A tank in the classroom, a year of questions.
Jissen Joshi Gakuen Junior and Senior High School · Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan · 2022 to 2023
A teacher looking for a STEAM subject.
Jissen Joshi Gakuen is a private girls' school in Shibuya, founded in 1899, that was building STEAM learning into its classes. A home-economics teacher searching for teaching material found aquaponics.
One tank holds an ecosystem, a nutrient cycle, and a food question at the same time. That let science, home economics, and sustainability run as a single subject, managed as a whole.
Two small systems and a year of visits.
In spring 2022 Aquponi supplied and installed two small systems on a school terrace: a build-it-yourself kit and a fountain type, both with media beds. The agreement was signed in February 2022 and classes began in April.
Through February 2023 Aquponi taught several visiting classes: building the systems, starting the ecosystem, water testing, and growing. In September 2022 the team joined the cooking class that used the first harvest. When a pump failed, Aquponi helped choose and fit the replacement.
Students kept it alive, including over the summer.
Grade 11 students in the elective "Life Design" shared the work: water tests, feeding, and tending the plants, on a rota that carried on through the summer holiday.
The herbs went into the home-economics kitchen as recipes the students developed. Their research projects, on recipes from the harvest and on how the world produces and supplies food, were presented in February 2023. The fish were kept, not eaten.
“I came across aquaponics while looking for teaching material to bring STEAM learning into my classes. We had tried to understand and practise the SDGs before, but it is hard to see the world from inside a classroom. Through this collaboration I hope students will understand, from their own water-quality data, how an ecosystem comes to life, and experience the SDGs first-hand.”
Kaoruko Hasegawa, Home Economics teacher, Jissen Joshi Gakuen Junior and Senior High School. Public statement, July 2022.
One small tank can carry a whole year.
A system small enough for a school terrace was enough for a year of inquiry, in which students made an ecosystem, a resource cycle, and a food question their own. That is the case for the school and university offer.