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Youngstown students get fish lab in shipshape
By Denise Dick
Youngstown
Fish farming is coming to the city schools.
“Aquaponics is raising of fish and plants – vegetables — in a closed ecosystem,” said Doug Hiscox, deputy superintendent for academic affairs.
It will be offered next year at Choffin Career and Technical Center.
“Some people think, ‘City kids and fish farming?’ but it’s something that is working in a lot of urban schools,” said Joseph Meranto, Choffin’s director.
The fish will be housed in tanks in one area of the greenhouse at the school, connected by a series of pipes and pumps to the vegetable garden in another area. Excrement from the fish fertilizes the plant beds, and the plant beds filter the water that goes back into the tank.
Tilapia, recommended because of their hardiness, start out as small fish and grow in the tanks.
Students must learn how to maintain the system, using math to calculate and support the water’s PH and determine the amount to feed the fish.
Hiscox said it teaches math and science skills but eventually there’s a business aspect too.
“They have to figure out how to market the fish,” he said.
Choffin students in the construction technology; heating, ventilation and air conditioning; masonry and home and building maintenance programs are getting the old greenhouse building at Choffin, which hasn’t been used for several years, ready for the new program. Instructor Kevin Sinkele is managing the project.
Seniors Khadijah Briggs, 18, of East, and Joey Armitage, 19, and Brandon Egolf, 17, both of Chaney, students in construction technology, were painting the inside of the building this week.
Their work on the building started a few weeks ago, clearing out items that had been stored there and tearing up floor and ceiling tiles to get set for the renovation.
“It was a mess,” Khadijah said.
They look forward to seeing the finished building.
“A couple of things got us thinking about this,” Hiscox said. “We don’t have a horticulture program. Our greenhouse hasn’t been used in a couple years.”
Aquaponics fills that horticulture career path.
“It’s unique,” the deputy superintendent said. “We don’t believe any other school in Ohio has adopted the concept of aquaponics. It’s been out there on the commercial end for awhile, and it’s a growing field in Ohio.”
The program will be open to ninth-grade repeater students, those who have hadn’t much success in school.
“This will give them more hands-on experience,” Hiscox said.
Meranto said it’s a venture that’s generating interest in the community as well. First, it’s improving the look of the greenhouse, which has sat empty for several years. Some neighborhood groups have planted community gardens and begun urban farming.
Welding is another new program that will be offered next year at Choffin, aimed at preparing students for careers in the burgeoning Marcellus Shale industry.
While those programs move in to Choffin, others are moving out.
Business, law, education and criminal justice classes will move to East next year to align with that high school’s curriculum. Information technology and arts and communication courses will move to the Chaney Campus.