Just three miles from their classroom, students arrive in the lush, green world of Ward Pound Ridge Reservation. They’ve come to Kimberly’s Bridge, a bend in Cross River, to release more than twenty trout—each one no more than three inches long—which arrived in their Family and Consumer Science classroom as tiny trout eggs back in October.
Teacher Christina Connors sets the white bucket of fish on the picnic table and takes out small droppers and test tubes. Some students work in groups to test the dissolved oxygen, pH and nitrogen in both the water in the bucket where they raised the trout and the water of Cross River. Others are asked to gather three types of leaves from the area. The fresh, damp air makes every step an adventure.
Connors prompts the students to make connections.
“How does oxygen get into the river?” she asks.
“The running water mixes air into the water,” a student replies.
“What connection do the leaves have to the fish?” Connors asks the students. “They shade the river,” said one student. “They disintegrate in the water and that’s what the fish eat,” said another.
“Excellent,” said Connors. “Macro-invertebrates also eat the decomposing leaves, and the fish feed on them.”
Before the release, the class takes a moment to honor the fishes’ journey.
The sounds of rushing water become the backdrop to an exuberant take on an Everly Brothers’ hit … “Bye, bye trout.”