Leodis V. McDaniel High School – Alternative Gardening Methods (Aquaponics)

Mar 2026 · 2nd Semester

Did you know that fish poop makes great plant fertilizer?! Did you know you can grow plants without dirt? This course introduces students to the relationship between water and nutrients, and how they relate to plant production without soil. We will be exploring aquaponics, which can be defined as a closed-loop system—capturing the waste of one process and using it beneficially in the other! It is a combination of aquaculture (raising fish or other aquatic animals in an enclosed environment) and hydroponics (growing plants without soil). The purpose of this course is to give students the knowledge and tools needed to reproduce hydroponic/aquaponic trials successfully. Setting up the aquaponics system will be the focus of the course for this year (2024/2025).