The Aquaculture Challenge is a competition designed to stimulate high school student interest in aquaculture. However very early on, team mentors asked for help, finding that their students quickly surpassed their knowledge of aquaculture. In response, we have developed and hosted a variety of aquaculture workshops for the teachers to better prepare them to mentor their students. Our most recent workshop was targeted broadly to K-12 teachers, and we had attendance by teachers from second grade through high school levels.
Aquaponics is a very effective platform for teaching STEM in the K-12 classroom, and may also be the best approach to supply the aquaculture industry with an adequately skilled workforce. However, in areas such as the Midwest where commercial aquaculture is less common, many teachers do not have any background in aquaculture.
We have tried several approaches to support the teachers. Initially we gave each Aquaculture Challenge team a kit, cost free, but many teams lacked skills to incorporate all components. Later we offered intensive workshops, but with little hands on activity. We then offered intensive hands on opportunities which teachers found difficult to implement back home. The most recent workshop hosted by LSSU, combined several of these approaches. We offered intensive background on key aspects of aquaponics, but also engaged teachers in a number of hands on activities, with a final project building an aquaponics system they could take home. Most were excited to get their systems started ASAP.
The barriers faced by the individual teachers varied considerably. Some had substantial funding but faced issues with system maintenance. Others had to find ways to convince their administrators to fund a startup system. Response from the teachers indicated they were very happy with the content of the workshop, and enjoyed the tours of LSSU aquaculture, but wished there had been more time. Forcing them to build a small aquaponics system they were able to take with them was key to their enthusiasm for continuing the process with their students. We have all attended a conference and/or workshop where we were initially very motivated to apply the new concepts. However, returning home, many face barriers that reduce the enthusiasm to continue. Our observations from this workshop suggest that getting aquaculture curricula established in the school system requires both teacher training and access to working systems.