Christopher’s Big Idea: Christopher will leverage his school’s “Trout in the Classroom” program, in which students release trout hatchlings into local streams, by engaging his students in a longitudinal, hands-on, data-driven study of the local watershed. Students will use temperature, light, and g-force data from data loggers placed at various locations, in combination with invertebrate collections and water chemistry samples. Then they will develop a model representing how light, depth, substrate, and stream width impact the microhabitats within a small stream. Together these data will help 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.