Our students studied the five salmon species that are native to our region of the Puget Sound: Chinook, Chum, Coho, Sockeye, and Steelhead. We visited a local tribe's wood working shop and learned about traditions surrounding salmon and the importance they had historically for the tribe. We also partook in the Taylor Creek Restoration project, monitoring Salmon with our third and fifth graders over the course of a month. Making weekly trips to count types of living and dead salmon species found at the mouth and in the stream, we helped provide valuable data for the Lower Taylor Creek Restoration Project . Studying the life cycle, eating habits, the journey the salmon make through adulthood and their eventual return back home to spawn, fourth graders learned about the importance of not only the salmon, but about the need for sustaining their natural habitats and the importance of well kept streams. Without healthy stream systems, our salmon cannot procreate and successfully continue their life cycle. After our initial study of salmon in their wild habitat, we adopted our own salmon eggs. Keeping watch of the Ph, temperature and of ammonia level were just some of the challenges our classes faced while being the custodians of our little friends. This all culminated in the release of our surviving fry into the waters of Lake Washington in the Arboretum. Wishing our friends good luck with their journey, students were each able to release one of the small fish into the waters, hoping that they are able to make it through the entire life cycle and back to spawn into the waters they were released in.
Posted: 5/27/2014