Trout in the Classroom

So, Miss Coffey's class is housing Trout in the Classroom: a program offered by the Floating Classroom.  We have been observing their growth for a past few months.  We haven't gotten to get in there to see that as often as we'd like to, but today we got up close and personal!  We broke in to groups and were able to introduce live food to baby trout for the first time.  We learned about the anatomy of these little creatures called Daphnia.  Daphnia, or water fleas, are found in Cayuga lake and they are a natural food for trout.  They feed from the algae in the lake and that starts the food chain.  

Each group got a beaker with a trout inside.  We made hypothesis, or guesses about what we thought the trout would do once we introduced the Daphnia to the beaker.  Many of us thought the trout would scarf done all of the Daphnia.  The trout went a little cuckoo when we put them in and many were eaten.  We timed the trout to see how many Daphnia they ate in 4 minutes and we tested out hypothesis.  It was very cool!!