FAIRPORT, N.Y. (WROC) — While many high school students spend their days in classrooms, these students are gaining hands-on experience, working closely with the DEC on an exciting project. “We're building fish pens for the deck, and we have a square tubing behind us. There's square tubing fra mes. They're in some. They're about to be built into the third and final, square tubing frame that we have for the fish pens to hold the nets. And, we also have cover frames for it. And, and we've been working on these for three weeks now. I think it's just going to go to the third week,” said Scott Combs, a welding and fabrication teacher at Eastern Monroe Career Center. By working on this project, the students are not only gaining valuable hands-on experience but also contributing to a sustainable effort that supports the health of the local ecosystem. These pens play a vital role in the fishery, as the fish housed inside will imprint on the stream, the silt, and the surrounding environment, ensuring they return to that same location to continue their life cycle. “The pens have about a year and a half old fish inside the pens. And what they do is they imprint on the stream and the bag and the silt and what it does is they want to come back to that stream to be able to do the thing and life. So when you can start them out from the hatchery and helps out the fishery in a very big way,” said Brandon Stephens, volunteer and board member of the Lake Ontario Pen Project. After talking with some of the students, I could truly feel their excitement for this project and their eagerness to start the next one.  “Definitely, hands on working the problem solving, like somebody just going your way. You have to figure it out. What you're doing wrong, and then you go from there,” said Callen, a student at Eastern Monroe Career Center. “There is some individual work, but we definitely get a lot of social aspects with it,” said John, a student at Eastern Monroe Career Center. ...read more read less