Salish Sea Heroes: Kent Prairie Elementary 2021/22 4th Grade
A beautiful “Salmon High 5,” drawn by Carrie, helped students remember the 5 species of Pacific salmon.
When the amazing Kent Prairie 4th grade teaching team, led by Amanda Wood, learned about doing real science with Explore the Salish Sea, they dove right in!
This past school year’s 4th graders turned into Nature Detectives and led the way to heroism - for baby salmon! And indirectly, for orcas, too.
Each student “friended” a member of the southern resident killer whale population, learned about that whale, and created art in its honor. Here a superpod swims across Mrs. Wood’s hallway wall.
Their first stop was exploring the world of southern resident killer whales (SRKW). Each person “friended” a specific SRKW pod member and made a beautiful painting of that whale in their natural habitat. Then they learned that SRKW need salmon…lots of salmon, to survive. So they turned their clue-finding mission toward salmon, learning all they could about what they need to thrive.
From right to left, Ray Rehaume and Sam Barr, members of the Stillaguamish Cultural Resources Department, sing a song about salmon and tell a story about the importance of respecting the salmon people and their habitat for members of the Kent Prairie 4th grade, as their teammate, Sarah Hindle, witnesses and supports the work.
Their first stop was to invite their tribal neighbors from the Stillaguamish Cultural Resources Department for a visit. Knowledge holders came and shared stories and songs about the salmon people and how to take care of them in return for them taking care of the humans. This was a true honor to learn some of the cultural knowledge that helped keep salmon healthy for thousands of years.
This wasn’t always so! The team shared a story of just what happened when the people got lazy about caring for their salmon relations. And how they repaired their mistakes. These kids learned that we too can repair our mistakes with salmon. And then they helped to do so, combining this indigenous science with western science.
Kent Prairie teamed up with the super stars at Sound Salmon Solutions of Mukilteo, WA, to ensure that coho fry in need of a home were released in a salmon-safe stream.
Kent Prairie was still not allowed field trips this year, but that didn’t stop them. Maddie Dineen and her Sound Salmon Solutions team created an entire website to introduce students to their coho fry, their potential new homes, and the science used to gather data to choose the safest one.
With two streams in mind, they set off on a clue-gathering mission to determine which to choose. They discovered what salmon need at each stage of their lifecycle, especially as fry. Then they learned what it takes for a stream to be coho salmon-safe. They figured out salmon need a windy, complex stream with gravel in the bottom, clean, cold, and clear water flowing, some fallen logs here and there to hide under, and trees and shrubs on the banks for shade, bugs, and erosion control. Oh, and without garbage, of course.
They measured for water quality, including temperature, clarity, and oxygen (fish need O2, too!) and to see whether there was just the right balance of nutrients. They looked for native plants and trees. They identified tasty bugs (macroinvertebrates) in the stream. They looked for resting places in cool pools, and they even made sure there was a clear route to the ocean, without culverts or dams to block their journey. That was a lot of work!
Luckily, they and their fearless partners at Sound Salmon Solutions were up for the job - they made an indigenous and western science-based recommendation for the best stream. The coho were released at the winning site to get accustomed to their freshwater home where they will eat and grow for about the next year and a half (coho chill in the stream longer than other salmon before swimming out to sea. Then they will set forth on their incredible journey to the ocean and back. The release was in April, 2022. Where do you think they are right now?
Thanks to the kids at Kent Prairie and every student who helped raise and release salmon in a safe stream, we know a lot more about what it will take to save our salmon, for orcas, eagles, forests, and us! Congratulations, Kent Prairie grade 4, 2022, you are true Salish Sea Heroes!
Kent Prairie kids raise their hands to say hy’shqa, thank you for the salmon song, the learning from these wonderful Stillaguamish guests, and the salmon. The Stillaguamish Knowledge Sharers raise their hands to thank the young ones for listening and learning this important knowledge and helping save the salmon.