North Middle :: News :: Salmon in the Classroom

During the 2007-2008 school year, 6th grade students at PNMS will have the opportunity to raise and care for a population of Chinook Salmon. They will be monitoring the health of the fish through observation and data analysis of the tank environment.

Part of this exciting curricular activity is having the students visit the Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery in Mattawan, Michigan to learn how our state manages this natural resource. An emphasis will also be place on the evasive species that have found their way to Michigan. In addition to a guided tour of the fish hatchery the students took a nature walk with an emphasis on identifying producers and consumers in a natural setting.

The North Middle School Salmon project is swimming across the subjects, thus making it a part of our MYP initiative and interdisciplinary planning. Several teachers have incorporated this learning experience into specific content areas.
Mrs. Burnham, Mrs. Toth, and Mrs. McVay have had their English students do Type 1 writing describing their experiences with the salmon in the classroom. The technology education teacher, Mr. Swanson, has involved his students in making the cooler for the tank to help keep the temperature controlled. The students in Mrs. Wisinski’s class are responsible for putting the fish to sleep each afternoon, by putting the insulating cooler on the tank. Mrs. Richardson, our art teacher, is instructing her art students in creating a mural for the back of the tank. The science classes have been responsible for collecting and analyzing data, taking water quality samples and through Mr. Blackman’s computer classes and using Inspriation software, and graphing the data collected. The students have also been able to correspond via e-mail, with other students in the Muskegon area, who are doing a similar project. Mr. Blackman has also introduced his students to blogging and has plans to incorporate video conferencing after the holidays with the same school.

On October 5th, 2007, the sixth grade science department, in conjunction with the technology department, kicked off a “Salmon in the Classroom” project by visiting the Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery. Salmon in the Classroom is a sixth grade science project where students raise live salmon and care for them from the egg to the fry stage. The project is designed to maximize the integration of technology into the science curriculum and help students learn several science standards and benchmarks. “Salmon in the Classroom” culminates with the release of the fry at a local estuary in May.

On their visit to the fish hatchery, students took a guided nature walk. The purpose of the walk was to give students first hand knowledge of invasive species and the dangers that they pose to the environment. Students recorded many of these species on both digital cameras and video recorders so that they will have will have graphics available to them for other planned elements of this project.

Students also toured the inside of the fish hatchery. On this portion of the field trip students learned how the eggs are collected, fertilized and stored. The students also learned important information about the care and feeding instructions that they will need to know in order to be successful in raising salmon of their own.

One of the goals of the "Salmon in the Classroom" project is to introduce students to a variety of telecommunication tools. A blog, short for web log, is a telecommunication tool the sixth grade science students are currently learning how to use. The current task is to have the students research an invasive species and answer a few key questions such as origin of the species and the threat that it poses to the food web. Once they complete their research they are to submit their findings to the blog. One of the advantages of using this telecommunication tool is that it allows the teacher to quickly assess the students’ knowledge. Using a blog as a learning tool can also be helpful for students who can not attend school as the task assigned can be completed anywhere the internet can be accessed.

On Wednesday, October 31st, Mrs. Wagner’s science classes watched a lesson on how to set up their "Salmon in the Classroom" fish tank. The tank requires a special

chiller to keep the temperature levels around 55º. This is important in order to simulate the natural environment needed to maintain the quality of the eggs. The importance of other equipment such as the filters, air pump, and tubing were also explained. This lesson was necessary in order to help the students understand the process of properly setting up experiments.

The salmon have finally found their way to North Middle School! They were placed into their new habitat on Thursday, November 8 th. This is a very exciting moment for us as a great deal of planning and preparation have gone into developing a habitat that will sustain our new guests. Now that they are here, the 6 th grade students will be in charge of maintaining their habitat and recording vital data in Excel such as tank temperature, ammonia and nitrate levels, and ATU (Accumulated Thermal Units). For more information on the activities involved in the maintenance of the tank and care of the salmon, check out the manual. You can peek in on our guests with the sam-cam.

Many of the 6th grade students utilized MS Paint to draw the six different stages of the salmon’s life cycle. Once their pictures where completed, they then pasted these pictures into Inspiration which is a concept mapping software. This activity gave the students the opportunity to closely examine the changes in the salmon as they grow. Students later applied this knowledge to the life cycles of other species. In addition to gaining knowledge and understanding of the life stages of some organisms, students learned valuable technology skills for future communication purposes. Below is an example of their work.

Ms. Wisinski's students know that the salmon eggs need to be properly cared for. In the wild, the salmon eggs would be covered with gravel to protect them from the light. Everyday, her students go to the media center and cover up the tank to make sure that our eggs are safe from the damaging light rays.

The 6th grade students are responsible for monitoring the salmons' habitat on a daily basis. Measurements for PH, ammonia and nitrogen levels, and tank temperature are taken. Once the data is obtained, it is recorded in Excel so that it can be made into a graph for later analysis. The students also check the eggs and remove the ones that are no longer viable. The dead eggs are easily spotted as they have turned form pink to a milky white. These eggs must be removed to stop the spread of bacteria in the tank. Students also check all the equipment such as the air pump and the filter to make sure it is functioning properly.

Shortly after the eggs arrived at NMS, the students began to record data on spreadsheet software. One of the purposes of this process is to try to predict when the salmon will hatch. This is done by monitoring the accumulated thermal units (ATU). The eggs will hatch when ATU total is between 480 and 540. To make their predictions, the students filled in missing data with the assumption that the tank temperature will remain at a constant 10 o C. Many of my first hour students predicted that the eggs will hatch between December 24 and December 27.

