If you are a fan of water and rivers, Lyons Elementary is a pretty special school. Among all the pressures that modern-day schools face, they somehow found the path to putting St. Vrain Creek at the center of much of their learning. For a number of years, the students have been monitoring the health of the river and learning about stream ecology among other subjects by doing so. The school uses their monthly short-day curricula to develop citizen science and leadership initiatives, where students work side-by-side with scientists to solve authentic problems. They have also cared for 2 Trout in the Classroom aquariums raising rainbow trout from eggs to fry for release in the river for the past 5 years. With all this focus on caring for the rivers, the teaching staff asked themselves the question, how can we introduce our students to new ways to enjoy the river?
The answer, fly fishing. Earlier this year, chapter leadership worked with Principal Andrew Moore to obtain several grants to fund National Fishing in Schools (NFIS) Cast a Fly, Catch a Student fly casting instruction. The NFIS Program is a nationwide academic program that teaches the positive lifetime activity of fishing to students in elementary schools, middle schools, high schools and beyond. That is how October became, OctoberFishe at Lyons Elementary for the 5th grade Physical Education class.
NFIS provides a full complement of teaching equipment and training for educators to deliver a standardized teaching method. For 4 weeks, the students had PE class sessions of casting instruction to practice to reinforce skills. The students also learned about knot tying, and how the aquatic macroinvertebrates that they have been sampling relate to trout food, and flies. The month-long segment culminated in a fishing day at Cemex’s private pond which was made available to the school through an ongoing educational partnership between Cemex and the Lyons schools. There were some screams and squeals when the first bluegill tugged on a line. For many students, this was the first exposure they have had to fishing.
Chapter volunteers worked with PE Instructor Zach Martinez to customize the program to the 4 week schedule and deliver lesson plans to 48 total students in 2 sessions per week of 24 students. Ten volunteers helped with the class instruction, both leading instruction and assisting students. The classroom volunteers were joined by several additional volunteers and guides from Laughing Grizzly Fly Shop and Front Range Anglers for the fishing day. All in all, 16 individuals contributed over 200 volunteer hours to this program.
As volunteers, many of us enjoyed this program as much as the kids. To quote more than one, “It was a rewarding and fun experience for me.” I’m so proud of these students, they all tried really hard, and worked at it, and it showed in their casting at the end of the program. The energy of this program went all through the school. The staff was just buzzing about it. It was really gratifying to be part of the community in this way and share the love of fly fishing with these students. It was a source of pride to see how these young people are being educated and opportunities they have to learn in the community through partners like Cemex. It’s reassuring to see young people that understand and value this truly unique learning opportunity they have at the heart of Saint Vrain Creek.
