We offer the Junior Stream Stewards (JSS) Program in an effort to provide hands-on learning opportunities and inspire interest through experience. to teachers in the Skagit and Samish watersheds since 2006. Through this program, seventh grade students learn about the Pacific salmon and watershed health. This program has been provided to teachers in the Skagit and Samish watersheds sine 2006. As SFEG’s signature education program, JSS currently serves about 500 students annually at 4 schools.  

JSS lessons are scheduled approximately once per month during the school year and include two field trips, a watershed tour, and a service-learning project. Over the course of the year, SFEG hopes to instill an appreciation and curiosity for the environment in participating students and to foster a sense of environmental stewardship that will endure.

The typical program structure resembles the outline below:

September: Introduction to Watersheds and Pacific Salmon

During this classroom lesson, students learn about the 5 types of Pacific salmon and their life cycles without the local watershed. Students are asked to identify habitat requirements that need to be met in various places within the watershed, as well as which salmon life stages utilize which habitats. Students complete a pre-program survey at the start of this lesson.

October: Salmon Anatomy with in-class dissection

During this lesson, students learn to identify the external and internal anatomy of salmon. Students are actively encouraged to examine the dissected fish with hands or eyes (whichever they prefer) in order to identify key differences between fish and other more familiar animals. These visible differences are then related back to habitat requirements and the life cycle of salmon.

November: Watershed Tour Field Trip with stream side water quality testing

On this field trip, students preform chemical water tests on water samples from sites within their school’s watershed and evaluate the sites as potential salmon habitat based on the results.

December/January: Salmon Art Activity (Optional)

During this optional lesson, students are encouraged to artistically express concepts they have learned throughout the program. These images are often used by SFEG to make greeting cards and bookmarks.

February: Riparian Areas

During this lesson, students learn about the importance of forested areas near waterways and how complex, stable forest systems benefit salmon. Students then become restoration ecologists and plan a mock riparian restoration effort in preparation for their service learning project.

March: Service Learning Field Trip

During this field trip, students spend at least two hours restoring salmon habitat by planting native plants or removing non-native invasive species or trash from stream sites. Most participating schools have been restoring the same site since enrolling in the JSS Program allowing for students to add to a lasting legacy.

May: Macro Invertebrates

During this lesson, students are provided a sample of macroinvertebrates collected from within their watershed and are asked to identify the specimens with a dichotomous key. Once identified students use the pollutant tolerance level and abundance of the species of macroinvertebrates to form conclusions about the health of the habitat for salmon.

June: JSS Program Wrap Up

During this lesson, students use Kahoot! (an online game-based learning platform) in teams to test their knowledge on the topics covered in the JSS Program. Students take the post-program survey at the end of this lesson.