Aquaponics Semester 1
Aquaponics is a system of aquaculture in which fish waste is farmed and is used to supply plants that are grown hydroponically with nutrients. Our original goals were to make this aquaponic culture well known around the school as the aquaponics area is only known to a few people. Another goal we wanted to complete was to refurnish and remake the aquaponics area to make it look better as it looked dull and not treated well. My goal was to help out in any way possible to make the aquaponics area better, making it look better, farming and instituting new ideas.
Some plants we grew using the hydroponic beds and wicking beds were broccoli, cherry tomatoes, basil, parsley, lettuce, spinach, kale and oregano. the fish we had farmed their waste from were silver perch and rainbow trout. There were nearby orange trees and lemon trees by the aquaponics area and we had made lemonade, basil oil and salsa verde through the fresh produce.
Some ideas I have helped in were making the worm farm, the worm farm is a new idea me, Mayuel and Ben have instituted. The worm farm is supplied by the food room scraps giving us plenty of food for the worms. The worms are watered every week giving us worm juice or “liquid gold” which is a liquid fertilizer that helps our plants in the wicking beds.
Some obstacles we have encountered during the worm farm project were that ants walked up the legs of the worm farm and have infested the worm farm. We then tried to counter this by putting buckets of water underneath the legs of the farm so the ants couldn’t walk up. We then soon realised some leaves have dropped into the water creating a path for the ants to climb onto the legs and the water would be a good breeding ground for mosquitos. Eventually me and the worm farm group had decided that we’d needed to spray pesticides to kill the ants around the area because there was a nest nearby. We didn’t want to do this although this was the only way to keep our worms safe. Now the worms are living healthy with food scraps being given to us by the food room.
The capabilities I have developed during the semester is being creative as I and the worm farm group have thought of implementing a worm farm. Effective communication and Collaboration as I needed to collaborate and speak effectively to get my ideas out there and creating the worm farm and Problem-solving as I have solved many problems about the worm farm.
Some capabilities I have relied on during this Innovate Ed project was creative, organised, effective communication, collaborative and problem solving as I needed to speak to others about my idea, collaborative as we needed some teamwork on making the worm farm, organised because we needed to make and keep items organised once we’ve finished with them as the Aquaponics area was a mess before we had shown up and problem-solving as we had many problems with the worm farm and needed to find solutions towards our problems.
Semester 1 Aquaponics was very fun as I could use my problem solving and leadership to help with problems we’ve encountered. I had gotten time to spend time with my friends in Aquaponics and I had enough time to be able to mix Aquaponics with my gardening skills and hobbies and I hope I’ll continue Aquaponics in term 3 and 4 using my innovative thinking, problem solving and collaborative skills to help in any way possible making Aquaponics more well known and fun for all my peers.