This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
11/01/2017 08:00 AMAn International Rotary District grant was awarded to the Chester Rotary Club to assist with providing Chester Elementary School a new saltwater aquarium. The 180-gallon tank replaces an aged 55-gallon tank and is now settled into the school’s Learning and Relaxation Center. New benches, also part of the gift, flank it.
To accent the new addition, art teacher Lori Lenz designed a new mural for the wall behind the aquarium. The students voted for a New England-themed sketch that features a lighthouse in the distance. Lenz sketched the mural on the wall and students and Rotary members filled it in mid-October over the course of three afternoons.
“Rotary is proud and excited to have provided this special contribution to our elementary school. The aquarium not only provides exciting learning opportunities for subjects from science to art to writing, but also provides a school highlight where students can calm their nerves or gather their thoughts,” said Rotary mural coordinator Jan Taigen.
She continued, “We believe this beautiful aquarium will help to nurture an appreciation and respect for our natural world in all students, a value which will last long beyond elementary school.”
Principal Tyson Stoddard echoed that sentiment.
“Everyone who passes through the school enjoys the aquarium. It brings a peaceful element to the school and the fish mesmerize the kids,” he said. “It has grown to be a part of the school.”
Students in upper grades of the school will have an opportunity to provide care for the aquarium through an enrichment academy. This semester’s Aqua Adventures Academy is a dozen 4th, 5th, and 6th graders working to ready the new aquarium, including getting the water to the correct salinity using a refractometer. They are aiming to have the fish moved into their new home by mid-November. Stoddard and the school building manager, James Grbyzowski, mentor the group.
Grbyzowski, who started the aquarium program a few years ago with the old tank, points out that the students are actively using science and math and are engaged with the entire project.
“The old tank had an exposed filtration system on purpose: so that the students could see how it all works. The new setup has doors on the lower cabinet, but everything is still accessible and they can see it all in action.”
The spring 2018 Aqua Adventure Academy will be working to identify the new fish and corals that will be compatible with the existing fish.
The entire project had a $5,000 budget, of which $2,500 was granted by the Chester Rotary Club and matched by the International Rotary grant. Shoreline Pet and Aquarium in Old Saybrook provided all of the equipment at the price that the retailer pays, making seeing under the sea at school possible.