Trout in the Classroom produces Science Quilt

In the spring of 2021, the Corry Area Intermediate School (CAIS) fourth grade Science classes of Mrs. Drayer and Mrs. Albers participated in a program called Trout in the Classroom. Working with the PA Fish and Boat Commission, the program enabled both classes to raise and release 176 rainbow trout into our local watershed! The teachers and students decided to take it a step further and participate in a quilt square project that connected classes throughout the country. In order to participate, they read the book Trout Are Made of Trees, by April Pulley Sayre, and then talked about how everything in an environment is important, no matter how small it may seem. The students also discussed how everything in an environment is connected, even if at first it doesn’t seem like it is. After reading the book, the students had to choose a part of the book that they could recreate on a quilt square. Twenty-five squares were then sent to other participating schools that were located as far away as Alaska, Colorado and Utah. Accompanying the quilt squares was a letter describing their experience raising the trout in the classroom. Students had to describe the watershed that the fish were released into as well. When the school received all of the squares, they shared letters with the classes and created a quilt of the received squares from other schools. With all the squares sent to CAIS, Mrs. Albers’ mom, who loves to make quilts, assembled them for both classes. This was a great experience that connected many areas of the curriculum such as geography, science and ELA.

**CAIS’s participation in the Trout in the Classroom program was made possible through a partnership between the PA Fish and Boat Commission and the Pennsylvania Council of Trout Unlimited.