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Educator’s Guide to Salmon

This downloadable Salmon in the Classroom Educator’s Guide is designed to help you prepare a lesson plan for students of any age. Here is everything you need to plan a complete lesson on salmon, their habitat, and our mission to protect them here in Western Washington. We encourage you to make the units and materials work for you and your class.

Learning Units

To Download: Click the title of each learning unit link below to open a PDF for the lesson in your browser (or right-click and save the PDF to your hard drive). Alternatively, download all units (17.2MB .zip file) as one file (the file will download automatically).

Unit 1: Preparing for a Hatchery Visit (PDF)

  1. How to Use This Guide
  2. Keeping a Student Journal
  3. Developing a Code of Behavior
  4. Teacher/Leader Checklist for a Hatchery Visit
  5. Taking Note of Fish and Wildlife (activity)
  6. Hatchery Manners (activity)

Unit 2: Introduction to Watersheds and Salmonids (PDF)

  1. The Origin of Puget Sound and the Cascade Range (Tribal Legend)
  2. A Short Course on Watersheds
  3. What Are Salmonids?
  4. Water — The Constant Traveler (activity)
  5. Finding Your Ecological Address (activity)
  6. Tyee’s Magnificent Journey (activity)

Unit 3: The Salmonid Lifecycle (PDF)

  1. Salmonids At the Hatchery
  2. Comparing Natural and Hatchery Raised Salmonids (activity)
  3. Hooks and Ladders (activity)

Unit 4: Fish Habitat Needs (PDF)

  1. Habitat: The Key to Survival in the Wild
  2. Home Wet Home (activity)
  3. Riffles and Pools (activity)

Unit 5: Designer Fish by Mother Nature (PDF)

  1. How Fish “Work”
  2. Aquatic Ecosystems
  3. Recognizing Hatchery Fish (activity)
  4. Fashion a Fish (activity)
  5. Fish Lunch Box: Aquatic Insects (activity)

Unit 6: Fish Culture Meets Human Culture (PDF)

  1. The Hatchery Idea
  2. Managing for Fish and Fishers (activity)
  3. A Day Working at a Hatchery (activity)
  4. Getting Fish Out Of and Into the Hatchery (activity)
  5. Designing Hatcheries With Genes in Mind (activity)

Unit 7: After the Hatchery Visit (PDF)

  1. Extending Your Study
  2. Columbia River Salmon: Legends and Stories of the 23rd Century (activity)
  3. Hatchery Times (activity)
  4. Hatchery Language Glossary
  5. WDFW Fish Hatcheries
  6. More Resources
  7. Your Impact on Salmon/Fish: A Self Assessment

Glossary of Hatchery Language (PDF)

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