Trout in the Classroom

These students are connecting physically, emotionally and academically through caring for and learning from a living natural resource (trout). We believe students are the key to the future sustainability of our natural resources.

Youth Fly Fishing Program

Our chapter teaches 4th Grade students the art of fly fishing. We do this by teaching fly tying, casting, and how to tie proper knots. The class ends by taking the students to the river to go fishing.

The Start of TIC in Minnesota

Trout in the Classroom (TIC) began in Minnesota in 2007 at a Bemidji elementary school with support from the Headwaters chapter. The program has grown over the last few years in Minnesota to almost 70 tanks in schools and nature centers throughout the state, with many more interested in becoming a part of the TIC program.

Trout in the Classroom offers students of all ages a chance to raise trout in a classroom setting and then release them into a nearby stream or river. Caring for the fish fosters a conservation ethic in the students, and the act of releasing the fingerlings into a stream or river makes a concrete connection between caring for the fish and caring for the habitat.

Because TIC brings nature into the classroom, it allows students to develop a personal bond and sense of conservation ethics that are at the core of TU’s mission. Young anglers better understand the value of their local fisheries when they have seen the trout life cycle up close and personal in this way.