Trout in the Classroom, a national environmental education program of Arlington-based Trout Unlimited, has grown to 100 classrooms this school year. This represents a 54 percent increase over last school year and represents more than 15,000 students statewide.

The New River Valley TU chapter has witnessed an increased interest in the program. Last year, the chapter helped Floyd County High School initiate its first TIC program, which led to the raising and releasing of more than 100 brown trout fingerling into Burkes Fork, a coldwater stream in Floyd County. Another TIC program was already in place at the Christiansburg High School.

Four additional Montgomery County Public Schools have joined onto the program, as well as one Giles County school. Students at Christiansburg, Auburn and Shawsville middle schools as well as Belview Elementary School will raise trout from eggs in their classrooms. The Macy McClaugherty Middle School in Giles County also plans to raise the coldwater fish.

In the program, students work with local TU chapters to receive eggs in the fall, raise them in 55-gallon aquariums until they are 2- to 3-inch fingerling trout, and then release them in a coldwater stream in the spring. In the process, students learn about water quality, stream ecology, conservation ethics and biology.

With each TIC program having a start-up cost of about $1,200, new projects are supported by cooperative partnerships between TU chapters, schools, local businesses and foundations that often provide funding assistance, and the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, which supplies eggs, educational and technical support, and helps with the releases.

Teachers interested in establishing TIC projects at their schools can visit www.troutintheclassroom.org online or by contacting Angelo Biviano, NRVTU TIC Coordinator, at abiviano@vt.edu.

-- The Roanoke Times