Big Creek Elementary kids receive hands-on biology lesson through fish

FRESNO COUNTY (KFSN) -- Students in Beth Kilcrease's multi-grade classroom are learning the life cycle of fish in a unique way.

Big Creek Elementary has partnered with Shaver Lake Trophy Trout to allow students the opportunity to help raise trout while experiencing the various stages between birth and adulthood.

"They're right now in the Alvin Stage, so they're very small fish," Kilcrease explained. "They have their yolk sacs still attached and that's where they get their food and they do that for about two weeks and then they drop the yolk sac and that's when they need to be fed."

On Friday, students clamored to get a glimpse of the little guys but the tiny trout seemed to be camera shy, buy 4th grader Allie Taylor has a theory.

"They're probably hiding in the rocks somewhere," she exclaimed. "Playing hide and go seek or something."

The school received 60 eggs four weeks ago, and over the next month students will continue to monitor the tank's water quality and learn to appreciate the development of trout.

It's a lesson 7th grader Derek Ramirez says he's enjoying.

"I originally thought you could just pick them up and feed them and stuff," he said. "But I didn't know you have to put them in a dark environment with a certain amount of temperature and water. I just thought you just put them in the tank and feed them."

The trout will eventually grow much larger. It's an eight-week process that will take the fish from egg to the point where they are capable of feeding themselves.

The class project will take the students from Big Creek Elementary to Shaver Lake so they can release the trout into the late in early April.