March 23, 2022Calculate the flow of the stream during your release day event. Approx. 5-7 students can be involved at a time: one recorder, one person to keep time on phone or stopwatch, two people to measure the stream stretch, one to drop the ping pong ball (or water bottle as explained in the video below) at
Mock Fly Tying – mimicry, morphology, art
Last Updated: April 28, 2022Designed for the NYC and NYC Watersheds Trout in the Classroom program. Can be adapted to any classroom! Created by Veronica Rowe, TIC Teacher. Objective: Students will observe the differences between a variety of species of aquatic macroinvertebrates living in coldwater streams and identify their place in the food web. Background: The cool, cold and well-protected
Nitrogen Cycle Model- Students are the Bacteria!
Last Updated: October 4, 2021A Nitrogen Cycle Activity Lesson Lindsey Truxel Barbara Morgan Elementary – McCall, Idaho Goals: 1. To cause students to comprehend the role and processes of bacteria converting the compound elements ammonia to nitrites, nitrites to nitrates as the cycle relates to a trout tank. 2. To cause students to analyze cycles that exist on our
Photographing Macroinvertebrates
Last Updated: May 30, 2023Contributed by Ed Engelman, Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego Board of Cooperative Educational Services (DCMO BOCES) Background: This presentation features lessons learned from a project in which high school students collected, identified, photographed, and produced macroinvertebrate identification cards for use by citizen stream monitors. The Career and Technical Education programs at DCMO BOCES’s Harrold Campus in Sidney Center, New
Salmon Survival Game
Last Updated: November 14, 2022Activity by Rochelle Gandour-Rood, former TU Headwaters Youth Program Coordinator. Many thanks to TU Chapter 383, North Kitsap Bainbridge Island, for requesting this activity in the first place, and for piloting it at a spring fly fishing expo on Bainbridge Island. Gratitude to TU Chapter 146, Tacoma, for continuing to work with the activity, and
Survival of the Salmon: Salmon Counting Lessons and Extensions
Last Updated: May 30, 2023Adapted from Scientific American Frontiers by Jessica Griglak, New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife This lesson is connected to the book, The Adventures of Riley: Survival of the Salmon. Background: When people talk about types of salmon, they are either referring to Atlantic salmon or Pacific salmon. There is only one species of Atlantic salmon,
Systems Thinking: NYC’s Water Supply
Last Updated: October 4, 2021Trout in the Classroom – Fall Conference 2018 Workshop & Lesson: Systems Thinking: NYC’s Water Supply Facilitated by NYC Department of Environmental Protection, Robin Sanchez Objectives: To learn about the complex and essential NYC water supply system. To model systems thinking and understand how different aspects of climate and the environment are interconnected. Suggested Grade
The Web of Life Game
Last Updated: August 26, 2022Designed by the NYC and NYC Watersheds Trout in the Classroom program Objective: To teach students the interconnectedness of food webs in a typical trout stream and to learn about keystone species. Background: Plants and animals found in Catskill Mountains form a delicate food web which relies on the presence and good health of the
TIC Hydroponics
Last Updated: October 4, 2021Designed for the NYC and NYC Watersheds TIC Program Presented at the 2009 NY Fall TIC Conference Conceived and written by Janine Guadagno, TIC teacher First example by Tom Lewoc, TIC teacher Second example by Nick Gastelecutto, TIC teacher Objective: Through these lessons, students will understand how plants and animals work together in an ecosystem
Trout Anatomy Collage
Last Updated: May 30, 2023Objective: To have students experience the internal anatomy of a trout, without doing a dissection. To have students build and label a model of trout anatomy. Background: Trout are much like humans, and have some distinct differences, as well. I can be interesting to really explore the external and internal anatomy of a trout, and
Trout Anatomy Slideshow
Last Updated: October 4, 2021Courtesy of the NYC and Watersheds TIC Program Background: This pdf lays out the basics of trout anatomy with detailed photos and diagrams.
Trout Dissection
Last Updated: May 30, 2023Designed for the NYC and NYC Watersheds Trout in the Classroom program Access the online instructional video about trout dissection from UCC Ireland Objective: To give students a chance to get a first hand look at the inside of a trout and how their bodies work. Background: Trout exist in abundance in the streams throughout New
Trout Eggs Are Amazing
Last Updated: October 4, 2021What do you notice when you look at the trout egg image below? Which 5 parts of the trout egg can you identify? How is a trout egg different than a chicken egg? What tool could you use to see the details in the egg?
Trout Length
Last Updated: October 4, 2021Designed by Debbie Valerio, TIC teacher, for the NYC and NYC Watersheds Trout in the Classroom program. Objective: To practice measurement skills for math and science Background: Scientists are often catching and measuring trout in streams, to see what fish are living where. Materials: A ruler Trout of varying sizes saved in test tubes Rubbing
Trout Tank Volume
Last Updated: May 30, 2023Contributed by NY TIC Teacher Sandy Cunningham Background: The students’ trout tank will be home to their trout for the next nine months. This presentation will help students figure out how many gallons of water their trout tank holds. Presentation: Access the pdf of the Trout Project Topic One: The Tank presentation
Understanding PPM (Parts Per Million)
Last Updated: May 30, 2023Designed by Sharon Hicks, TIC teacher, for the NYC and NYC Watersheds Trout in the Classroom program. Made possible with funds from the Catskill Watershed Corporation in partnership with New York City Department of Environmental Protection Objective: To understand that pollutants are important to monitor and measure in very small quantities Background: When aquatic systems
What Trout Need
Last Updated: May 30, 2023Designed for the NYC and NYC Watersheds Trout in the Classroom program Objective: To teach students the important components of a healthy trout habitat Background: Caring for trout in an aquarium can be a difficult task due to their sensitivity to changes in water chemistry, temperature and availability of dissolved oxygen. In their natural habitats
When Will They Hatch?
Last Updated: May 30, 2023Calculate when your trout eggs will hatch using this trout hatch calculation student worksheet from the Idaho TIC program.
Where Are Trout From? Fishing Game
Last Updated: October 4, 2021From the Nevada TIC program We started out by printing cutouts of different animals who have a geography familiar to kids: (i.e. penguins from Antarctica, panda bears from China, koala bears from Australia). We had a map of the world, and we asked students to put the animal on the map on wherever it came