'What Better Way to Teach Children About Life?'

Just beyond the walking bridge in the Oak Grove Picnic Area of Great Hollow Lake, Fawn Hollow Elementary School third graders took turns releasing baby Brown Trout into the rushing water at the inlet to the Pequonnock River. Brenda Weir's class cared for 20 fish eggs right up until they hatched inside a tank, before letting them out into the wild Thursday morning.

Volunteers from the Nutmeg Chapter of Trout Unlimited maintained the tank with a chiller keeping the water at 45 to 50 degrees at all times. A filter with the bio material needed to introduce the appropriate bacteria was used, along with aerators forming oxygen-filled bubbles in the water.

Weir learned about a program in which a $500 Weller Excellence of Teaching Award is used for the equipment to raise the Brown Trout through friends involved with Trout Unlimited.

"It sounded so exciting," she said. "So I thought, 'Hmm, what better way to teach children about life, to appreciate the wonder of our world? They would never pollute, one would hope, after rearing trout."

The children raised the Brown Trout since Oct. 17, and Weir said the "runts" were about an inch long and the biggest fish measured around 2.5 inches.

The students wrote the grant application, used science to learn about Brown Trout and math while keeping a.m. and p.m. temperature readings of the water in the tank, according to Weir. The children also changed the water.

Gary Pannone of Monroe and fellow Trout Unlimited volunteer Gian Morresi helped students to scoop the fish out of a bucket of water and to release them into the stream. Weir stood in the water and took photos.

Raising the fish was no easy task, of the 200 eggs, only 20 hatched, according to Pannone. He said the Trout In the Classroom program (TIC) is done in schools nationwide and Morresi said Trout Unlimited assisted about seven schools in the area, as well as Beardsley Zoo. The eggs were delivered by the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection.

The purpose of Trout Unlimited is to preserve all cold water species and to "become river stewards and take care of what we have left," according to Pannone.

Children cheered as each fish was released into the water, and Fawn Hollow Principal Rebecca Kosisko also released a fish. Her school was the first in Monroe to participate in the TIC program.

"It's a wonderful experience for the school," she told First Selectman Steve Vavrek and other town officials gathered at a picnic held after the event.

"Mrs. Weir has brought an exceptional and unique learning experience to the whole school community, because she opened the room to teachers to bring their students to see the progress of the eggs in the tank, and sent emails to staff about the different stages," Kosisko said. "She just has a tremendous enthusiasm and passion for the Earth that she tries to extend to all of us.

"The children in her classroom benefit on a daily basis, but she makes sure to bring us all into the experience."