Mrs. Ernst with her “pre kindergarten” class that also made the trip to Jordan River NFH

On May 20th, 125 Kindergarten students (plus chaperones and teachers) from the South Maple Elementary School in Gaylord, Mich. toured the hatchery.  There were five classes of 25 students and the teachers.  Each group visited a different station for twenty minutes before moving on to the next station.  In the visitor center, the kindergarteners learned about sea lampreys and other invasive species, our brood stations, and our offshore stocking vessel.  In the tank room they viewed the youngest fish on station the “baby lake trout”, saw what we feed them, and learned about the daily work involved with raising them.  Out on the raceways, the students saw fish at release size (six to seven inches total length), learned about our feed truck, raceway cleaning practices, and they got to see how we use our fish pump to load fish distribution trucks.  Perhaps “the most popular” station was staffed by Project Leader Roger Gordon. His station was at the end of the line, where our water gets treated for discharge. So the kids got to talk about … you guessed it, fish poop!  Lastly, the students got a chance to have a snack of goldfish crackers, pretzels, and lemonade (donated by the Smigielski kids) while they colored pictures of lake trout.  This is the third year in a row that the kindergarten teachers have chosen the Jordan River NFH for their final spring field trip.  They plan on doing it again in 2008.