Aquaculture in Education

A Dedicated Teacher Brings Aquaponics to the classroom in Byron, IL

by Rebecca Nelson
reprinted with permission from the
Aquaponics Journal, Aug/Sept, 1997

Dan Ginter and student in the Aquaculture lab at Byron High School, Byron, Illinois

“When I came here 10 years ago the (agriculture) program was almost dead. Now we have over half of our 490 students enrolled in our aquaculture program,” states Dan Ginter, the teacher and driving force behind this innovative program at Byron High School in Byron, Illinois. One of Dan’s jobs when he arrived in Byron was to build up this dying program. Byron is a typical ag community, but with a growing population the farm land was quickly being replaced by housing developments and sub-divisions.

The dilemma was how to keep students interested in agriculture when it was becoming a smaller and less noticeable part of the community. Dan Ginter wanted to try something different, something that would keep students attention, teach them responsibility and provide hands-on training.

Aquaculture was the answer. They initially set up a small system holding 250 gallons. The program has grown over the years and now the aquaculture lab consists of 10 tanks holding over 10,000 gallons.

Tilapia are raised from fry to harvest each school year, with students involved in all phases of production, (feeding, water testing, record-keeping and maintenance) harvesting and marketing. The system also supports about 100 Pacu, a vegetarian fish from South America. The students are developing theories about the Pacu’s breeding habits and doing research for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.

In May, the students harvest the tilapia and sell 100 - 120 lbs. of fillets. At this point, the faculty buys the fish faster than the students can raise them. Local restaurants and grocery stores have expressed an interest in buying the fish, but currently the demand far exceeds the supply.

“When we first got started in the aquaculture lab, we needed to get our product out, but not too many people knew what tilapia was in Northern Illinois. We fried up all of our tilapia for that year and set plates out at the end-of-the-year staff picnic. After they tasted it everybody wanted to know how they could get some more” comments Ginter.

With recently acquired tilapia breeding stock, Ginter hopes to develop a breeding program to supply fry for their own facility and to sell to others. He eventually hopes the school will develop, name and market a tilapia breed of their own.

In addition to their aquaculture lab, Byron High School has a hydroponics facility where they’ve grown tomatoes, parsley and house plant cuttings in a continuous flow gutter system using rockwool as the growing medium. "Because our aquaculture lab is next to our hydroponic greenhouse, it seemed natural to combine the two” says Ginter.

They use the waste water from the pacu tanks to raise tomatoes in a recirculating system. “We’ve raised parsley and other leafy vegetables and have always done well. We wanted to try tomatoes because of the pacu’s taste for them. These fish are raising their own food as well as a crop of tomatoes.”

In a side-by-side comparison, Ginter and his students set up four continuous-flow channels that are planted with tomatoes. Two are fed the waste water from the pacu tanks while the other two are fed a water and fertilizer (hydroponic) formula. All other conditions are identical. When reporting the outcome, Ginter states “In our side-by-side comparison, the aquaponics far exceeds the hydroponics.”

The aquaculture and aquaponics courses provide students in grades 9 - 12 knowledge for career fields that will likely develop over the next 5 - 10 years. As aquaculture develops in the Midwest, these students will be ideal candidates to fill these jobs. Being involved with this intensive program in high school will put them years ahead of many others entering into this field. The aquaculture program has also inspired students to continue their education in marine biology, environmental science and business. Because aquaculture is so dynamic and so diverse in the types of things one can teach. . . . seminars, tours and activities for preschoolers, elementary and middles school students occur on a regular basis. An average of 700 students are involved in different capacities every year. The younger students get excited about the sciences and interested in aquaculture and often enroll in the aquaculture courses when they get to high school.

Although this program provides a broad spectrum of education and an excellent learning opportunity, it requires a great deal of dedication from educators, administrators and students. “It is not a 7:30 - 3:30 job. We are dedicated to this program 7 days a week, weekends and holidays”, comments Ginter.