Environmental Science Catches On, Thanks to Arconic (formerly Alcoa) Foundation Grant Award

“Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” -Chinese Proverb.

This past fall, 24 middle school youth had the opportunity to participate in On the Road Collaborative’s Environmental Science “Fishing is Fun!” Career Enrichment Project. Thanks to the generous support of the Arconic Foundation and the United Way of Harrisonburg Rockingham, students from both the On the Road and Second Home programs learned a lifetime skill: fishing!

Our budding scientists also learned how to assess the quality of water by taking chemical tests, turbidity tests, and macroinvertebrates (BUGS)!

On our trip to the Rose River in Syria, VA, students put their knowledge to the test. They wore waders and did stream tests: chemical test, turbidity tube, and macroinvertebrates. After our science assessment, we took the rest of the day to catch fish at Graves Mountain Trout Pond. Each student caught their limit of three rainbow trout and even took them home to eat!

One student, Donte, shared: “I learned how to put a bobber on, a snap swivel. I learned how to cast out and reel in. I learned how to put line on the reel so I can take off old line and put new line on. My favorite part was the fishing trip because somebody very special helped me catch the first fish of my life. And they had some BIG trout there.”