Nitro: The Trout in the Classroom Super Hero
By: Chuck Dinkel
Across America, by participating in a program called Trout in the Classroom (TIC), students from K-12 learn the importance of water quality and connect with their watershed by raising trout from eggs to fingerlings and then releasing them in a clean, cold stream in the spring. TIC programs have been in place all across the country for more than twenty years; the results of numerous collaborations between teachers, volunteers, government agencies, and local organizations including Trout Unlimited (TU), a non-profit dedicated to preserving and improving trout habitat.
In this story, NITRO, a character whose name is synonymous with the bacteria responsible for the nitrogen cycle in a fish tank, introduces TIC students to his friends, SAPRO, SOMO, BACTER, and SPIRA. These bacteria help maintain the water quality which is essential to the survival of the trout students raise. What are bacteria and what do we know about them? NITRO provides the reader with basic physical, chemical and environmental factors for bacteria and describes the critical role they play in life on planet Earth. Students will have a better understanding of the chemical and biological processes that take place in their trout tanks and the role bacteria play in converting fish and food waste to ammonia, ammonia to nitrites, and nitrites to nitrates.