Great excitement in Room 1213 as our trout ova arrive!
Last week we had Dan and Hamish from Fish and Game NZ come to visit and set up our new aquarium. The purpose of this aquarium is to allow the children to raise brown trout from eggs gathered in Lake Rotorua.
Dan sets up the aquarium
The aquarium is covered in plastic and the water is chilled awaiting the arrival of the eggs.
The eggs arrived via courier. They were packed in a sock and kept cool with wet sphagnum moss.
The eggs are eyed and are expected to hatch as alevins around June 28th.
Trout lay their eggs in the bottom of streams and cover them with gravel. They need darkness to hatch so we only take a short peak every day to check they are ok. As they get close to hatching they will float to the top of the tank.
What a great learning opportunity.
The aim is to give our tamariki the opportunity to raise brown trout from the egg stage to fingerlings in the school environment. The eggs are supplied from the Rotorua hatchery and are raised with the support of volunteers and Whaea Emma and Mrs C over several months in specially constructed tanks in the classroom.
Children carry out on-going monitoring and related curriculum-oriented tasks. This provides hands-on practice of skills in maths, science and environmental studies in particular. It also gives them the opportunity of applying these skills in a real context in the outdoor environment.
Once the fish have grown to fingerlings they are then released into the Hutt River.
