Aquaponics
High Water
During the 2010 and 2011 school years, I began planning for a full-fledged aquaponics facility/program with a next-door multipurpose STEM Lab. Aquaponics utilizes a structural, closed-water-loop for breeding and nurturing fish (we chose tilapia) and plants. Tilapia in the closed-loop system supply fertilizer (from their waste) as a nutritional substrate for plants in symbiotically connected grow beds. The plants, in turn, utilize the tilapia fertilizer for their own growth and return nutrients to the water.
The water nourishing the plants is constantly cycled back to the tilapia as a natural, filtered sequence for the tilapia with the loop continually flowing. Aquaponics provides students with authentic hands-on scientific inquiry experiences and lends itself nicely to a number of content areas for cross-curricular teaching and learning. In addition, aquaponics is also a relevant curricular course offering in terms of facilitating understanding with respect to urban farming and sustaining natural resources for 21st century learning. In many ways, an aquaponics closed-loop system is synonymous with meaningful teaching and learning. Teaching and learning, and learning and teaching, are symbiotic reciprocate processes. Just as water serves as a current for nourishing aquatic and terrestrial life, the flow of ideas is the nourishment of learners and teachers, and teachers and learners.
In terms of the physical plant, there were eleven prodigious empty classrooms that were approximately 4,000 square feet (some were significantly larger and afforded over 7,000 square feet of classroom space) in the building that were essentially going unused. These spaces used to house shop classes, first introduced in the 1930s, but by the early 2000s they were mostly either filled to the brim with garbage or being used as storage/office space (most shop classes were phased out beginning in 1999).
There was no existing strategic plan on campus for repurposing these spaces, which was frustrating given their potential and my role with curriculum. Whenever I did attempt to address repurposing the spaces for relevant technology education (we were after all, a tech high school!) I was told if the rooms were repurposed they would be converted into physical education spaces. However, physical education already had the greatest amount of real estate across the campus.
For a number of years, I created and maintained my own strategic plan for revitalizing our tech program and implementing STEAM-based, innovative learning spaces and curricula. My primary confidant was my science department chair, whom I collaborated with regarding reinvigorating our STEAM programmatic offerings. I also continued collaborating with parents, alumni, students, the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and 312 Aquaponics in developing curriculum and designing spaces in the building.
The Distributive Reservoir
After being named principal in spring 2012, I was able to hire a new assistant principal in mid-summer to supervise computer science, art, and technology. I was also able to hire another new assistant principal to supervise a science department of 44 teachers. I had begun making arrangements in spring 2012 to convert an old machine shop near the student cafeteria into an aquaponics facility, and was a classroom I spent much time in when I was a student at Lane Tech over 25 years earlier. When I was a student, I was enrolled in machine shop in the room that eventually became our robotics lab and used to also spend time as a shop aide in the space that would become our aquaponics lab.
My new administration was able to facilitate the implementation of aquaponics via distributive leadership, with multiple administrators working and leading in partnership to support implementation. The team worked with Brian Watkins from 312 Aquaponics for facilitating the design of the Aquaponics lab. 312 Aquaponics was also partnering with DePaul University, which provided opportunities for us to work with external stakeholders as well as learning the blueprint process for a university-level, aquaponics facility design. 312 Aquaponics also had a relationship with The Plant and The Chicago Sustainable Manufacturing Center, which we were able to capitalize on via partnering and shared leadership.
Click to view Aquaponics Facility Layout Design Version 1
Click to view Aquaponics Facility Layout Design Version 2
In 2013, I applied for and was granted a license through the Department of Natural Resources to raise tilapia and vegetables in the school for harvesting and selling to the community. After working extensively with the district’s law department, we were able update the aquaponics lab for licensure to sell our tilapia and vegetables to a local restaurant in our community (our students and the entire team were thrilled to see our lab recognized on menus for harvesting our farm raised tilapia and vegetables!). The efforts of the team, and the external partnerships we developed, provided additional insight with respect to urban agriculture, which became part of our curriculum, and for articulation with college level course content in mind.
Still Raining, Still Dreaming
The team also worked on designing curriculum that was inclusive for all learners. We conferred with and collaborated with special education to ensure the aquaponics lab tables and beds were spaced appropriately for all learners to easily access. The spacing between each bed also provided flow for all students while working in the lab.
We maintained space for other classes to be able to come into the classroom and have room to work while a section of aquaponics conducted class. We also ordered lab materials for use with a variety of departments. Courses such as art, mathematics, and economics could come into the facility to work on content that was truly multidisciplinary in an authentic, multipurpose space. Art classes such as photography or drawing engaged in class assignment while mathematics courses took measurements with Vernier probes for use with calculators and/or computers on the balcony.
Special education courses conducted classes or teamed up with other aquaponics classes for adaptive learning. Students in our autistic program worked with manipulatives such as vermiculite or lava rocks to facilitate hands-on learning for the development of scientific inquiry skills development. In addition, students in our middle school Academic Center used the space for their biology coursework and scientific research. We were able to achieve a great deal of success over a very short period of time through shared leadership amongst staff and external stakeholders, which was extremely rewarding.
When the Levee Breaks
During the summer of 2012 I was also able to hire a number of other new assistant principals and building administrators to take on the academic, teaching and learning directorial responsibilities I held when I was an assistant principal. I was able to hire an assistant principal devoted entirely to leading special education, which had been treated like a separate entity in the past as compared to the rest of the school. I wanted to make sure all students felt connected and possessed a sense of belonging, and we made it a priority to better support our special needs learners.
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Mayor Emanuel with Lane Tech team
I was also fortunate to be able to continue working with an incredibly gifted assistant principal whom I served alongside in the past when we were both assistant principals. She provided supervision for the English department, oversaw testing, and worked with a number of our at risk students. She was the hardest working assistant principal I had ever worked with and I always thought she deserved to be principal of the school one day whenever I moved on. I was also able to hire a final assistant principal to oversee mathematics for leading grade-level programs of study and electives.
In every way, I was blessed to be able to hire and retain my executive team. More often than not, a principal inherits an executive leadership team and has to contend with aligning an amalgam of duties and school needs to the abilities and talents (or limited abilities and talents) of existing team members. In my case, I was able to create distinct leadership positions, advertise specific qualities and requirements for leading, and hire leaders who already possessed precise abilities and talents according to the needs of the school. The preexisting leadership capacities of my newly hired executive team allowed us to ensure we were able to achieve the vision I had begun planning six years prior. Our administrative, collaborative efforts enabled us to lead and actualize a school wide vision for inclusive, innovative STEAM programmatic offerings for all learners. The goal also included the humanities, world languages, library, special education, etc. with STEAM as the umbrella for innovative academic curricular offerings I termed “Beyond the Acronym.”
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