Trinity students raise fish to feed hungry

Science teacher Marlon Francis, left, and members of Trinity High School’s STEM club, from left, Stephan Britton, Jared Foos and Daniel Carper discussed their work to raise tilapia in an indoor circulation tank system in Trinity’s science lab. (Record Photo by Ruby Thomas)
Science teacher Marlon Francis, left, and members of Trinity High School’s STEM club, from left, Stephan Britton, Jared Foos and Daniel Carper discussed their work to raise tilapia in an indoor circulation tank system in Trinity’s science lab. (Record Photo by Ruby Thomas)

By Ruby Thomas, Record Staff Writer
A group of students at Trinity High School are using their training in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to answer the Gospel call to feed the hungry.

Over the last few months students have designed and built an indoor circulating tank system and a 2,000-gallon pond on the high school’s campus, where they are growing about 80 tilapia destined to become food for needy people in the community.

The school is in the process of determining which non-profit organizations will get the fish, said Marlon Francis, the science teacher leading the project.

The project is part of an aquaculture program developed by Trinity with the help of experts at Kentucky State University (KSU) last school year, following the addition of natural resource management to the high school’s curriculum.

  • Francis said the aquaculture program aims to:
  • Teach students the production of fish as a way of providing protein for hungry people.
  • Study the management of fish as a natural resource.
  • Apply STEM skills to solve the challenges presented by the project.
  • Provide opportunities for scholarships in the field of aquaculture at the college level.

Since February, the students, who are members of the school’s STEM Club, have not only designed and built the tank system, but have worked together after classes to feed the fish and make sure the tanks are clean and livable, said Francis.

The STEM club is also working on an aquaponics project — where waste produced by the fish will help supply nutrients for plants.

Stephan Britton, member of the STEM Club, worked in the science lab at Trinity High School.
Stephan Britton, member of the STEM Club, worked in the science lab at Trinity High School.

The students have also designed a hydroponic system, which will allow plants, such as lettuce, to grow on the surface of the pond.

The 80 tilapia fingerlings (a term that refers to young fish) growing in the tank now were donated to the school by KSU’s aquaculture department. When the fish have grown sufficiently, Francis said, they will be moved from the indoor tanks to the pond where they will finish maturing.

When this happens, he noted, more fingerlings will be placed into the tanks so that they can keep harvesting fish.

Why fish?

According to Francis, fish is among the best sources of protein for hungry people, children and the elderly. Moreover, he added, fish are relatively cheap and easy to grow.

Francis — who worked as an agronomist in his native Barbados before moving to the United States — said that training taught him the importance of producing food to feed people. This aquaculture program, he said, is providing an opportunity to teach his students the same thing.

“It’s not only about passing a course and getting a good grade,” he said. “I felt they can leave school with a big take away beyond text book learning.”
He believes young people should be given the opportunity to learn the types of skills they can draw on later in life, he explained.

With the knowledge the students are gaining through this program, Francis said, “they can go anywhere, design a system and grow fish and feed people.”

“As an educator I feel that molding young minds to help humanity is probably the best thing that I can do to help them as they move towards their own careers,” he said.

Skills for the future

The students involved said they’ve all learned a lot and feel like they are part of something bigger than a classroom project.

Ben Carper, a senior, said he likes the challenge of coming up with ideas to solve new problems. This aquaculture project, he noted, did just that.

“I like to see how everything comes together and affects the final product,” he said. “It had its challenges, but we worked together and it wasn’t as difficult.”

Jared Foos, a junior who plans to pursue a career in marine biology, said the project also has been fun.

Foos helped build the tank and filtration system. He believes the project is building a foundation for his future career.

Stephan Britton, a senior, said his interest has always been in civil engineering, but he’s happy with the knowledge he’s gained through the aquaculture program.

Britton, who helps with the upkeep of the tank filtration system, also helped to build a photobioreactor, an apparatus that uses light as a source of energy to grow algae with which to feed the fish.

“It feels good to be behind the scenes of something that will be used in the future,” said Britton.

Daniel Carper, a freshman who helped design and build the fish tanks, believes that their work bodes well for the future.

“I think it’ll grow and take hold and become something that other schools will do,” said Carper. “That will be good for the community.”

Francis said that by the start of the upcoming school year, the tilapia should be large enough to be fished from the pond, filleted and sent out into the community for food.

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