Kids standing in Rock Creek dipping test tubes around

BOURBONNAIS, Ill.--Marvin Strauch said, "Plan is to have the kids get wet," as he clumped around Monday in waders by Rock Creek. He set up D-nets, metal rulers and storage bins before the yellow school bus poured out eighth grade students from Grissom Middle School in Tinley Park for the field trip part of Trout In The Classroom (TIC).

Getting wet was accomplished.

As Strauch, education chair for the Oak Brook chapter of Trout Unlimited, readied for volunteers and students, I spotted a good-sized rainbow trout dimpling the surface downstream of Deselm Road bridge. Considering spring trout season opened a month ago, at least one surviving surprised me. Rock Creek is one of a few Illinois streams stocked with rainbows in spring and fall.

For 17 years, the Oak Brook TU chapter has built TIC into 30 schools. The Illinois Department of Natural Resources provides the trout eggs, food and permits to participating schools, then decides where the fish will be released. The IDNR delivers the eggs in mid-November, the surviving trout are released in the spring.

TU chapters provide funding for aquarium setup and support during the school year on aquarium maintenance and do other activities with the schools (such as presentations on macroinvertebrates). Teachers incorporate it into their teaching. A major investment by TU is about $1,000 for providing chillers for each aquarium. Trout need water cooler than 70 degrees to survive.

The IDNR has some schools release trout into Lake Michigan at either the 12th Street Beach or at Highland Park bluffs. Others go into Rock Creek at Kankakee River State Park.  Nine schools released trout this week at Rock Creek in the culminating field trip, which included in-stream activities.

Strauch meant it about the kids getting wet, as he noted, "Frankly, for many of these kids, it will be the first time they have actually waded into a creek."

Each of the three stations for the in-stream activities involved, literally, being in Rock Creek.

Teacher Michelle Ayala divided half the students into three groups to circulate every 15 to 20 minutes between the stations. The other half of the students went hiking in the morning. The halves switched after lunch.

Strauch's hope that the students would get into the creek was nearly instantly realized. They took to the water like, well, kids.

TU volunteer Rose Grumbine led the first station on water quality testing. She did the biology program at University of California San Diego, one of the top-ranked biology programs in the world. She didn't fish until 12 years ago, because fishing with spinning gear didn't interest her. When she found fly fishing, it was another matter.

Basic testing--pH, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite--was same as what classes did with their aquariums while rearing trout. Students also tested for dissolved oxygen. The students waded out and filled tubes with stream water (major fun), then added the set number of drops of reagent. Water temperature was taken with a thermometer hung on a rock. Water held at 60 degrees through the morning.

Out of the blue, Erick Santiago blurted, "This water is so peaceful."

He's right. I consider the Rock from the Deselm Road bridge to the confluence with the Kankakee River one of the most beautiful stretches of water in the Chicago area.

Jamie Vaughan, Great Lakes Engagement Coordinator for TU, handled the "Go with the Flow" station, where students learn about stream flow, including wading out and releasing orange ping-pong balls to measure flow speed, and take various stream measurements.

Because the Rock was up on Monday, Vaughan, Strauch and TU volunteer Jim Hohenberger waded out earlier and measured the width at 72 feet.

Hohenberger and Strauch teamed up on the "Entomology-Rock Rolling" station, collecting live specimens. Some collected rocks in tubs. Others used a D-net to collect specimens (I saw students Tom Decker and Jack Tesmond net a big crayfish and small bluegill).

In the morning sessions, the students also found snails, clams and nymphs of stone flies, damselflies, dragonflies, clinging mayfly, midges and caddisflies. Smaller specimens were put in ice-cube trays filled with water. There were magnifiers for looking at them and comparing with an identification key. The rocks and specimens were returned to the water.

It was time.

Ayala, while herding kids onto the bus to go to lunch, said, "I enjoy it and I think it is good for them. They are all off their phones."

Kids know something's primal about walking into water, same as poking sticks into fire.

Information on TIC is at troutintheclassroom.org. Information on the Oak Brook TU chapter, at obtu.org.