Hundreds of seventh-grade students from the Northwestern Local School District spent last Friday morning along the banks of the Mad River getting their hands dirty as they learned about the river and its inhabitants. As part of their Trout in the Classroom project, the students studied water quality, identified aquatic species, and released dozens of young Brown Trout into the Mad’s cold clear waters.
Tony Frabotta, a seventh-grade teacher at Northwestern, took all of the school’s 135 seventh-graders on a field trip to Mad River Adventures canoe rental on Friday morning to conduct the conclusion of the Trout in the Classroom program.
The project began back in November when the trout eggs arrived, and Frabotta said the experience would not be as thorough if it weren’t for the generosity of Mad River Adventures owner Deron Castle in allowing them to use his site each year. Frabotta noted that his students gained some perspective from being outside in the trout’s unspoiled natural environment on the river’s shores.
This marks the second year that Frabotta and his seventh-graders have participated in the Trout in the Classroom program, which is initiated by Trout, Unlimited, with the organization’s Mad Men chapter taking part in the local project. Frabotta invited representatives from the Mad Men chapter, as well as the Miami Conservancy District and Clark County Soil and Water to the canoe rental on Friday morning so that his students could see all of the agencies that work daily to preserve water quality in our area.
“It’s important that we understand our role that way,” he said of water quality and conservation, which is one of the key components of the Trout in the Classroom project. “I wanted them to see that there are people working in government to do this sort of thing...and to see that people are farming responsibly and acting as responsible landowners to keep the river clean.”
Frabotta said the Brown Trout eggs that are supplied to him through the program come from a hatchery in London, Ohio, and are sponsored by the Department of Natural Resources. The students then assist in caring for the eggs until they hatch and become tiny fish. Frabotta said the students help with feeding the fish everyday and changing the water in the tanks, as well as monitoring the water quality. While the Trout in the Classroom is designed to teach children a conservation-oriented manner and water quality, the releasing of classroom trout into certified state waterways is an added bonus.
Frabotta said more of the fish survived this year, with around 70 trout fingerlings released into the Mad River Friday morning. He said the Mad’s conditions are ideal for Brown Trout, as the waters are cooler than average. He noted that it was a good experience for that many students to get hands-on experience as they released the trout into the river.
After their activities along the river, Frabotta then took his students to the Springfield Wastewater Treatment Plant on Eagle City Road, where they were broken into smaller groups and received several tours. Frabotta expressed his appreciation for plant manager Allen Jones for his staff’s generosity in explaining their processes to the students as well, as it allowed them to see another agency’s procedures in protecting water quality.
