First Investigation of Stream Health Protocol Educator Guide Now Available
The First Investigation of Stream Health (FISH) protocol is a family-friendly, community science-oriented stream monitoring procedure that can be used to assess stream health and how it changes over time. FISH outlines a procedure for assessing various physical and biological stream health indicators, such as evidence of sediment pollution, presence of vegetation, bank stability, and signs of wildlife. The protocol was designed to require minimal equipment and primarily relies on visual observations to collect data, making it an easy way for people of all ages to explore a stream and track changes over time.
A new resource, An Educator's Guide to the First Investigation of Stream Health Protocol, frames the FISH Protocol as a classroom lesson, providing teachers with background knowledge that connects concepts, such as the water cycle and land use within a watershed to stream health and scientific investigations, and includes instructions and data sheets for completing an assessment using the FISH protocol.  Evaluating streams using the FISH Protocol includes phenomena such as observing how water erodes streambanks and involves conducting evaluations and collecting data during outdoor field experiences. Collected data can be analyzed and interpreted to describe the health of local streams. In this way, guiding students through stream health investigations using the FISH protocol can be used to meet certain Pennsylvania Environmental Literacy and Sustainability as well as Earth and Space Science, Technology & Engineering, and Environmental Literacy and Sustainability (STEELS) Standards, as listed in the publication.
Completing a stream assessment using the FISH protocol aligns with two high school and one middle school STEELS Standards; however, lessons could be extended beyond a simple stream investigation to meet additional standards. Some ideas for extending the lesson that are suggested in the alignment section of the Educator Guide include: students can further analyze data to explain factors affecting biodiversity, use observed stream life to create a food web and identify the impacts that changes within the stream could have on the food web, and use protocol data to justify their assessment of the health of the stream ecosystem. By expanding the lesson beyond simply completing the FISH protocol, additional middle and high school Life Science and middle school Earth and Space Science standards could be addressed.
Funding for An Educator's Guide to the First Investigation of Stream Health Protocol was made possible by a 2025 Department of Environmental Protection Environmental Education Grant.
