A school in Canada recently began operating an aquaponics system to better educate students on the matter of ecology. The school will also be using the tilapia it raises through its system for students to eat within the school’s cafeteria.
According to an article in the Edmonton Journal, science teacher Dustin Bajer was quoted as saying, “There’s a lot of cross-curricular opportunities here. On top of that, the kids get that experience of growing and producing, taking care of animals, producing their food… This is where it ties in with permaculture. It’s all about connections
and relationships.”
Aquaponics is a system of growing vegetables through fish farming (aquaculture) and hydroponics. It’s a sustainable system of growing both food and fish for consumption. While aquaponics is not a well-known system, the aquaponics community is beginning to grow throughout the world especially as schools integrate aquaponics systems into their curriculum and utilize them as educational components.
Interestingly enough the school will be utilizing the system by not only feeding the kids with the tilapia, but the school has a culinary program that will teach the students how to utilize the vegetables grown as well as the fish in student-made recipes. “Eventually students will breed the fish and harvest both the fish and plants as food. Culinary arts students will create recipes, cook the fresh ingredients and serve it all to staff and students in the cafeteria,” according to the article in the journal.
-written by Katie Kelley, Social Media Intern, Winter 2011
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