Salmon Heroes

For Grades 4th-8th
Season: early September-mid December

Salmon Heroes is a multi-part field trip program designed to teach students about salmon habitat needs and how stormwater pollution affects the watershed. The program occurs in fall and winter when salmon return to their spawning grounds here in the Pacific Northwest, and allows students to see salmon in their habitat as well as learn how to help them through scientific data collection and stewardship projects on their school campuses.

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Program Details

Part 1: During the one-hour classroom Introductory Lesson students delve into the habitat needs of salmon, as well as the challenges to survival that salmon face during each stage of their life cycle. This lesson covers limiting factors for salmon survival, including the impacts from human development, climate change, and polluted stormwater.

Part 2: The three-hour Field Lesson takes place at the field site correlated with the school’s district. During the program students learn external and internal salmon anatomy (including a salmon dissection), collect water quality data, use maps to examine watershed connections, make habitat observations, and play salmon-related games.

Part 3: In the one-hour classroom Synthesis Lesson students analyze the water quality data collected during the field trip and brainstorm community solutions to common pollutants in the watershed. This lesson includes creating a model of polluted stormwater and a model natural materials filter that cleans the stormwater.

Stewardship Project Extension

Part 4: The final component of the program is optional but strongly encouraged. It allows students to work on stewardship projects that support salmon and watershed health on their school campus. ESC naturalists return to the school and support students in activities such as invasive plant removal, native plant installation, storm drain stenciling, and trash clean-up.

Location

Parts 1, 3, and 4 take place at each participating school. For Part 2, the field trip, the goal is to connect students with waterways in their communities. Our standard field sites are Miller and Walker Creeks in Normandy Park (Highline and Tukwila School Districts), the Cedar River in Renton (Renton and Kent School Districts), and Mary Olson Creek in Auburn (Auburn, Fife, and Federal Way School Districts).

Cost

Thanks to our funders we are able to offer the Salmon Heroes program at no cost to students and teachers at schools where more than 45% of families qualify for free or reduced-price meals. For schools where less than 45% of families qualify, the cost is $50 per class for the program. Additionally, we have transportation subsidies ($150 per bus) for those schools where more than 45% of students qualify for free or reduced-price meals.

Accessibility

ESC has two all-terrain GRIT Freedom wheelchairs that can be borrowed by participants during programs, one youth-sized chair and one adult chair. We have found that these wheelchairs work best for youth and adults who have some mobility (e.g. can get out of the chair for short periods, for instance, if the chair needs to be maneuvered over an obstacle) and who have at least one dedicated support person. These wheelchairs increase the accessibility of Salmon Heroes, but are not able to reach every part of our field sites, and unfortunately don’t make the program entirely accessible.

In the Salmon Heroes registration form, you can indicate whether you will need access to one or both chairs during your program. For participants using their own wheelchairs, there are parts of the field sites that are accessible, depending on the type of chair. For further specifics regarding our wheelchairs, please email Rosie (Rosie@EnvironmentalScienceCenter.org). If your group has other accessibility needs, there is space to describe them in the registration form.

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Registration

Registration for Salmon Heroes 2025 will begin in late August ‘25

Our Salmon Heroes Registration Forms allow you to select dates that work best for your students for each component of the program. Because salmon return to each of our sites at different times throughout the fall, we designate different dates (and different registration links) for each school district in order to maximize salmon viewing. Please register for each of the three components separately, using the links for the district you’re in. If you are in a district not listed, please contact Rosie (rosie@environmentalsciencecenter.org) to see what field site will work best for you.

We schedule by grade cohort. Please coordinate with the other teachers of your grade at your school, and sign up as a group. One teacher should sign up all the classes of their grade at their school.