USDA Grants Bring Aquaculture Into Schools

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has provided some of these educators funding to turn fish tanks into classrooms with excellent results.

Bryant High School, located in southwest coastal Alabama, established an aquaculture programme when the school opened in 1998. Using funding from USDAs National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), they have created a working redclaw crawfish aqua-business.

Our students dont just do aquaculture they learn every step in the operation and maintenance of a bona fide operation, said Julian Stewart, who received $70,000 from NIFAs Higher Education Challenge Grant Programme.

Our current project seeks to take things one step further. We want our students to realise that they do not have to settle for being a manual laborer or even a foreman at an agri-science facility they can be the chief scientist if they challenge themselves.

Mr Stewart is not the only teacher using NIFA grants to give students experiences in aquaculture. Theodore J. Smith with Trinidad State Junior College, Valley Campus, Colorado, received a $35,000 Challenge Grant to expose students to all aspects of aquaculture production, from the biology to the business of raising finfish.

Their students produced, harvested, processed and marketed approximately $19,500 worth of tilapia during the life of the grant.

Brian Himelbloom, with the University of Alaska Fairbanks also received $44,485 to expand the food and agriculture curriculum in Kodiak High School (KHS). In Alaska, the classes will focus on ocean ranching of salmon smolts in fish hatcheries.

These are small grants that make a big difference in the lives of students, said Mr Stewart. We are proud of what weve been able to do with this programme.

Challenge Grants promote and strengthen education in agriscience and agribusiness in secondary, two-year postsecondary and K-12 classrooms and are administered by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture.