The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

School’s environmental class to produce fish, plants

Former Butler County girl on Sports Illustrated cover
Updated 10 min. ago
Weather prompts closings, postponements
2:32 p.m.
Psych evaluation ordered for teen accused of raping 64-year-old woman
2:26 p.m.
Road crews working to clear streets as more snow predicted
2:24 p.m.
Rape investigation stalls at Miami
1:51 p.m.
> More headlines

By Lindsey Hilty, Staff Writer 12:34 PM Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Students at D. Russel Lee High School will get a whole new hands-on approach to science this year in a green environmental science class.

Teacher Kevin Thacker said students will be learning aquaponics by conducting laboratory studies in a green house that has a tank of 350 gallons of water and 100 pounds of tilapia powered by 60 watts of electricity. The bacteria produced from the waste of the tropical — and edible — fish will fertilize a garden. Some new vocabulary words they will add to their list include hydroponics — the cultivating of plants with roots in oxygenated water instead of soil — and aquaculture —the commercial raising of fish in tanks for food or stocking.

Not only will students learn to manage a self-sustaining ecosystem, he said other groups will benefit from the experiments. Culinary Arts students will be able to cook the fish and the vegetables grown, and the day care children will be able to come by and watch the fish swim through a small window at the bottom of the tank.

“We’re trying to jazz up the experience and the lab things they get to do,” Thacker said. “It’s going to be kind of a challenge and fun watching it run. It’s better than learning from a book. They’re going to have to do a lot of chemistry tests.”

Assistant Principal Jason Chilman said the experience gives students an opportunity to learn from a non-traditional laboratory setting.

“It was an opportunity for us to remain at the forefront of classroom experience,” he said. “It’s just giving them another experience to relates that written material back to something they can put their hands on and touch.

The lessons, Thacker said, will give students a perspective for any career they choose.

“This has been a landmark year for people wanting to grown their own food at home,” he said. “This is something a person could do at home if they wanted to. I think I’ve got about the coolest science thing going on in Ohio.”

Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5067 or lhilty@coxohio.com.

Share this article