Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center Celebrates 20th Anniversary by Looking to the Future

The Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center (TFFC) marks its 20th year of operation on November 19, 2016. For two decades, the combination of an operational fish hatchery and interactive visitor center has provided visitors a unique opportunity to experience environmental education within the context of a scientific research and fisheries management facility. 

TFFC currently offers a dive show, spectacular aquatic exhibits, tram tours of the hatchery, wetlands trail and year round fishing in a fully stocked pond. The Center also provides classroom facilities and plays host to a variety of educational events including pre-service teacher training, hunter education, angler education as well as a variety of other educational programs.

As TFFC celebrates the first 20 years of operation, it looks forward to the future with a five year plan to improve existing offerings.  The expanded effort will focus on improving student achievement and supporting school teachers and their efforts to educate students. 

Todd Witt, former Director of School Programs at Sky Ranch, has joined the TFFC team and will be leading the expansion effort. “TFFC has always been an incredible educational experience for families and school groups,” explained Witt. “While continuing to maintain a quality experience for families, our focus in the five year plan will be on developing new resources and facilities specifically designed to enhance formal classroom learning with an eye toward student science achievement as well as teaching quality environmental education.”

TFFC is currently developing working groups of stakeholders such as k-12 educators, education service centers, home school groups, universities and any other individuals or entities that have an interest in collaborating on the redesign and expansion of TFFC. Interested parties should contact Todd Witt at 903.670.2247 or e-mail to todd.witt@tpwd.texas.gov.

Texas Aquatic Science

As you're planning your school year, we want to remind you that Texas Aquatic Science is a comprehensive aquatic science curriculum, from molecules to ecosystems, and headwaters to ocean, for middle school and high school students. This free curriculum consists of an online student textbook, a teacher guide, specially produced videos, and supplementary materials and is 100% available online.

Texas Aquatic Science Video Contest

Plan to challenge your students to work together to create a video that explains a specific concept or topic in the Texas Aquatic Science curriculum. Students will plan the concept of their project, develop a script/storyboard, and create their video in a logical format which communicates their point. Video projects may include interviewing a professional in an aquatic science field. Successful presentations should include appropriate content such as photographs, video, music, animation, graphs, and other visual aids. Students upload the final project to YouTube. Using the Texas Aquatic Science Video Contest scoring rubric, schools may submit one winning project per school to Texas Parks and Wildlife for competition by sending the YouTube link to johnnie.smith@tpwd.texas.gov. Where classes are one semester long, schools may submit one project per semester. Each submission must be accompanied by 1) a transcript of the finished video, 2) school obtained student photo/video releases and, 3) a link to the winning video project. TPWD will select and post winning videos on the Texas Aquatic Science website as supplementary material to the curriculum. RSVP to Johnnie.smith@tpwd.texas.gov if you would like to participate.