Upon arriving at Harveys Creek off of Jackson Road, Dallas, Pittston Area gifted student adviser Jonathan Wrubel, right, gives instructions on where to set up camp prior to releasing Rainbow Trout raised from eggs by the students as well as conducting environmental tests.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Pittston Area fifth grade student Quinnie Jones is shown releasing Rainbow Trout into Harveys Creek after the school students raised them from the egg stage.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Pittston Area faculty member Jarrod Lokuta shows fifth grade student Jess Jackson what a real clipper looks like.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Jonathan Wrubel, gifted student adviser, hold one end of the screening net with Layla Marks while Kiryn White, left, scrapes the creek bed and rocks to be captured by the screen.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Jonathan Wrubel, Pittston Area faculty member and gifted student advisor, holds up a vessel with a capture creature from the creek for Drew Whitling to observe. Left to right: Mr. Wrubel, Jovia Wrubel, Layla Marks, Quinnie Jones (hidden), Whitling.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
Pittston Area senior James Spingler, left, drops a softball in Harvey’s Creek to test the current speed of the creek with students looking on.
Tony Callaio | For Sunday Dispatch
DALLAS – Jonathan Wrubel, a kindergarten through 12th grade gifted education teacher at Pittston Area, recently took fifth through eighth grade students to Harveys Creek, off of Jackson Road to release 61 Rainbow Trout eggs the students raised themselves.
Wrubel, an outdoorsman, has been taking part in the Trout in the Classroom project for many years through the Pennsylvania Gaming Commission (PGC) completing training for the program with Penn State University and the PGC.
“Watershed education and conservation are really important and are good fields to get in to for careers,” Wrubel said. “It helps being an outdoorsman (for the project) and really helps enjoying what you are doing.”
The PGC sent Wrubel and Pittston Area about 150 Rainbow Trout fish eggs on Jan. 9, 2023, taking a week to 10 days to hatch.
“In the wild, only 1% to 2% make it from egg to adult fish,” Wrubel noted. “At a hatchery, if they hatch 2,000 eggs, about 900 would make it, so we released about a third of our eggs at 61, so that’s pretty good.”
The 12 students along with fellow faculty members Jarrod Lokuta, Jill Samuels, Jim Kupetz, and Jean Bantell took part in the fish release as well as students performing experiments and tests in the wild.
Quinnie Jones, a fifth grader, is no stranger to the outdoors. She, along with fellow students was able to see firsthand nature up close through the program.
“I really enjoy being out here and I think that it’s a great learning experience for a lot of people out here,” Jones, who usually participates in outdoor activities with family, said. “I really enjoy how we are learning about macro invertebrates and how they are in the water.”
Jones, 11, said she likes to go fishing and hiking with her dad and dog and occasionally with her brother and mother.
James Spindler, a senior at Pittston Area, has been helping out with the younger students at Pittston Area in STEM programs.
“I’ve been a part of the Pittston Area STEM program for seven or eight years now,” Spindler said. “Programs like this really gets kids out in nature and it helps with building teamwork.”
While at Harveys Creek, Spindler took part in an experiment testing the speed of the creek at various locations with the younger students.
In fulfilling PGC requirements, Wrubel will have to fill out a year-end report on student activities on the programs they were involved with during the school year.
