Trout in the Classroom
Golden Gate Trout Unlimited is conducting the 2020 Trout in the Classroom program in over 60 classrooms in Marin County. Check our calendar! You can help GGTU bring watershed education to local schools by volunteering to be a coach.
Sign up to be a Classroom Coach
To find out more, contact Chuck Schultz at imayrespond@att.net or call him at 415-472-5837 .
Instructors and their students set up an aquarium in the classroom, receive fish eggs from Warm Springs Hatchery under a special CDFW permit, and observe the fish as they hatch and develop. The experience culminates in a field trip to a Marin County watershed where the fish are released. This is a hands-on, interdisciplinary project for pre-K through middle school classrooms.
GGTU has been involved with CDFW’s Steelhead in the Classroom Program for nearly 30 years, help us grow this incredible program. Coaches are critical to the success of Steelhead in the Classroom, the more coaches we have, the more classrooms we are able to serve. One coach can often support multiple classrooms.
MENTORING IS FUN, REWARDING AND EASY
Being a coach is a rewarding experience and GGTU is there to support you and your classrooms. The time commitment is generally limited to a training session in January, tank set up (if your classrooms need help), egg pickup, and fry release. Egg pickup is in February and fry are released 5-7 weeks later, for much of this time coaches are on call for any problems that may arise.
As a coach you will:
Assist at the teacher training workshop
Provide in-class support to teachers (setting up aquarium, maintaining eggs and fish, troubleshooting problems if they arise)
Pick up eggs from CDFW and deliver to your classroom(s)
Share your experiences and stories with students (you need not be a fisheries biologist!)
Assist class the with release of fry into a local stream
Assist teacher in completing and returning the 772 permit
Assist teacher in adhering to requirements of the 772 permit
Complete and return other required paperwork and forms provided by CDFW
GGTU and CDFW are available to assist you every step of the way and training is provided.
2019 Season was a Huge Success! LETS DO IT AGAIN NEXT SCHOOL YEAR!
More than 2,700 fertilized trout eggs were delivered to classrooms in late February. Students observed the eggs, watch them hatch and follow their development as the fish become free swimming fry. After about five weeks, the fish were released under the provisions of the CDFW issued permit. Today, using rainbow trout, the program serves 66 classrooms across Marin County, impacting more than 1,600 students from preschool through 8th grade.
Click on this link Trout in the Classroom 2015 to access a video on the GGTU Trout in the Classroom program. Click Here to read a story by the Marin Independent Journal and Here for a segment that appeared on KTVU on TIC in 2015.
If you know a teacher who may be interested in becoming part of TIC, have them contact Ethan Rotman at CDFW ( ethan.rotman@wildlife.ca.gov ) so they can be added to his notification list.
