For: Grade 6 – 8
Topic: Great Lakes Fish and Fishing
Subject areas: Science, Social studies, ELA, Art
For millennia, sturgeon swam the waterways of Wisconsin. Before the 1800s, an estimated eleven million sturgeon lived in Lake Michigan alone. Menominee and Ojibwe people depended on the fish for food and harvested them sustainably. But in the early 1900s, the lake sturgeon was near extinction. Saving Our Sturgeon tells the remarkable story of lake sturgeon in Wisconsin, the conservation efforts to save the species, and what is being done to keep the population healthy and thriving today.
The lessons were written by Wisconsin Sea Grant (WiSG) education student assistant Madelyn Anderson, and Wisconsin Sea Grant education staff Anne Moser, Titus Seilheimer and Virginia “Ginny” Carlton. The lessons were reviewed by WiSG editor Elizabeth White and designed by creative manager, Sarah Congdon.
This middle school unit accompanies Saving our Sturgeon: Protecting Wisconsin’s Ancient Fish by Rebecca Wojhan. Published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2025.
Activity One: Sketch a Sturgeon
- Overview
- Handout: My Sturgeon
- Slideshow: Sketch a Sturgeon
Activity Two: Assessing Sturgeon Growth
- Overview (coming soon)
- Handout: Calculating Mean Girth and Answer Key (coming soon)
- Handout: Calculating Mean Weight and Answer Key (coming soon)
Activity Three: Aging Sturgeon
- Overview (coming soon)
- Handout: Aging Sturgeon and Answer Key (coming soon)
Activity One: Swimming through Time
- Overview
- Handout: Point in Time
Activity Two: Mapping a Fish Story
- Overview
- Handout: Mapping a Fish Story
- Handout: Drawing Lake Winnebago to Scale
- Handout: Threats to Sturgeon
- Saving Our Sturgeon StoryMap
Activity Three: Predicting Populations
Activity One: Design a Decoy
- Overview
- Slideshow: Decoy Images
- Handout: Artist Statement
Activity Two: Spearing Sources
- Overview
- Handout: Spearing Sources and Answer Key
Activity Three: Reeling in Oral Histories
- Overview
- Handout: My Oral History
Activity One: Who Speaks for Our Sturgeon?
Activity Two: Time to Act: Community Awareness for Sturgeon
- Overview
- Slideshow: What Is Stewardship?
- Handout: Time to Act – A Community Awareness Project
Supporting materials
- Saving Our Sturgeon StoryMap
- Saving Our Sturgeon Coloring Sheet (WiSG)
- Saving Our Stugeon Coloring Sheet (WHS)
Supporting videos
- Sturgeon spawning
- Sturgeon spearing
- Explore Sturgeon: Dissection
- Sturgeon Restoration in Saginaw Bay (Michigan)
These digital tools are not completely accessible. To request an accessible version or a reasonable accommodation due to disability, please email Anne Moser (askwater@aqua.wisc.edu).
The middle reader book and the StoryMap were inspired by the wonderful, award-winning book People of the Sturgeon: Wisconsin’s Love Affair with an Ancient Fish by Kathleen Schmitt Kline, Ronald M. Bruch, Frederick P. Binkowski, with photographs by Bob Rashid. Published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2009. We are grateful for their research that kick started the project.
