Genius Hour Project By Madelyn and Juan Carlos Hillsdale School Grade 5 On the first day of Genius Hour we decided to work with a fish tank. It had been sitting in our school without any fish and we thought it would look nice in our school library where all the students, teachers and parents could see.

First things first.. Setting Up the Tank On the first day we had to check and see if we had everything we needed. We found some books in the library and looked online to see what was needed for our fishtank. We took the fish tank out of the box and decided where to put it and gave it a good cleaning before we began.

Next Step: Putting the fish tank together We had to put the fish tank together. We had to put the filter together and connect in to the tank and then add the necessary lights so the fish could see. We learned at the pet store that we had to be careful to use the right amount of light because algae could grow if there is too much light. We had to also clean the rocks and plants before we put them into the tank.

Putting our supplies in fish tank We had to arrange the rocks, the plants, the lights and had to decide where the thermometer could go to test the temperature of the water.

Shopping for our fish We met Mrs. Roberts at the Pet Store and asked the salesman to help us find our materials and what type of fish we should buy. He suggested the Golden Lyre Molly fish, a few snails, and seven Zebra Danio fish because these types are good with each other. He explained to only start with a small number of fish so they can get used to each other and in time we can add more. We had a $40 budget.

Two Types of Fish The fish that have black and white strips are the Zebra Danio. The fish with the black and orange are the Golden Lyre fish.

Welcome new friends! When we returned to school, we needed to submerge the bag of fish in the water to allow the fish to become comfortable. After about 20 minutes we let the fish out of the plastic bags and they quickly swam into their new home.

Genius Hour Success We are so happy Mrs. Roberts helped us with our project and helped us create a new unique feature in our library for everyone so share. We were able to explain our project to our school on our morning announcements and provide a few rules for the students to follow so the fish wouldn’t get scared. We presented our project to the PTO to help with funding for the aquarium stand. Overall, we are very pleased with our project and learned a lot about different types of fish and how to care for them.