Fish Health

Kids In The Creek

Fish Health builds upon information covered in the Habitat Sense and What’s in That H2O? stations to give a species perspective on possible environmental stressors that could compromise a fish’s health in a watershed.

NGSS: HS-LS2-6, HS-LS2-7, HS-LS4-6, HS-LS4-5, HS-ESS2-5, HS-ESS3-1 WA SCIENCE Academic Learning Requirements (EALRs): 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2

Objectives:

Students will be able to:

Explore how humans affect water quality and habitat in ways that affect fish health and actions that could be taken in the watershed to benefit fish health
Understand how water quality and fish habitat quality interact to affect fish health.
Predict and measure sub-lethal effects to fish based on water quality and habitat conditions.
Understand how fish behavior and use of habitat/cover can affect a fish’s predation risk.
Identify basic parts and function of internal and external fish anatomy.
Identify potential effects to fish anatomy from contaminants and/or disease.

Concepts:

To build upon information covered in the Habitat Sense station (that discusses habitat quality) and in the What’s in that H2O? station (that discusses water quality) by giving a species’ perspective on possible environmental stressors that could compromise a fish’s health in a watershed.
Fish health; measuring sub-lethal effects of watershed health; and fish anatomy.
Using the scientific method to evaluate how differences in fish habitat and water quality can affect fish survivability.

For Teachers:

Classroom Pre-work Activities:

Fish: One-of-a-kind Animals (PDF) – Students explore the characteristics that distinguish fish from other animals and compare the internal and external anatomy of fish and humans.

Field Day Materials

Fish Health Student Worksheet (PDF)

For Activity Leaders:

Training Video above – A video guide on how to successfully facilitate this station.
Fish Health Equipment and Procedure Guide (PDF) – An equipment checklist and procedure guidelines for this station.
Fish Health Station Script (PDF) – A suggested script for guiding students through this station in the field.

"I have known you in your streams and rivers where your fish flashed and danced in the sun, where the waters said come, come and eat of my abundance."

- Chief Dan George