We've been working with our Hannah and Friends partners almost weekly in the past month - Lauren, Chris, and Jan have worked with residents and day program participants to teach some of the important features of aquaponics. What makes a system work in harmony, how to test the water chemistry, fish biology, and the basics of plants have been the topics of the day at Hannah and Friends!
The balance in an aquaponic system, where the fish and vegetables rely on each other to grow productively, is of huge importance!!! We've focused on how to measure and monitor important features of a system like pH, oxygen levels, temperature, and mineral content. If any of these go off-kilter, we won't be able to keep our plants healthy. Everyone understood the importance of this monitoring, and dove right in to learning how to keep good, accurate records - and to observe everything they can about our fish and plants!
Our Hannah and Friends partners also learned how to test the levels of minerals in our water - manganese, calcium, phosphorous, and iron. Deficiencies of these minerals will stress our plants, so everyone learned how to measure and test the levels of these in our system. Overall, learning to check and test water chemistry has been a huge focus of the summer, and Lauren's been the perfect person to lead these sessions - water was her specialty when in college!
Our Hannah and Friends partners also learned how to test the levels of minerals in our water - manganese, calcium, phosphorous, and iron. Deficiencies of these minerals will stress our plants, so everyone learned how to measure and test the levels of these in our system. Overall, learning to check and test water chemistry has been a huge focus of the summer, and Lauren's been the perfect person to lead these sessions - water was her specialty when in college!
The participants in the Hannah and Friends day programs have also been learning about everything fish-related -- fish behavior, what to feed them and how often, their anatomy. We also had the experience of planting seeds in a medium called rockwool, which took a little getting used to. Those seedlings are now popping up, and will be transplanted soon into our growing beds - great to see that growth!!
The chance to learn not from textbooks, but hands-on --- amazing! We are big believers in the idea that doing is one of the most important ways we learn. Based on the past few weeks, there's been a whole lot of learning and a whole lot of doing in our work with the very diligent Hannah and Friends program participants!!!!
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