Go Fish! SAE Visit #2

This week, I went fishing... okay, not really, but close enough!! On Tuesday, I went to a fish hatchery for an SAE visit, and it was definitely a fun one! I was especially excited to visit with this student and learn all about her SAE when I found out that she had an unpaid placement at a fish hatchery, because I have never been to one and don't know much about them either. I also found out that this hatchery is only 5ish minutes from where I am staying while student teaching!

When we go to this SAE visit, the student explain everything about what a fish hatchery is, why they have one, and what they do with the fish when they are large enough to send off. We came at a time where she had to feed all the fish, which was another great thing to learn about. I learned that this particular fish hatchery is run by a group of individuals who volunteer their time to raise, care, and release trout into rivers and streams in the area. 

While this is an unpaid placement, it comes with hours of hard work and dedication to keep the fish hatchery running efficiently. This student spends a few evenings after school feeding the fish and making sure that everything is running efficiently. The hatchery has three sections in it for the three different types of trout that they have at the hatchery. When we arrived, the student gave roughly a bucket-full of sport fish food in each section and we learned that someone comes in the morning to feed as well. She also dedicates many hours to maintenance, cleaning, and repairing the facilities to make sure that everything stays clean and is functioning. 

The student was really proud of her SAE, and it is also one of the most successful small hatcheries around the area. While the unpaid placement is mostly manual labor, she felt like she has really grown in her soft skills. She feels that because of her SAE, she is able to collaborate and work better with other invididuals, as there are often many volunteers for stocking fish and cleaning the hatchery, and she also feel that it taught her patience. There are many hours put into the fish hatchery where you often can't see all the hard work pay off right away. The student understand that patience is an area where she needed more grown and the process of raising fish to the point where they are large enough to stock it definitely a process that tests that area for her! As an officer for Pequea Valley's FFA, this student feels like her SAE has only bettered her as a leader and that the skills she has learned while working on her SAE will be useful for years to come. 

This is the tanks that the fish are transported in before they are released! The tank usually hold around 200 fish!

This SAE was really fun to be apart of and you could tell all the time and effort that was put into it. The student is great at keeping up with her SAE on AET, recording hours and putting in journal entries when needed. She has plans for trying to get more students involved at the fish hatchery and creating community events to get the public to visit and learn more about fish! SAE visits are incredible experiences because you get to see students show off what they are passionate about and spend a lot of time and effort doing, and the fish hatchery visit was no different!