aquaponics 101

39 Pages·2017·1.25 MB·English

EARTH ECHO
W AT E R B Y D E S I G N
W W W . E A R T H E C H O . O R G / E X P E D I T I O N S
AQUAPONICS 101
A G U I D E T O
U N D E R S TA N D I N G A N D
B U I L D I N G YO U R O W N
A Q U A P O N I C S SYS T E M
PRESENTED in PARTNERSHIP with
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Page 1
KNOW BEFORE YOU BUILD: HISTORY OF AQUAPONICS
KNOW BEFORE YOU BUILD: THE NUTRIENT CYCLE
DESIGN CHALLENGE ACTIVITY: BUILDING AN AQUAPONICS SYSTEM
TEACHER BACKGROUND
Page 11
STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO BUILDING AN AQUAPONICS SYSTEM
STUDENT HANDOUTS
Page 17
KNOW BEFORE YOU BUILD: FISH TYPES STUDENT HANDOUT
DESIGN CHALLENGE ACTIVITY: BUILDING AN AQUAPONICS SYSTEM STUDENT HANDOUT
EDUCATIONAL STANDARDS
Page 36
THIS LESSON WAS DEVELOPED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE FOLLOWING
EARTHECHO EXPEDITION FELLOWS:
Katie Cohen Laura Griffith Mary Shalaby Jim Trogdon
Medea Creek Middle School Arroyo Seco Museum Science Will Rogers Middle School Coventry Middle School
Magnet School
Tashanda Giles-Jones Susan Tate
Environmental Charter Middle Wendy Martinez Whitehall Middle School
School Harloe Elementary School
WWW.EARTHECHO.ORG/EXPEDITIONS
EARTHECHO
WAT E R B Y D E S I G N
AQUAPONICS
101
INTRODUCTION
A series of activities to create an aquaponics system in your classroom!
This curricular guide was developed by EarthEcho International in collaboration with EarthEcho’s Expedition Fellows
to teach middle school students an alternative farming technique that addresses excessive water use in traditional
farming, environmental impacts of fish farms, and urban development due to population growth that leaves less land
for food production. Aquaponics 101 is a series of activities that will ultimately prepare your students to design and
build an aquaponics system for the classroom. We have provided pre-design challenge activities so your students
have the knowledge they need to buildtheir aquaponics system (Know Before You Build). Also included is a step by
step guide to set up a system as a teacher resource. This guide supports 21st-century skills by engaging your students
in learning the history of aquaponics through various texts, communicating how an aquaponics system works, and
engineering your own classroom aquaponics system through an interactive design challenge!
During EarthEcho Expedition: Water by Design, we took an in-depth look at California’s water systems, issues, and
innovative solutions. As the Expedition Fellows, a group of middle school teachers, engaged with water industry
leaders, they evaluated system designs that California water warriors are using to combat drought, biodiversity
loss, climate change, and water pollution. They also gained extensive knowledge to take back to their classrooms.
The materials in EarthEcho Expedition: Water by Design are a compilation of materials gathered on this week-
long journey that included a visit to Future Foods Farms, one of the largest aquaponics farms in California, growing
organically produced food in several 2,000-4,000 square foot greenhouses. The magic behind Chef Adam’s aquaponic
system is the sustainable infrastructure that inspires innovative engineering design. In this guide, Expedition fellows
crafted activities inspired by our time with Chef Adam at Future Foods Farms. It demonstrates a real-world issue with
a viable solution that promotes not only career skills but life skills as well. Enjoy!
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SUMMARY
1. Subject(s): Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math
2. Topic or Unit of Study: Aquaponics, Water, Fish, Plants, Engineering
3. Grade/Level: 6-8
4. Objective: As a result of these activities, students will be able to:
a) Understand that water is a key element for life on Earth and that human population growth is a major
contributor to water scarcity.
b) Explore and understand how an aquaponics system works, including nutrient cycles.
c) Analyze how aquaponics may have both long and short-term impacts for humans and the natural environment.
d) Design and build an aquaponics system.
• Know Before You Build: History of Aquaponics
• Know Before You Build: The Nutrient Cycle
• Know Before You Build: Aquaponic Farm- Fish Types
• Design Challenge Activity: Building An Aquaponics System
• Step by Step Guide for Building an Aquaponics System

