By: Cameron Crawford
Class of 2021
At Riverview High School, we had a virtual field trip after school in the Marine room. The field trip was hosted by EarthEcho Expeditions, which is a program designed to spread STEM education to the kids of the 21st century. They do this by creating virtual labs, expeditions, and knowledgeable videos.
RHS Aquascience was featured on a virtual lab that was streamed all over the world. Out of all the schools that participated our school was the only one chosen to be included into the video which was almost like a large FaceTime. The two speakers were Mr. Jim Trogdon who was a science teacher and Mr. Paul Brentlinger who was the CEO of CropKing Inc. CropKing Inc is a company that sells aquaponic systems to individual consumers and schools for educational purposes. An aquaponics system is the raising of sea life combined with the cultivation of plants in water.
The host location was a high school with an aquaponics system in use growing lettuce, tomatoes, and carrots. We learned how the plants were used as filters as the dirty water from the sea life cycled through the pipes. This is an example of a symbiotic relationship which means both organisms benefit from each other. Our class asked many questions, such as “How does the food taste after it is grown?” or “What variables could we change to make the system more efficient?” The two volunteers were very pleased and excited to answer all our questions the best that they could. After the video was over and we said our goodbyes and thank you, we discussed our educational experience. We discussed how aquaponics could be used all over the world to help less fortunate communities and as a renewable resource. We also decided that it would be cool to have a system to ourselves. Maybe in the future we could get a grant approved to make that happen for us.
Ram Nation Aquascience 