World Salmon Council had the opportunity to participate in this year’s Children’s Clean Water Festival, a day-long environmental education event for 4th and 5th graders from around the Portland metro region.
Hosted at the University of Portland by a coalition of partners, the festival involves over 1,400 students in water-focused presentations and activities that reinforce STEM and Next Generation Science Standards.
We partnered with the Native Fish Society to involve 5 different classes in “The Salmon Game of Life”, an activity that required each student to attempt to complete a full salmon life-cycle from egg to the journey out to sea, and eventually the return home to spawn.
Click on the title to read more!
The game perhaps too realistically demonstrated just how few salmon return back to their spawning grounds – kids were frustratedly comparing their various mortalities when eventually very few salmon/kids completed the full life-cycle journey.
Check out a video of the madness (and appreciate how teachers “enjoy” this energy every day):
Throughout the sessions, kids learned about concepts of water quality parameters for salmon at different life stages, the role of riparian zones, and how humans affect salmon and watershed health. As they reflected on their role-playing experience as salmon, the students were able to describe many of the obstacles that the fish encounter throughout their lives.
One thing was abundantly clear: when asked whether or not the kids would like to be salmon in real life, the answer was an overwhelming “NO!”. But the answer to whether they want to help protect salmon and their habitat, the answer was a hearty “YES!”.
A big thank you to Native Fish Society for inviting us to join with them for this educational day of fun!
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