Fifth graders from Gene Dillon Elementary School in Bemidji released around 100 trout into Clearwater River on Wednesday.

Students were each given a plastic clear cup with a rainbow trout inside and then released the fish out into the water. Each fifth grade classroom received rainbow trout eggs in November and have raised them all school year long. Students were able to see the trout go through different life stages.

“We gotta watch them grow in the tank and that’s usually not an experience you would have because you’d have to take field trips to go to the river, but then we had them in the tanks so that we could just watch them grow all over time,” Amelia said.

“We experienced them changing their coloration and their behavior,” Weiss said.

It was Gene Dillon Elementary School’s first year participating in the program, and they hope to expand next year to include their fourth graders. Steve Young, the Trout in the Classroom coordinator, said the project is left to the creativity of the teacher on how they incorporate it into their curriculum.

“They can combine this with all sorts of curriculum features. We’ve had teachers do art and writing and reading in addition to science and math and that kind of thing,” Young said.

By — Malaak Khattab

News Reporter