When you mix science, storytelling and 65 tiny trout eggs, you get a classroom full of curious Grade 2 students learning empathy, responsibility – and a whole lot about fish.

At Cooper’s Crossing School in Airdrie, the Fish in Schools (FinS) program offered by the Bow Habitat Station turned aquariums into learning labs, giving students a hands-on experience that proved to be as fun as it was educational. For teacher Jennifer Chen, the program’s strong ties to the Grade 2 curriculum made it a perfect fit.

Through participating in FinS, the students had an opportunity to learn about the life cycle of rainbow trout as they nurtured their eggs to hatch, through to the juvenile stage. The classroom aquarium had to be monitored for water temperature and quality to the high standards set by the Bow Habitat Station.

Ultimately, 45 trout were released by the students into Dewitt Pond, west of Airdrie in June 2025.

Chen said the students learned empathy while caring for the eggs and fish, giving them names, drawing pictures of them and ensuring their care schedule was kept up to date. During their lively Walking Wednesdays, students explored how to care for the world around them by comparing water from their classroom aquarium to water in local ponds—turning a simple stroll into a hands-on eco-adventure.

The project also provided an entry point for Chen to teach the students important numeracy and literacy skills through writing journal updates, developing word matrices, writing narratives and completing math challenges. They learned how to calculate the correct feed amount for the number of fish and the accumulative thermal units to determine the age of the fish.

When it came time to release the fish into the wild, Chen said some students were sad to say good-bye to their fishy friends but also understood how important the care they had provided was to the fish surviving to adulthood.

Bow Habitat Station offers the program to students in Kindergarten – Grade 12. Teachers apply to participate and, if chosen, are provided with the fish eggs, food and filters for the aquariums. Chen said the school will continue to participate in the program in future years.