How I Spent My Summer Vacation

What did you do on your summer vacation? Well the answer to that question for several area teachers includes attending a workshop at Gadsden State Community College hosted by Aquaculture Specialists with the Alabama Cooperative Extension System, Auburn University, GSCC, and the Mississippi-Alabama Sea Grant Consortium. These teachers spent a week undergoing some intense aquaculture training. They were focused not on the commercial venues for aquaculture, but the educational opportunities.

Aquaculture in the classroom, or K12 Aquaculture/Aquascience programs have been around for several years. Recently, a surge in area schools offering some form of aquaculture/aquascience to their students as a means to deliver hands on science and math education has occurred. Earlier this month, two additional schools, Vigor High School and Robertsdale High School sent teachers. These schools plan to incorporate some of the many options aquaculture and aquascience provides to teachers and students alike.

By offering students the opportunity to become involved with the science and math in a hands on and using practical applications, they can see the lessons being taught unfold before them. Making the ordinary science or math class more interesting for the students, and potentially more effective for the teacher.

There are several other schools in the area that have been successfully using aquaculture/aquascience in the classroom, and the workshop at GSCC has provided the teachers a head start on the intricacies of raising fish in a classroom setting. We are happy to have these two new schools on board and look forward to great things from both.

For additional questions or information, contact P.J. Waters, Auburn University Marine Extension and Research Center, 438-5690.

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