North East kids super stocked for trout season

Dozens of K-5 pupils in the North East School District, who grew trout from eggs in their classrooms this year, will release some 1,500 fish into Lake Pleasant on Thursday and Friday. At the same time, the students will perform a variety of community activities as part of “STEM, Stocking, and Service Days.” 

Complementary components happening in Gibson Park, Heard Park, and the grounds of the North East School District include STEM-related activities, booths, a scavenger hunt, and planting pollinator gardens.

The events culminate a year of successful projects achieved through Mercyhurst University’s new after-school STEM & Vine program. Funded by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, the initiative aims to teach STEM concepts to North East children by drawing on applications found within North East agriculture, industry, and ecosystem.

As part of the five-month trout raising project, organized through the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s Trout in the Classroom (TIC) initiative, children received over 1,500 rainbow trout eggs and reared them across 10 tanks while also learning about fish life cycles, bioindicator species, water quality, conservation, ecosystems, and fishing as a recreational activity.

Looking to their own backyards for inspiration, Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math took on a whole new reality for the children, noted program director and Mercyhurst Education Department Chair Dr. Amy Burniston.

During the year, children also examined soil composition, extracted grape DNA and determined local grape lineage, grew food from seed through hydroponics, propagated grape vine using old and new technology, and preserved their crops through traditional canning methods. Coding and robotics units highlighted local industry and the ingenuity of modern farm equipment.

“Despite our best efforts, the U.S. continues to lag behind other aspirant nations in our students’ acquisition of STEM skills,” Burniston noted. “Research indicates that unless grounded in the students’ current knowledge base, STEM activities, at best, fail to be of value and, at worst, paint unrealistic pictures of how STEM is applied in the real world.”

She said Mercyhurst focused on North East because it is rich in STEM applications but underserved in opportunities for STEM education to impact workforce development and regional innovation, a criteria for the two-year, $500,000 “advancing grant” awarded by PDE.

One of the strengths of the STEM & Vine program lies in the partnerships Mercyhurst has created with the North East community, schools, and businesses. Those rendering support during STEM, Stocking, and Service Days include the North East Community Foundation, Fuller Hose Co. Water Rescue Team, the Northwestern Chapter of PAtrout Unlimited, Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, Wabtec, Port Erie Plastics, North East in Bloom, Erie County Conservation District, Mercyhurst Department of Applied Forensic Sciences, Sons of Lake Erie, Crescent Hose Co., North East Police Department, Burch Farms, North East Borough, and North East Township.

This is the third initiative in the Mercyhurst Department of Education’s ongoing efforts to enhance the academic and physical wellness of hundreds of Erie County children, which amounts to a total PDE infusion of $5.5 million over multiple years. The other two programs are the Carpe Diem Academy in Erie city schools and the Mercyhurst Early Learning Innovation Academy (MELIA) in the Northwestern School District.