Thanks to a partnership with the national nonprofit Trout Unlimited, we have a 55-gallon freshwater aquarium in the back of the science room. The water is cooled by a refrigeration unit because trout like VERY cold water.
On November 18, we received 200 trout eggs, which were carefully lowered into the hatching pen in the tank. Over the coming weeks, our students observed their development and eventual hatching as baby trout on New Year's Day! Then it's a period of feeding and caring until we all head for a suitable stream to release the trout back into the wild.
This project is subsidized by the state of Connecticut.
UPDATE
On March 11, 2015, Courtney Blaucknecht, Connecticut Science Center representative and leader of the school's Science Lab and Science Program, determined that it was time to let the baby fish out of the baskinette and into the main tank, where they can develop into mature fish ready for release into the wild.