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KNOW BEFORE YOU BUILD: HISTORY OF AQUAPONICS
Teacher Summary (Presentation is available for download to be used with students), have your student complete the
KWL chart before, during, and after the direct instruction on the history of aquaponics.
Materials:
• Powerpoint Presentation - The History of Aquaponics
• The Rise of Modern Aquaponics - Video
• Graphic Organizer - KWL Chart - Student Handout
The earliest cultures known to use aquaponics were the Aztecs and the Chinese beginning in the 13th century. This
style of farming most likely evolved from practices used by earlier civilizations in those regions.
The Aztecs had what are called “floating farms”. The Aztecs dominated Mesoamerica during the 14th-16th centuries.
The humid, swampy land of Central Mexico — cut by several interconnected lakes — allowed for intensive
agriculture. The Aztecs created artificial islands (some of which were movable) called chinampas, upon which they
grew maize, beans, squash, chilies, and amaranth. They most likely borrowed this idea from the Mayans. The Aztec
farmers could paddle their canoes in the canals dug between the chinampas. Fish waste in the lake nourished the
crops.
Aquaponics were also used in early Chinese communities. Wang Zhen’s Book on Farming, a Chinese agriculture manual
from the 13th century, described floating wooden rafts topped with mud and dirt used to grow rice. The Chinese
used polycultural farming practices to raise finfish, catfish, ducks, and plants. In an upper pond, finfish consumed the
waste that dropped from duck cages built above the pond. Finfish waste cascaded into a lower pond where catfish
scooped it up from the bottom. Nutrient-rich water from the catfish pond was used to irrigate rice and vegetable
crops. Rizipisci-culture, or the cultivation of rice and fish together, was an idea possibly stolen from India as early as
the 6th century. References to its use in the Tang Dynasty (6th century) can be found in ancient Chinese texts. It has
since become very common in many rice growing cultures such as Taiwan and Japan.
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A timeline of the rise of modern aquaponics:
• Largely came from the need to reduce wastes from fish farms.
• The term “aquaponics” is attributed to the New Alchemy Institute in Massachusetts. This institute was founded in
1969 to study how human support systems are designed.
• New Alchemy Institute founders John and Nancy Todd, and William McLarney designed The Ark, a solar-powered,
self-sufficient bioshelter that used aquaponics to grow food in 1969.
• 1970s: Dr. James Rakocy at the University of the Virgin Islands began studying plants as natural filters for fish farms.
• Mid-1980s: Dr. Mark McMurtry and Professor Doug Sanders at North Carolina State University develop the first
known closed-loop aquaponics system.
• Mid-1980s: The first large-scale commercial aquaponics facility — Bioshelters, in Amherst, MA — opened. (Still
operating today.)
• Early 1990s: Missouri farmers Tom and Paula Speraneo pioneered the use of gravel grow beds instead of sand
• Use the KWL Chart below and have students complete as you review the history of aquaponics.
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KNOW BEFORE YOU BUILD: THE NUTRIENT CYCLE
This activity supports investigation of the nutrient cycle in the aquatic environment to prepare students with the basic
biological mechanisms driving aquaponic systems.
Aquaponics - The Nutrient Cycle
Teachers will explain to students that Earth has many different cycles in nature that repeat themselves.
Engage
There are specific nutrient cycles that all living things depend on for life.
In this lesson, students will take a look at different cycles to ground the concept of a nutrient cycle and
the importance of the nitrogen cycle in aquaponics.
Think Pair Share:
Have studentslist as many cycles they can think of first:
• washing machine cycle

• water cycle
Then have them share with their elbow partner to come up with more ideas.
Next share out with the class. And add the nutrient cycles that pertain to aquaponics.
This will lay the foundation for students to have a better understanding.
Lesson Resource: California Agriculture in the Classroom
Activity: All Aboard the Carousel
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Students will create a 4-Square Model for each of the following vocabulary words:
Explore
1. Interdependence 7. Ammonia
2. Cycle 8. Nitrate
3. Energy 9. Oxygen
4. Producers 10. Carbon Dioxide
5. Consumers 11. Grow Beds
6. Decomposers
Sample 4-Square Model:
Word Definition
Cycle Any complete round or series of occurrences
that repeats
Picture Sentence
The water in an aquaponics system cycles
through the fish tank and grow beds and
continues to repeat itself.
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Teacher will explain to students how every living thing need nutrients to survive. Students will learn that
Explain
nutrients move between living things and cycle through the earth. This lesson will set the foundation for
students to learn the nutrient cycle that works within an Aquaponics System.
The Teacher will remind students that an Aquaponics System is a food chain that includes plants, fish, and
bacteria living in the same closed system.
Explain Food Chains
Objective: Students will identify how living things consume nutrients by brainstorming food chains that
exist in nature and making drawings of their food chains to share with the class.
Discussion Question: How do humans get their nutrients?
• Have students write their answers in their journals (3 mins)
• Have students discuss their answers with a partner (3 mins)
• Pick 3 students to share their answers (5 mins)
Activity: Create a list of how different living things in nature get their nutrients.
• Create a list on the whiteboard
• Birds - Worms - Organic Matter
• Ladybugs - Aphids - Plant Matter
• Wolves - Rabbits - Lettuce
• Deer - Plants - Sun
• Give each student a piece of 8x11 white construction paper
• Students have 20 minutes to create a food chain to represent a living thing found in nature
• Extension - You can have students use laptops to research specific food chains
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Example of student work:
Reflection: Pick 3 students to share their food chains ( 10 mins)
Closing: Explain that food chains create a cycle of nutrients and in aquaponics the nitrogen cycle creates the energy
transfer needed for plant growth and fish development. Next class students will learn about the nitrogen cycle.
Teacher will explain to students how the Nitrogen Cycle works in an Aquaponics System (see diagram)
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