The Dorset School

The excitement around The Dorset School’s (TDS) annual Trout in the Classroom program usually peaks in late May when the baby fish are released into the Mettawee River. The 2025 edition of this cherished 5th grade TDS tradition received an early boost of buoyancy with a startling discovery just two days into the project.

On January 17th, the fifth graders noticed something odd about one trout alevin - the name of a newly hatched trout egg. “One fish with two sets of eyes meant It had two heads!” one young scientist explained. “We hatched a Frankentrout!”

A two-headed trout is a result of a double fertilization - two separate sperm fertilizing a single egg - a rare occurrence in mother nature. “This is only the second two-headed alevin in my 11 years of conducting Trout in the Classroom,” says TDS science teacher Karli Love. “This discovery in a project that already offers multiple types of learning just raises the level of student engagement. It’s going to be a good year.”

Trout in the Classroom already commands a dominant position in the school's lore. Every year all the students in the school follow the trials and tribulations as their grade 5 colleagues oversee the hatching of trout eggs in January. The attention continues as the offspring evolve first into alevins and then later into baby fish, known as fry..The grand finale is the release of the young fish into the river in May.

By the time a TDS student reaches the fifth grade they are eager to carry on this rich TDS custom. “My older brother was so excited on his Trout Release day that he came home and blurted out a ton of information about trout that made no sense to me,” recalls a current fifth grader. “Now I understand.”

Another added, “The older students who’ve already completed the program come back to our room to check on the new fish. All eyes are now on us.”

True to its name, Trout in the Classroom creates multiple learning experiences for the kids. Mechanical system design, biology, data gathering and analysis, research mathematics, writing, and much more come into play.

Start with the fish tank. This is not the same kind of warm water tank for tropical fish. For trout to survive, the tank needs to simulate winter in the Northeastern United States. The temperature, for example, is controlled by a chilling unit that keeps the water cool. The fish tank is then wrapped in insulation to keep out light, just like the frozen ice and snow that blankets winter water in Vermont.

One of the first projects for the fifth graders is to map out the design of the fish tank on paper. Each drawing shows all the gizmos and gadgets that combine to create an environment that allows the young fish to thrive. A lesson in how all the pieces fit together.

The Trout project demands daily monitoring and recording of relevant data. Each student tracks progress and developments in a journal. Numbers are charted, sketches drawn, and observations made - just like a real science researcher.

Once the eggs are hatched, the students count up the number of alevins. Given their tiny size, it’s not surprising that the independent count reveals a variety of numbers. The students learn that the number that receives the most mentions is called the mode. This year the alevin counts ranged from 80 to 101 with 90 receiving the most votes, making 90 the mode for 2025.

“In mother nature only two out of every 100 alevins survive to become a fry or fish,” reports Love. “In our controlled classroom a higher number usually make the transition, but the range is wide. Our best year at TDS was 72 and our lowest was just a dozen.”

Trout in the Classroom also polishes other skills learned at school. The fifth graders recently completed a section in English where they learned about writing essays with big ideas supported by facts. For Trout in the classroom, they deconstruct essays written by others about raising trout to find their big ideas and facts. It’s a lesson in reading comprehension.

Now the job is to keep the alevins alive until they become young fry and learn to swim and eat on their own. “The alevins are born with a yolk sack that we call a to-go lunch,” says one fifth grader. “That keeps them alive until they develop enough to swim for their food.”

The transition from alevin to fry will most likely prove fatal to the new Frankentrout. The added weight of two heads makes it difficult to swim, a skill needed to eat.

“Until then we will continue to be faithful stewards for all our young trout,” says Love. “We will keep as many safe as we can for as long as possible. Then it's off to the river in May.”