Under the instruction of Ethan Heifetz, these third and fourth graders are learning hands-on lessons about raising fish, their habitats, and environmental and economical issues affecting their livelihood.

Lafayette Principal Jim Sanders called the program "unbelievable" because the children follow the lives of the fish from eggs to release. "This is hands-on science for the kids. They're using language arts and mathematics- even keeping a journal from start to finish," Sanders said. "This is the way school should be taught."

Heifetz is working with fellow Lafayette teacher, Lisa Bethune, on the project. The children hatch the fish eggs, monitor their lives and take care of them until they are released into the wild. The children are given pre-training in the classroom before the eggs are brought in, Sanders said. They also went on a field trip to the Mad River Hatchery to watch steelhead spawn.

Jan Duncan-Vaughn, education coordinator for the Humboldt Fish Action Council, coordinates the egg exchange. She encourages the students to raise chinook rather than steelhead because chinook are generally less aggressive and "more mellow," she said.

The 25 eggs the class used were supplied by the council's small-scale hatchery on Feb. 2. The "mom" was an 87 cm-long chinook with 4,193 eggs.

"The program has tremendous benefits for a relatively low set-up cost," Vaughn said. "I want the children to learn how to look below the surface. I want them to see more than just water when they're walking by; to have an understanding of what that river is and to raise their appreciation of watersheds.

"The kids take this knowledge home. It's throwing the pebble into the pool and watching the ripple effect," she said.

The students use a mathematical equation and thermal units to determine exactly when their eggs will hatch. A thermal unit is equivalent to I degree above the freezing of water. For example, if the water temperature were maintained at 50 degrees, 50 minus 32 would yield 18 thermal units.

The fish require a certain number of thermal units to hatch, and by determining how many have accumulated, the students can figure out how many are still needed- hence, when the eggs will hatch. This method is so accurate that the hatching window can be narrowed down to almost the exact time, give or take a day.

Ten-year-old Tyler Woodard said he had the most fun with the eggs. "I got to put the eggs into the container before we put them in the tank. It was fun, but they were really slimy," he said.

Through AmeriCorps Watershed Stewards Project, the students also receive training by volunteers. "They come in and do workshops and lessons with the kids," Heifetz said. "It helps take the mystery out of it and helps the teachers. The students are getting a different perspective through different activities and the kids love it. It also provides other role models for the children."

The students said they like what they're doing in class. "We're learning about fish and helping them out by hatching the eggs," said nine-year-old Meeka Coleman. "We're doing it to help the salmon population."

Nine-year-old Stefan Edwards said the project was "really neat." "I really liked learning about the fish and helping them when they hatch. They need food and care," he said.

The children learn about determining factors of fish populations, such as habitat and pollution. Eight-year-old Lizzie Pate said it's very important to keep streams and rivers clean.

"All the little streams flow into the bay and the ocean. We need to keep them clean because that's where fish live," she said. "There's another thing we can do- stop logging and putting silt in the water."

The students in this class are more than enthusiastic about this style of learning. One student commented that the reason he liked it best was because it wasn't out of a book. In addition to learning about the life cycle of chinook salmon, the students make Gyotaku fish prints, "map" a giant salmon, and perform dissections on rockfish, "enhancing their knowledge of internal and external anatomy," Heifetz said.

The fish prints are made using the rockfish as well, and the children paint them and wrap the fish in paper to make a print. The eyes of the fish need to be removed to create the negative space needed for the print. Once the print is made the kids touch them up by adding the eyes.

Mapping the fish was nine-year-old Thomas Bremer's favorite part of the program. "It took a long time, but it was a lot of fun. I worked on the mid-lateral section and some other stuff," he said. "All of the sections are different. Some did more than one."

A picture of a salmon was cut into 1-inch sections and each student was given a section. The students' job is to expand their portion of the image into a 1-foot-by-1-foot section to be put into the final project.

This lends a lot of creativity to the students, Heifetz said, because a different individual gives it unique qualities to be represented in each section. The end result is a 40-square-foot, 18-student compilation of an adult chinook salmon.

Although he has been doing it for 13 years, this is the third year Heifetz has done the program at Lafayette. "It makes a huge impact on the kids- a lifelong effect," Heifetz said. "Teachers aren't as creative because of the importance of testing regulations and standards for the students. Newer teachers are more apprehensive about doing things."

Heifetz said the school readily accepted the program. "Many teachers have done it," he said. "You don't need experts to run it. It must tie in with the curriculum appropriately. For example, what grade level are you trying to reach with the activities you're doing?"

Heifetz received a grant from the American Fisheries Society that was used to purchase a new "chiller unit" and a microscope system that runs through the television and VCR. A "chiller unit" is a refrigerating unit made for fish tanks to maintain constant temperatures. They run about $650 each and make the hatching cycle more consistent.

The fish tank can be kept at 50 degrees, the best temperature for the salmon to hatch and grow consistently. The release date is scheduled for May 10th at Freshwater Park. This batch of fish is the largest and the strongest, Heifetz said.

Although the success rate of hatching eggs is between 90 and 95 percent, the survival rate once released is much lower. The students however, had 100 percent success when hatching eggs. They are also well aware of the harsh reality facing these fish, Heifetz said, but it doesn't deter them. Instead, it motivates them to understand why it's so important to take care of our resources. Nine-year-old Rachel Boehm, wants to practice what she learned. "We should make it a family tradition to go to the river and clean up trash. That way we could be making rivers fresher, not dirtier," she said.

This attitude is what can make change, Heifetz said. "Those kids are our future voters. To understand the environment and how it works can help these kids make good, responsible decisions in life."