MEd Graduate Tanya Thomas Leads Grade 8 Students in Fish Conservation Program

MEd graduate Tanya Thomas (2024; specialization Environmental & Sustainability Education; BEd, 2006) is a math and science learning leader and teacher in the Calgary Board of Education’s Arts Centred Learning at Willow Park School. She recently led her Grade 8 Science students in a five-month experiential learning and environment stewardship program where they nurtured rainbow trout from eggs to juvenile fish in a classroom aquarium—then released them at McLean Pond in Kananaskis Country.

Tanya explained that the program dovetailed with the Science curriculum’s Fresh and Saltwater Systems unit. By examining trout habitat requirements and assessing suitable environments, students developed an understanding of ecological principles in action. In addition to getting experience raising the fish, they learned about ecosystems and water bodies in the province.

The endeavor was featured on CTV News, as an example of one class participating in Alberta’s Fish in Schools Program. Every January, the program sends out eggs to approximately 95 schools across the province, and participating classes receive a fish research license that allows them to raise the trout and then release them into provincially approved water bodies.

Tanya (pictured below, with her class at McLean Pond), created a video documenting the fishes’ growth, from egg stage until five months old.