Students get hooked on class assignment

ROSEVILLE — There is something fishy going on inside Christopher Kawiecki’s fifth grade classroom at Green Elementary School in Roseville Community Schools.

Kawiecki’s class was selected by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources as one of 40 recipients of the Salmon in the Classroom grant. This year, the students are taking care of Chinook salmon in an aquarium inside the classroom. In May, they will release the fish at Lake St. Clair Metropark in Harrison Township.

“Hopefully, they’ll make it out to the big lake and come back to spawn and start the process all over again,” Kawiecki said.

Kawiecki is an avid outdoorsman who likes to fish.

“When I came across this, I thought what a cool thing to get our students connected to it,” he said. “When you apply, the program is free. You have to supply the aquarium and all the supplies with it.”

Therefore, the school held fundraisers to raise $2,700 to pay for the fish tank, filter, food and other necessary items. In November, the DNR gave Kawiecki and his students 150 salmon eggs.

While they lost about 25 of them, the remaining eggs hatched and the fish are now about 2 inches in length. By the time they are ready for release, the salmon will be 4-5 inches in length. Until that time, the students are responsible for caring for the fish, watching them hatch, feeding them and testing the water quality.

The students also do book work that the DNR provided. They are learning about the life cycle of fish while at the same time using mathematics, social studies, English and science in their studies. On Feb. 7, for example, they completed an assignment called the “salmon timeline shuffle” in which they cut out pictures of the different stages of fish growth and created a timeline of their life cycle.

At different points during the morning, the students in small groups and with Kawiecki’s assistance checked the aquarium’s water quality. They determined the pH balance, temperature, alkalinity and more. Kawiecki charts the water quality and gives regular reports to the state’s DNR.

“I think they love it,” Kawiecki said of his students. “They are excited for the release day.”

Every student will have the chance to release one salmon into the lake.

“It’s going to be fun except I don’t want to touch the fish,” said Mariyah Harris, who added that when the eggs were delivered, “They looked like little, tiny pearls.”

Touching fish is no big deal for Stephion Trudell. He fishes all the time with his dad, uncle and cousin. Riverside Park in Grand Rapids is a favorite spot.

“Sometimes on a boat and sometimes onshore,” he said. “You have to have a shiny hook. It shines in the water. Sometimes we eat the fish. I’ve never had a fish in my classroom.”

Olivia Lee also goes fishing quite often with her family, primarily with her dad.

“He taught me how to catch fish,” she said. “We have some big nets and some small nets.”

And when they get some bites, “We throw them back in the water,” Lee said. “My dad said he doesn’t want to hurt them.”

She is looking forward to releasing the salmon this spring.

“I think they will swim away as soon as they are in the water,” she said.