Christopher’s Big Idea: Christopher leveraged his school’s “Trout in the Classroom” program, in which students released trout hatchlings into local streams, and engaged his students in a longitudinal, hands-on, data-driven study of the local watershed. Students used temperature, light, and g-force data from data loggers placed at various locations, in combination with invertebrate collections and water chemistry samples. Then they developed a model representing how light, depth, substrate, and stream width impact the microhabitats within a small stream. Together, this data helped students identify the ideal spot to release brook trout hatchlings in the spring.
Interesting Facts: Christopher has participated in professional development at the Waquoit Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve in Massachusetts for more than 10 years. There he has gained new information and ideas to bring back to the classroom on topics such as water quality and wastewater; weather and climate change; coastal biology; and nitrogen cycle/pollution.