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Editor's note: This is the first part of a multi-piece series following Dave Knudsen's class at Kaleidoscope School of Arts Science in Kenai as they study different aspects of the salmon lifecycle through the school year.

Three years ago Brittany Gilman knew three things about salmon.

"All I knew back then was that salmon are fish. You eat them and you catch them," said the fourth-grader at Kaleidoscope School of Arts Science in Kenai.

Gilman, along with her classmates from Dave Knudsen's class, were participating in the Department of Fish and Game's Salmon Egg-Take in Anchor Point on Oct. 15.

Each year Fish and Game kicks off its Salmonids in the Classroom Program with the egg takes, and a number of classes from across the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District participated this year.

The program offers students an up-close view of the salmon life cycle by putting fish in the classroom.

This is the third year Gilman has been in a class that's raised the fish from the egg stage to fry over the course of the school year.

The experience has yet to wear thin on her though.

"It's not getting boring," she said. "I think this is really interesting."

Before students meet their future finned classmates, they have to help the natural process along a bit.

When the classes arrive at the egg-take sites, Patti Berkhahn, the Kenai Peninsula aquatic education fisheries biologist, and her colleague, Sam Oslund, also a biologist with Fish and Game, meet the anxious students with coolers of silver salmon taken from Bear Creek in Seward.

The fish are still chock full of eggs and milt, and need only to be stirred together.

Before the magic happens however, Oslund and Berkhahn give the classes a tutorial using large cards to show the different life stages the fish go through starting as eggs all the way to adulthood.

To demonstrate the mating, Oslund pulled out a pair of fuzzy stuffed-animal salmon.

She showed how the female digs out a redd, the nest where she'll deposit her eggs, and often has to fend off overeager suitors.

When the female salmon is finally ready, she'll lay on her side, and with a quivering motion, signal to the male she's ready to deposit some eggs.

Once the eggs have been deposited the two fish cover up the redd, and the salmon will move upstream.

They may mate several times like this in a few different locations.

Of course, the students didn't ride the bus all the way to Anchor Point just to see some biologists play with stuffed-animals.

While Oslund explains the mating process, Berkhahn returns to the group with a pair of maroon colored silvers, their slime glistening in the October sun.

One nervous looking student squeezed the ruby red eggs into a beaker.

Berkhahn estimated there were 500 to 1,000 eggs in the single female.

"Who wants a milt-shake?" Berkhahn asked the class.

Another student took hold of the male salmon and forcefully coaxed the milky white substance into the beaker.

"We have to, like, milk the salmon to get the milt out," Gilman said.

Now all that's left is the final countdown.

Since the salmon do in fact breed in streams, the now pink-colored concoction needed one more ingredient: water.

Berkhahn started the students from 10, and as they reached zero they shouted "Happy Birthday" while Berkhahn poured in water into the beaker.

Dave Knudsen's class had just picked up an additional several hundred classmates.

The eggs still needed a "motherly" touch though. Berkhahn sifted through the mixture to clean out strands of fish blood and eggs that were damaged during the process.

While Berkhahn did that, Oslund used the opportunity to review good handling practices for catch-and-release fishing as well as talking about habitat protection.

When Berkhahn returned with the fertilized eggs they were ready to head back to class in a sealed cup.

Back in Kenai, the eggs will go into their new home in the classroom's aquarium.

For the next few weeks the eggs will incubate, but around Thanksgiving Knudsen's class should start to see some changes.

"Around Thanksgiving you can see a little black dot inside the egg," Gilman said. "Its called an eyed egg."

Only a few years ago she may not have known much about the fish; in the last few years Gilman's become a walking, talking encyclopedia on their life cycle.

While the students have only just begun to raise this year's crop she had a greater appreciation for the hardships the fish face starting at day one.

"I've learned the whole life cycle of salmon and I've learned exactly what to do with salmon, what they need protection for, what their predators are, and their prey," she said.

Dante Petri can be reached at dante.petri@peninsulaclarion.com.