Trio of Terrapins Teach Triadelphia Ridge Students

June 25th, 2012 by Carol

Triadelphia students learned about terrapin research and monitoring programs first-hand.

After wading through a small stretch of wetland, students prepared to release their terrapins.

Students each whispered a wish or a worry for their terrapins to carry with them upon their release.

A fun school year project may have been wrapped-up when students released their terrapins, but the stewardship ethics they learned and the passion for the Chesapeake Bay they acquired is something students will carry with them.

Triadelphia Ridge Elementary School fourth grade students spent an exciting and motivating school year learning about and caring for baby Diamondback Terrapins.  The terrapins named Ledo, Waffles, and Pebbles were located in a large aquarium in my Gifted and Talented classroom. They were on loan from the Terrapin Institute located in Neavitt, Maryland, as part of their Head-Start program.

The goal of the program is for the terrapins to spend the first 9 – 12 months of their lives eating and growing until they are large enough to increase their chance of surviving in the wild.  This program was a natural extension for the Triadelphia Ridge fourth grade students who had just completed a unit that focused on the conservation and stewardship of the Chesapeake Bay. The children were amazed to learn that the diamondback terrapin is believed to be the only turtle in the world that lives exclusively in brackish water. Throughout the year the children participated in feeding, weighing and measuring the baby Terrapins.  Students enjoyed learning about Terrapin biology, diet, behavior, and most importantly threats to Terrapins in the Chesapeake Bay. These threats included loss of habitat, pollution, and frequent drowning in crab traps.  The fourth grade students learned that installing a bycatch reduction device to crab pots is an effective way to reduce drowning of terrapins.

The program allowed for the students to experience a meaningful real-life connection to the Bay and will without a doubt positively affect the choices that the children make as they live and grow up in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.  It is amazing how three little terrapins can light a fire of conservation and stewardship in a child.  The students understand that terrapin health, as well as the health of all living things in Bay is directly impacted by the health of the Bay waters.

On a sunny Saturday morning in early June, Triadelphia Ridge Families journeyed to the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum to release the Terrapins into the Bay. Jeff Popp from the Terrapin Institute tagged the Terrapins and coordinated the release.  The students gently placed the baby Terrapins into the water and watched them swim out to a bright and promising future.  The baby Terrapins carried with them a wish and a worry that each student whispered as they were released. The students were proud of how large their terrapins had grown but most importantly they have a new awareness of why and how they should and can make a difference in the health and well being of our local treasure, The Chesapeake Bay. This was truly a memorable experience for the students and staff of Triadelphia Ridge Elementary School.

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Carol Brzezinski is a gifted and talented resource teacher at Triadelphia Ridge Elementary School

Raising Horseshoe Crabs in My Classroom

March 19th, 2012 by Eric Jayne

In Tank 1, Sandy the Horseshoe crab searches for food.

Horseshoe crabs, as a species, have lived for over 500 million years!  I often remind myself of that fact while observing the months-old horseshoe crabs my students and I are raising in our classroom.  Each school day, we’re able to witness a living fossil, and we’re helping insure that future generations can, too.

Several years ago, I was looking to offer more hands-on learning experiences to my fifth-grade science students.  Our school is a short distance away from the Chesapeake Bay, but we do very little to experience and learn from this tremendous resource.  In the course of researching possible field trips, I discovered that the Maryland Department of Natural Resources (D.N.R.) had a program allowing teachers to raise horseshoe crabs in their classrooms. At the time, I didn’t know much about horseshoe crabs, other than that I would occasionally see their awkward-looking shells on the beach.  However, raising an animal from the Bay was the type of hands-on experience I was looking to provide my students with, so I signed up.  Three years and over 60 successfully-raised crabs later, I am extremely grateful and proud to be part of a program that allows my students and me to learn about and protect this valuable natural resource.

Atlantic horseshoe crabs come ashore in late spring to spawn on Atlantic coast beaches, including those within the Chesapeake Bay.  During this time, female horseshoe crabs lay thousands of eggs.  The Maryland D.N.R. collects some of these eggs and distributes several hundred of them to each participant of its Horseshoe Crabs in the Classroom program.  Participants attempt to raise the eggs into healthy juvenile horseshoe crabs that can be released back into the waters of the Bay the following spring.

Each year, for the past three years, I’ve collected eggs from the D.N.R. and brought them to tanks in my classroom.  I monitor the crabs throughout the summer as they hatch, test their water quality, and feed them.  By the time students arrive in September, juvenile horseshoe crabs are “swimming” throughout the tanks.  A colleague of mine, Chris Brown, and I meet with students once a week during recess throughout the school year to learn about horseshoe crabs and to test the water quality of the tanks.  Using guest speakers, hands-on demonstrations, and research, students learn about the history, habitat, anatomy, challenges, benefits, and life cycle of horseshoe crabs.  They learn that horseshoe crabs help save human lives and that other species depend on them for survival, as well.  The learning experience culminates with the exciting release of the raised crabs back into the Chesapeake Bay each May during a D.N.R. sponsored release event.

We have horseshoe crabs throughout four tanks in our school.  Tank 1 contains three crabs from my first year (2009) with the program.  We didn’t release these crabs that year because they were very small compared to their siblings, two of them were missing tails, and one of them was even missing some legs.  However, after numerous molts, or shedding of their shells, the crabs have all of their legs and tails accounted for.  The largest of these crabs, or Sandy, as my students call it, measures about five inches from front to tail tip.  Tanks 2 and 3 contain several juvenile crabs that hatched last summer.  These “baby” crabs are no bigger than the end of an eraser on a pencil.  Tank 4 contains eighteen crabs that hatched in the summer of 2010, and they range in size from the diameter of a dime to the diameter of a fifty-cent piece.  Most of these crabs will be put back into the Chesapeake Bay this May to join the twenty-nine other horseshoe crabs that we’ve already released.

