The building of dams and over fishing caused Atlantic Salmon became extinct in the Connecticut River. As part of ASERP (Atlantic Salmon Egg Restoration Program), we cultivated several hundred salmon eggs at Agawam HS. The eggs were delivered to us from Reed Hatchery in Palmer. We cared for the eggs. They hatched. We have been feeding the fish (fry) for weeks. We have a permit from the Department of Fish and Wildlife to release the fish. If they survive, they will live locally for two years. Then they will travel down the Connecticut to Long Island Sound and live in the ocean for two years. THEN...the salmon will return to their natal stream.

The best part is that this initiative is part of a new service-based curriculum called EPICS. Through a Learn and Serve Grant, Purdue University is sponsoring this project as one of many community service engineering projects. Our biology, environmental science and art classes at Agawam High School have completed and delivered several projects as part of our engineering and technology curriculum. EVERY PROJECT provided a service to the community.

EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service) is a program started at AHS by the late John Burns, a much loved Technology Education teacher here at Agawam High (who passed away a year ago). The salmon release is in his honor.

We released the salmon at Sanderson Brook Falls on 5/13. The weather was gorgeous! The fish swam off to their hiding places. We saw a spectacular bald eagle (see photos).

EPICS is not a club. It is a curriculum. Students are learning in the outdoor classroom. The students are not reading about ecology, they are doing it. NO CHILD LEFT INSIDE. Service-based learning is the wave of the future and Agawam is on the cutting edge...