We have exciting news! Starting in 2022, CalTrout will be a sponsoring organization of CDFW’s Classroom Aquarium Education Program, also known as Trout in the Classroom. 

This experiential program brings trout eggs into elementary school classrooms across California. Over the course of 6 weeks, students learn about the trout life cycle while watching the trout eggs hatch and tending to the tiny trout fry. At the end of the program, students go out into the field and release the trout fry into a CDFW-designated waterway. 

This announcement is to not only generate excitement about the educational work CalTrout is supporting in the Bay Area, but also to tell you about the amazing opportunity to become a classroom volunteer for this program!

We’re looking for quality “coaches”, i.e., volunteers who are assigned to be the primary support for a classroom during the 6-12 week unit. Coaches are inclined to operate with the idea that teachers can best teach if other logistical needs of this unit are met. As such, coaches support the program by: setting up the aquarium in the classroom before the unit, picking up and bringing the trout eggs to the classroom, attending the field release day, and other support as needed. Coaches are required to attend a full-day virtual training workshop on either Jan. 8, Jan. 22, or Jan. 29, 2022. The unit runs (approximately) from the end of February through April. 

As a sponsoring organization of this program, CalTrout would like to recruit 10 volunteers from our member base throughout the Bay Area who will go on to become one of the coaches that this program needs to succeed this year. CalTrout will be the direct contact for the coaches in our network; we will connect you with the training, assign you a teacher and classroom, and give you all the other information you will need in addition to providing support throughout the length of the unit. We need to fill these spots ASAP as the unit starts in February, so let’s get to it! For a more in-depth look at the program, watch this video that our friends at the North Bay Trout Unlimited member chapter created. 

If you’re interested in becoming a coach, click button below and fill out a form.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact CalTrout’s Outreach and Education Coordinator, Molly Ancel, at mancel@caltrout.org.
 
Thank you for your consideration in contributing your time as a volunteer coach for Trout in the Classroom!

Cover photo by Chris Bradley.