1535 Franklin Street ,
Haslett, MI 48840
Phone: 517-339-8233
Fax: 517-339-4837
Andy Pridgeon, Principal
pridgeaj@haslett.k12.mi.us
Andrea Rumsey, Associate Principal
rumseyap@haslett.k12.mi.us
Office Hours:
7:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Daily Schedule:
7:45 a.m. - 2:22 p.m.
Student Enrollment: 637 I'm Joe Dutcher, 8th grade teacher at Haslett Middle School and this is what we have started at our school.
Conservation class has Haslett students hooked
Kathryn Prater
Staff
By Kathryn Prater
| kprater@lsj.com
HASLETT - Haslett eighth-grader Holly Nostrant is looking forward to
her next fishing trip, when she'll finally get to do more than just
slide a worm onto a hook.
She'll get to tie knots, thread beads and attach hooks to create her own fishing lures.
The 13-year-old and about 15 other Haslett Middle School eighth-graders
are learning about fishing, rivers and watersheds, as well as how to
make lures and raise salmon as part of an environmental conservation
class.
"I'll be more interested in it. It won't be as boring because I'll be
able to interact with the objects I'm using," Nostrant said earlier
this week, as she threaded yellow, green and pink beads onto a fishing
line to make a spinner hook. "I'll probably go home and make some of my
own and then try them."
The activity - taught by teacher Joe Dutcher and Mark Stephens,
education coordinator for Michigan State University's Department of
Community, Agriculture, Recreation and Resource Studies - is part of a
local initiative to support outdoor education and increase student
awareness.
The Grand Learning Network, made up of mid-Michigan community members,
is using part of a $200,000 grant MSU received from the Great Lakes
Stewardship Initiative. The local effort includes schools in Haslett,
Lansing, Holt, Laingsburg and Bath.
"We want the kids to get outside, to kind of get out and explore a
little more," Dutcher said. "It seems like there's just so much video
games and staying inside. We want to get them outside and enjoying
nature."
In November, Dutcher also brought to his classroom 200 salmon eggs,
which hatched in December. About 50 to 80 salmon are still alive, and
when the fish reach adulthood, Dutcher's class will release them into
the Red Cedar River. In the wild, only about 1 in 1,000 salmon survive
to adulthood, he said.
Sportsmen clubs and other individuals, of which most are part of the
Grand Learning Network, donated $1,200 for the classroom's salmon tank
and chiller, Stephens said.
"We want them to be stewards of water," Stephens said. "Who's
experiencing the water more? Fishermen are actually in the water.
They're the ones paying attention. The more you're in the water, the
more you learn."
The Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative is a statewide effort of the Lansing-based Great Lakes Fisheries Trust.
Online Extra
For more photos go to www.lsj.com.
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