Game and Parks Receives Grant for Trout in the Classroom

LINCOLN – The Nebraska Game and Parks Commission will receive $34,940 from the Nebraska Environmental Trust for the Trout in the Classroom project.

Trout in the Classroom is an environmental education program that allows students to learn about aquatic resources within a framework of hatching and raising rainbow trout.

Nebraska’s Trout in the Classroom program began in 2013 with three pilot schools and has expanded to 92 schools with the assistance of Trust funding. Schools set up a cool-water tank in which they raise trout from egg to fingerlings over a semester.

Students monitor growth as their trout hatch and develop, and they take ownership of caring for their trout.

Throughout the program, students participate in activities that cover topics like aquatic habitat, water quality, ecosystem interactions, food webs, life cycles and Nebraska fish species. Nebraska’s Trout in the Classroom curriculum has interdisciplinary applications in science, social studies, mathematics, language arts, fine arts and physical education.

The curriculum targets fourth- and fifth-grade learning objectives, but is being utilized in second grade through high school classes. With a second Trust grant, the program funded a staff assistant to help coordinate the program.

“This grant is essential to the continued growth of, and meeting demand for, this popular aquatic education curriculum program,” said Lindsay Rogers, wildlife education program manager for Game and Parks.

The Nebraska Legislature created the Nebraska Environmental Trust in 1992. Using revenue from the Nebraska Lottery, the Trust has provided over $305 million in grants to over 2,200 projects across the state.

Anyone – citizens, organizations, communities, farmers and businesses – can apply for funding to protect habitat, improve water quality and establish recycling programs in Nebraska. The Trust works to preserve, protect and restore our natural resources for future generations.