Valhalla Community School is participating in a province-wide project that hopes to hatch a love for biology for students in a hands-on learning opportunity.
The Fish in Schools program gives kindergarten to grade nine students around Alberta the chance to experience the lifecycle of trout from eggs to young fish. Eggs are shipped from the Bow Habitat Station in Calgary to schools around the province and allow students to raise trout in the classroom over a several-month period.
Gina Shepelwik, a Kindergarten teacher at Valhalla and organizer for the program says the program is beneficial as it presents a unique opportunity for students to witness a lifecycle in person, instead of on a whiteboard.
“Being a part of it, the kids will get to see them today and it’s just these little orange eggs and as they change the kids get to see that and be a part of it, it makes it more personal I think,” she says.
Shepelwik says the undertaking marks the second for the school. Last year saw nearly half of the eggs hatch and released into the wild, but she says she is hopeful this year will see an even better turnover.
“Last year was kind of our pilot project so this year we’re hoping to get the kids more involved and it’ll be a different experience for us this year I think,” she says. “Last year we started off with 65 eggs and by the time we got to release them I think we had 20-25, so the goal is to have more to release this time,”
According to the timeline suggested by officials, the eggs are on track to hatch by March, and Shepelwik says if everything goes to plan, Spring Lake should be stocked up with fresh trout by May.
