Shad in the Classroom project takes a dive with East Duplin High

BEULAVILLE — The Shad in the Classroom project partners with the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, NC Wildlife Resources Commission and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to embark on an adventure in conservation science with students.

Classrooms gather to construct a tank and raise juvenile fish known as fry with biologists from fisheries. Students must monitor and study the water quality in the tank with microscopes and scientific methods to ensure a swimmingly wonderful learning experience.

East Duplin science teacher Jackie Smith helps run the Shad in the Classroom project and this is her second year working with the program.

“I am a science teacher here at East Duplin. I am also the advisor of the STEM Club here at our school. We try to enrich science, technology, engineering, mathematics, arts, and agriculture in our schools. So we do this project actually as a class project with our physical science and biology students. My co-teacher Daniel Huygens, his AP Environmental Science class was with us,” said Smith.

The project helps educate students from ninth to twelfth grade on the American Shad fish and their habitat. “Basically, we try to instill in our students conservation and awareness that they can be participants to help the environment.”

“What I’ve learned is the students really enjoy when they do hands-on activities, they were able to see the Shad from the egg stage all the way into the fry and release,” she said. Students could start with the fish from the egg stage to full development and release.

The program creates an atmosphere of experiential learning about food webs, river basins, water quality and fisheries management. Topics that supplement the subject range from traditional art of fish printing to determining fish parentage using genetics.

The students were really energetic to see the stages unfold in real life and others who were not a part of the program even stopped by to visit the fish since the project was filled with much excitement across the school. With the project wrapping up with the release of the American Shad, students took a field trip to the Cliffs of the Neuse State Park in Seven Springs to release into the river.

According to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, “the American Shad is a migratory fish that used to be prevalent in all river systems in North Carolina. The fish spawns in freshwaters and lives most of its life in the ocean. As you will learn, it is a very important part of the food web in North Carolina. And American Shad played a significant role in the survival of the indigenous people, and the first settlers to the New World.”

This grant-funded program is available to educators at public and public charter schools. Please contact Danielle Pender (danielle.pender@naturalsciences.org) if you are interested in applying to be part of this program.