Submitted by Chuck Dinkel, Maryland Co-Coordinator for Trout in the Classroom
___________________________________________

During the 2010 - 2011 school year nine Frederick county schools participated in the Trout in the Classroom (TIC) program.  Over 1000 rainbow trout fingerlings were released into county streams by TIC students.  TIC systems for two of the schools, Thurmont Middle School and Gov. Thomas Johnson Middle School were funded by the Catoctin Forest alliance (CFA). 

Chuck Dinkel's grandson Daniel, 5th grade student at
Orchard Grove ES,measuring food for the trout fingerlings

During the current year Carroll Manor ES has chosen not to continue in TIC.  Their system has been moved to Tuscarora HS which is one of three additional schools that will join the program.  The other two schools are Middletown HS, and St John Regional Catholic School.  State-wide 45 schools will raise fish during the 2011-2012 school year.  In the past three years the numbers of TIC schools in Maryland has doubled.

In 2008, Governor Martin O’Malley appointed a taskforce charged with identifying opportunities to expand and improve environmental and outdoor education in Maryland schools.  What emerged from this group was the Maryland Plan for Children in Nature.

Students releasing trout in Owen's Creek at Roddy Road Covered Bridge May 2011

On June 21, 2011, the Maryland Board of Education unanimously decided that one of the key recommendations of the plan be implemented, a requirement that all high school students complete a course of study in environmental literacy before graduation.

Coupled with this is a desire by educators to ensure that all Maryland students have a curriculum-aligned Meaningful Outdoor Experience (MOE) at least once a year.  It is possible that a  percentage of the recent growth in the number of schools participating in TIC can be traced back to the 2008 plan calling for an increase in outdoor learning and the No Child Left Inside mandate. For example, just this summer one of the state’s TIC coordinators, Chuck Dinkel, received inquiries from three high school science teachers about the program.  At least two of these teachers plan to include TIC as part of their curriculum this year.  These will be the first two TIC high schools in Maryland.

Frederick County Teacher of the Year, Andrea Maruskin, 6th grade science teacher at Monocacy Middle School with the Trout in the Classroom quilt her class made.