Monterey Bay Salmon & Trout Project

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Step Feb, 2010

Sunday, 28 February 2010 12:00 | Author: Hugh Miller |

Salmon & Trout Education Program (STEP) Workshop
At the National Marine Fisheries Santa Cruz Lab
“Thank-You!”

On behalf of the 22 teachers/educators attending our two-day Workshop, we thank the NMFS Fisheries Ecology Division for hosting this STEP event at their Santa Cruz Lab, February 20 and 21. All of the attendees, including our experienced STEP trainers, recognize that the Lab is an excellent location to learn about our important anadromous fish and the environment needed for these fish.

Reference Name/Location: NOAA SWFSC at University of California's Long Marine lab.

Also, NOAA staff members did an excellent job of extending the basic class materials by providing technical instructions, guidance and help to the teachers.

The two-day Workshop “certified” 22 new teachers, who now join our existing “cadre” of 108 STEP teachers, located in a six county area. We expect, in April, that our STEP teachers will each receive steelhead eggs from the MBSTP Restoration Hatchery so students can incubate the eggs and then release them into the San Lorenzo Watershed as required by the DFG and county permits.

Last Updated (Wednesday, 03 March 2010 18:50)

2009 December - In-STEP

Monday, 07 December 2009 01:00 | Author: Hugh Miller |

for School Year 2010

Our STEP Leadership Team and so many of our “certified” STEP teachers are looking forward to the many, usual STEP activities for the present 2009-2010 school year. In addition, we’ve been receiving many interested inquires from other teachers who wish to join our program. And, too, we have confirmation again that the National Marine Lab in Santa Cruz is anxious to support our program with their facilities for the 2010 STEP Workshop. It sure is heartening to see such continuing interest in our STEP program.

STEP

Sunday, 21 June 2009 12:20 | Author: Hugh Miller |

For detailed information about STEP, including Current Events information, Bulleting Board reports, Workshop/Seminar details, Egg Distribution and Newsletter reports, click on http://www.salmontrouteducationprogram.com/

Program Description

The Salmon and Trout Education Program (STEP) has been developed to provide students with a chance to learn "hands on" about salmon and steelhead and the habitats in which they live. The K-12 program uses a thematic firsthand approach, offering teachers the tools and the ideas for integrating math, science, language, arts, etc.

Students learn about salmon and steelhead life cycles, their habitat requirements and the problems and solutions to preserving these "indicator" species and the watersheds in which they live.Teachers who wish to learn and participate in teaching STEP are offered a two-day workshop, which provides cooperative learning, utilizing actual lessons from the curriculum material. Teachers interact and learn

Last Updated (Sunday, 28 February 2010 12:07)

2009 May - In STEP, Once Again!!

Friday, 01 May 2009 01:00 | Author: Hugh Miller |

It never fails…at this time of year, things with our STEP (Salmon & Trout Education Program) are both exciting as well as “pressure-packed.” Very shortly, we will be delivering steelhead eggs along with Fish and Game authorization forms, so that our certified STEP classes can begin their incubation programs. On one hand, the school kids are getting very excited, all in anticipation of the arrival of their authorized STEP eggs. We are well aware of their excitement, mostly because we’ve received a number of emails from STEP teachers telling about the excitement with their school children. Here’s one of many, many such emails, recently received…..

“Thank-you for the information Hugh. My class is so excited about the upcoming arrival of the eggs.” ~Bonnie Bailey

Last Updated (Tuesday, 23 March 2010 20:47)

2009 May - STEP Report, We did it!

Friday, 01 May 2009 01:00 | Author: Hugh Miller |

Yes, we did it. Despite many challenges this year, we are proud to say that our egg distributions to certified STEP classes went very well this year. It’s always been somewhat of a challenge, each year, to do the distributions, but, this year we were faced with more challenges than ever…..there were fewer spawners, thus presenting less schedule options, School Spring Break periods interfered more than ever, and the the eggs matured faster due to current temperature warm-up periods.

Many thanks go to Barry Burt for leading the Distribution efforts. And thanks to Carla Moss and Dave Strieg for coordinating things at the Hatchery. And, too, there were many helpful, experienced “distributing-folk” who were up early in the morning to get the eggs and to distribute them to a six county area. Unfortunately, there were a number of chiller problems.

We did manage to replace many of the faulty chillers, but not all, before the day of delivery. We regret that some of the classes could not participate because of these chiller problems. How many classes participated? We started with about 113 classes, but some had to drop out. There must have been over 100 classes at the time of delivery. When things settle down, we’ll get the accurate count.

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