I’ve gained a lot from raising horseshoe crabs in my classroom, including learning to appreciate and respect them.  Of course, I’ve learned how to care for them, but they don’t really need much from me.  After all, they’ve been at this for longer than people have.  Most of my time is spent enjoying them and admiring how unique they are.  I enjoy the way that the three-year old crabs come out to “greet” me when I turn the lights on each morning.  I like watching them make patterns in the sand, including flattening out areas that I’ve disturbed.  I’m fascinated at how two of the three-year-olds re-grew legs and tails, but most of all, I’m in awe that a creature can be so simple and yet so amazing.

Additional Resources:

A Pointers Run Elementary School student holds a juvenile horseshoe crab on the day of its release back into the wild in May, 2011.

  • Additional information about my school’s program can be found at our website.
  • Information on the Maryland D.N.R. Raising Horseshoe Crabs in the Classroom program is available here.
  • A great Nature video clip from “Crash: A Tale of Two Species” about the plight of the horseshoe crab and a little bird called the red knot is available here.
  • A free teachers guide to accompany the “Crash: A Tale of Two Species” video is available here.
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Eric Jayne is a 5th grade teacher at Pointers Run Elementary School in Maryland.

Trout in Triadelphia Classrooms

March 7th, 2011 by Carol

Can you find the trout eyes on the eggs? Look for the small, black dots.

Newly hatched trout live in a "nursery" hatching basket.

The eggs have arrived and the Trout Patrol has sprung into action at Triadelphia Ridge Elementary School in Howard County, Maryland.  Trout in the Classroom is an exciting example of how environmental literacy and stewardship can be incorporated into a classroom setting.  In Maryland, the Potomac-Patuxent Chapter of Trout Unlimited and DNR sponsor the program.

At Triadelphia Ridge Elementary School, fourth grade children volunteer to participate in the Trout Patrol and to work under my guidance to raise the trout through a series of hands-on activities.  These activities include testing water quality, feeding, and measuring trout growth and development. In addition, children research and learn about the trout life cycle and how trout are great indicators of water pollution levels.  Learning also revolves around topics such as the local watershed, ecosystems, preservation and the enhancement of natural resources, and protection of the environment.

A week after receiving the eggs, the Triadelphia Ridge Trout Patrol students eagerly observed the hatching of the trout eggs into alevin, newly hatched fish still attached to the egg sac, and are excited to watch the continued growth and development as they evolve into fry and fingerlings.  In the springtime, the students will attend a field trip to release the trout into a local stream.

Although the Trout in the Classroom Program involves some specialized equipment, many teachers, including myself, acquire a grant to fund the purchases.  I applied and received a wonderful grant from the NEA Green Across America Grant Program sponsored by Target.  Trout in the Classroom provides plenty of support and guidance to new teachers, such as myself in tank set-up and in ways to work with children in the classroom to make the program a worthwhile and meaningful environmental experience.  Go Fish!

Are you interested in starting a trout in the classroom program?  Check out the Trout in the Classroom program in your state!

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Carol Brzezinski is a gifted and talented resource teacher at Triadelphia Ridge Elementary School

North Branch School Releases its Catch

July 1st, 2010 by Kris
Students measure fingerlings as part of the observation and documentation of the growth and changes in the trout.

Students measure fingerlings as part of the observation and documentation of the growth and changes in the trout.

Trout in the chilled tank. The North Branch students placed the eggs in the tank in October 2009 and cared for and studied them until their release in late April 2010. The chilling unit was purchased through a grant from the Dominion.

North Branch students placed the eggs in the chill tank in October 2009 and cared for and studied them until their release in late April 2010. The chilling unit was purchased through a grant from the Dominion.

Two North Branch students released some of their 118 trout into the the South Fork of the Piney River.

Two North Branch students released some of their 118 trout into the the South Fork of the Piney River.

Located in Virginia just south of Afton Mountain on the eastern slope of the Blue Ridge, the North Branch School considers experiential education a major part of its guiding philosophy.

One of the school’s current endeavors is providing a Meaningful Watershed Educational Experience (MWEE) for students in grades 5-8.  To accomplish this goal they selected the Trout in the Classroom Program as their focus.

During the school year, 40 fifth through eighth graders were actively involved in all aspects of raising the trout, from assembling the tank last fall, to the day of the release in South Fork of the Piney River (part of the James River Watershed) this past April.

The year long study was launched with students examining the geography of the local watershed.  They learned to read topographic maps by tracing the major waterways in Virginia.

Then they studied water quality parameters by monitoring both their classroom trout tank and a local stream in the field by using the Virginia Save Our Streams protocol.

North Branch’s remaining 70 kindergarten through fourth grade students also participated in the project though regularly visits to the trout tank to sketch the trout in various stages of the life cycle.  Younger students conducted demonstrations and experiments and record data with the older students.

It is science teacher Maggie Buchanan’s hope that the MWEE project will increase the students’ understanding of what it takes to keep the local watershed healthy and thriving. Support for the project was provided by Dominion Power and several local natural resource agencies.

Additional Resources:
Trout in the Classroom – Trout Unlimited
North Branch School Website
Fish Related Teaching Resources – Bay Backpack

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Kris Jarvis works at the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s Office of Environmental Education.