By Amy Batista, Special Writer
CRANBURY – Fifth grade students had the opportunity to Skype with the CEO of Hatponics who was in Swaziland, Africa, earlier this month on March 10.
The school has been working for the past two years with Ryan Cox, CEO of Hatponics who installed the aquaponics system at the school, according to fifth-grade teacher Susan Lepardo.
According to its website, Hatponics uses modern applications with the ancient technology of aquaponics (the combination of hydroponics and aquaculture) where fish and vegetables are raised together in a closed-loop system that is its own self-contained ecosystem. Fish raised in tanks naturally produce waste in the water which is pumped through plant beds where it is absorbed as fertilizer by the plants and filtered to return safely to the fish.
There are several schools in Georgia and Tennessee that have systems similar to the Cranbury system. Last summer, Ms. Lepardo attended a STEM Engineering and Design Educator’s Camp at a research farm in Georgia and was met other educators from around the country who also teach sustainability and aquaponics.
“Also at the STEM camp were some high school students who recently returned from a trip with Hatponics,” she said. “Those students designed a Geodesic Dome, which became part of an aquaponics installation.”
The Swaziland Skype came about as an opportunity for Mr. Cox to connect with this year’s high school students who were tasked with building a wind turbine that could power the aquaponics system that was to be installed in Swaziland, according to Ms. Lepardo.
“We’ve been in Swaziland for five days,” said Mr. Cox as he connected with the students on Skype. “We’ve built a massive aquaponic system in order to help feed an entire region of people and to help teach people how to sustainably grow their own food.”
Around 60 fifth-graders sat at tables in the cafeteria in front of a large television screen and computer and asked questions about the aquaponic system and wind turbine the group is currently building.
Fifth grader Jonathan LaPoint asked who came up with the idea to build aquaponics and why it was built.
“I came up with the idea to build an aquaponics and the leader of this group thought it would bring a really good opportunity to Swaziland because of the lack of water,” said Mr. Cox, adding the lack of water there is very significant. “So aquaponics was a natural solution. As long as they can fill tanks with water, they will be able to bring sustainable farming techniques to Swaziland,” he said.
Fifth-grader Kayla Christopher asked how much food aquaponics produces in a year.
“This aquaponics system will grow right around 300 kilos of fish, which is 660 pounds or something like that, and it will grow right around 700 plants per bed, so that’s 2,000 plants total over the course of every three months,” Mr. Cox said.
Ms. Lepardo said afterwards in a discussion with the students that the system would feed 100 people.
Fifth grader Angel Colon asked what difference was between the system in Africa and the one at the school.
“This system here is designed for commercial production. What that system is suppose to do is create a large open space of water and we call that deep water culture,” Mr. Cox said. “The system that you have in your school is a hybrid.”
He said that the two systems that they have are used to put little amounts of water into soil and substrate to produce vegetables.
“The system here in Africa is designed to use deep water culture where plants are floating inside where plants are floating inside Styrofoam over top a large amount of plant nutrients that create an ideal opportunity and a very stable system,” said Mr. Cox.
Fifth grader Julia Tharney asked how does the water cycle if there is no electricity.
“Using the wind turbine and solar panels to create electricity to power the entire system,” Mr. Cox said.
Later, he took his computer and walked around the area so the students could see the wind turbine and aquaponic system his team was building.
Ms. Lepardo organized the Skype with Ryan Cox, Kelly Fusco and Meredith Fendler from Peachtree Middle School in Georgia.
“The importance doing the Skyping is to foster the relationships between students both here in the United States and schools around the world, while working together on the importance of sustainable farming, aquaculture and aquaponics,” she said.
“Mr. Cox’s goal is to feed 20 million people by 2020 and we want our students here in Cranbury to be a part of that,” said Ms. Lepardo.
“Skype offers the students a window to the world, of food deserts in our own country in Tennessee, and to struggling third world communities,” she said.
“Through Skype students learn why becoming sustainable farmers, protecting our limited water sources, and caring for the environment is important now and in the future.”She said that the goal at Cranbury is to encourage the students to become stewards of the environment. She said that students collaborated on projects such as water testing, design challenges and routine questions and issues that might arise with the aquaponics system.
The students built their own aquaponic system in spring of 2014 at Cranbury School, with the help of then fourth-grade students, Mr. Cox, and his team from Hatponics, she said.
“We had connected with Ryan through an initial Skype session with Orchard Knob Elementary School in Georgia,” said Ms. Lepardo. “They had just installed their system. At the time, we were considering building our own out of rain barrels and fish tanks, but through that Skype we realized how many more students we could reach with a system like theirs.”
She said after some initial research into Hatponics and the schools that had incorporated Aquaponics into their curriculum, they contacted Mr. Cox and he drove up from Tennessee to install the system.
“We grow, herbs, tomatoes, lettuce, beans, strawberries, peppers, spinach,” she said. “Our students are in charge of the maintenance of the system, water testing, plant and fish health. Over the summer, students and families from the community come into school to feed the fish and harvest the vegetables,” said Ms. Lepardo.
Chief Administrator and Principal Dr. Susan Genco said that maybe one day the school could use its system to help those in need in their own communities who need food.
“So that could be a long-term goal for us, with our system, to really help others by maybe donating food that we grow to the local food banks,” she said.
