Aquaculture allows experienced aquaculture students to use mentoring type of instruction with students in grades 5 -10. Mentoring reinforces what the upperclassmen have learned. Recently Cuba has been able to generate partnerships with the park district, with Chicago Academy of Sciences, and a local Tech-Prep agency that performs research on job growth in the environmental areas. Finally, Aquaculture allows students to experience emerging job opportunities with food and water quality issues. Students must provide food, oxygen, temperature and waste removal for the fish.
Students breed, hatch, feed, and market the crop of fish as part of the classroom activities.
Students organize two fish fries per year and attend science fairs withtheir projects. Our objectives are consistent with the District's school improvement plans. Parents and community members help publicize the activities and participate with the fish fries The outcomes from the aquaculture project are to integrate math and science skills across the curriculum, to create meaningful instruction for students, and to involve students in real-life entrepreneur opportunities. Standardized test scores are also tracked to see if activity based environmental studies help to improve scores. Our aquaculture project can be replicated throughout any school district and any grade level.