When will they Hatch? How About Now!

You can predict when salmon will hatch by keeping track of the water temperature. Salmon eggs prefer temperatures from 45F to 58F. To find the accumulated temperature units (A.T.U.), you must know the average temperature of the water for that day. The higher the temperature, the faster the embryos inside the eggs will develop.
People who raise salmon in hatcheries know when each batch of eggs will hatch because they know how much thermal energy the eggs must get to develop fully. The thermal energy comes from the heat in the water and can be measured as temperature units, or T.U.
Beginning on the day the eggs are fertilized, the temperature units for every day are added. When the sum of the daily temperature units reaches the required total, the eggs will hatch. The required total for salmon is between 750-850 TU.
The predicted date for our salmon to hatch was around December 25th. Well, they came a little early! What happened? In the scientific method we call this "error analysis". After reviewing our tank setup, water temperatures, and other variables, the students hypothesized that the library environment was too warm keeping the tank water temperature too high. Remember, the higher the temperature, the faster the embryos inside the eggs will develop. Either way, the salmon here at PNMS are a force to be reckoned with, and the students are eager to learn more from these fiesty fellows.

In the wild, the fast flowing waters of a river constantly flush away the toxins created by the river’s inhabitants. However, our salmon live in a closed system where no water comes in or out. To help keep the water clean and moving, we use a filter system. While the filters do a good job, it does not eliminate all of the toxins created by the salmon. We monitor these toxins every day by conducting tests on the water. If the levels of nitrate and ammonia become too high, we know that it is time for a water exchange. The picture to the right shows the students learning the process.

The most recent project involves the utilization of PowerPoint software to design an animated food web. With this technology, students demonstrated knowledge of the effects that predators have on a food web. While displaying knowledge of the food web, students also acquired new technology skills, such as Custom Animation, Slide Transition and Action Buttons, along with the Importation and Manipulation of Graphics. The skills developed in this project will be beneficial in gaining advanced skills that will be essential in the highly competitive environment of the 21 st Century.

Three student projects have been uploaded here as examples of this step in our process. As for this project, students were able to select their own food web; they really seemed to enjoy this project.

Students used spreadsheet software to determine the number of salmon that will develop into smolt, which is the next stage in the salmon life cycle. The students recorded and graphed the number of eggs that did not survive to the Alevin stage. This process was then repeated as the salmon transitioned from Alevin to the Fry stage. Students then compared the graphs to identify if a pattern could be established. This allowed them to predict the number of salmon that would survive until their release in May. Many of the students predicted that ther will be about 80 salmon would make it to the river. Below is an example of their work.

Some of our 6th grade students chose to create a mural for the back of our salmon tank as their art project. The murals depict the salmon at various stages of their life cycle and incorporate elements of the habitat. The murals will be displayed near the school store so that they may be view and voted on by the student body. The mural that receives the most votes will be used as a background tank. The other two will be prominently displayed in the hallway.

Proper care of the salmon requires a lot of work on the students’ part. One of the most common tasks is to perform a water exchange. This process involves several steps that the students must do correctly in order to avoid stress on the fish. To help their peers learn how to do a water change, several students created a video that outlines each step in the process.

That's our motto. We have been struggling keeping up with the increasing levels of ammonia and nitrates in the salmon tank. Fish and the continuous breakdown of organic materials are continuiously generating toxic nitrogen containing materials in the aquarium. The tank has two "biological filtration" system that controls these toxins. If the "biological filtration" system is not working properly for extended periods of time, the fish will eventually die off. It is ideal to keep the levels at or around 0mg/l. Our daily testing is showing that these toxins are maintaining their levels above the ideal. Not good for the fish, not good for our learning environment. So what is the problem? Well, we tested the water that is going into the tank, and those levels are acceptable. So we feel that we are putting in healthy water. The next step is to have the students hypothesize what is happening and design an experiment to help figure out what is going on and save the fish. Make sure you stay tuned for the continuation of "Project Save the Fish."

On Thursday February 14^th, Mrs. Wagner’s 2^nd hour class had the opportunity to participate in a video conference with Mr. Morris’ students from Reeths-Puffer Intermediate School. During the conference, North Middle School students demonstrated water testing procedures and discussed our ongoing problems with the build up of ammonia and nitrate in the salmon tank. Students also had the opportunity to collaborate on issues such as the die off rate, tank maintenance and the release of the salmon in May. It is hope that the video conference will act as a springboard to initiate communication via email between the students at both schools.

During the school year, as students have cared for Chinook Salmon, they have observed that the health of a fish depends on the health of its environment. On May 23rd, our students released their young salmon to the Kalamazoo River at Merrill Park in Comstock, Michigan. In addition to releasing their fish, they took a stream walk and gathered data to assess the health of the stream environment, including looking for pollutant tolerant macro invertebrates. By observing first hand the features which will help the fish and those that will hinder them in a typical urban stream, they are better to able to understand the reality and complexity of environmental issues affecting our watersheds. Students also had the opportunity to try some salmon at the cooking station. Many students found out that they like salmon either as a filet or in a patty! Other tasks the students were involved in on this particular field trip were trying their hand at casting a line, drawing the fish habitat, and learning about predator/prey relationships through a game. Be sure to check out the pictures of the salmon release.

The staff and students at NMS would like to thank Superpetz for the generosity of their donations and discounts that helped to make the Salmon in the Classroom project possible. We would also like to acknowledge both Peter and John whose expertise has been invaluable to the survival of the salmon.