Aquaculture Education - Making a Splash!

The National Council for Agricultural Education (The Council) established the infusion of aquaculture into the agricultural education curriculum as a priority in the late 1980's.  The development of a national "core curriculum" for aquaculture education was initiated by The Council in 1990 with funding appropriated by the U.S. Congress.  Additional grants, administered through the Cooperative State Research, Education, and Extension Service (CSREES) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), were received through 1996.  Funds are used to support The Council's efforts to provide teachers with relevant instructional materials in aquaculture and provide teacher inservice training.

At inception of a national effort to introduce the study of aquaculture into the secondary agricultural education programs, The Council established a Task Force from the aquaculture and education communities to serve as advisors.  Pursuant to the deliberations of the original Aquaculture Task Force, The Council established the following long term goals for its education initiative in aquaculture:

  1. To teach young people who are interested in aquaculture the principles of success in aquaculture;

  2. To impart scientific principles and to recognize the importance of properly managing aquatic resources;

  3. To use the aquaculture curriculum as a means to interest students in science, math and other relevant subjects;

  4. To encourage the integration of aquaculture in subjects taught by other teachers in the education system and to augment greater cooperation among individuals;

  5. To inspire secondary students to enter post-secondary study in aquaculture or environmental science, thereby providing new talent to the industry; and,

  6. To explore the tremendous potential of aquaculture as an alternative enterprise in rural communities.

Today, all across the nation, teachers infusing aquaculture provide students with unique opportunities to participate in: exciting "hands on" learning that improves students' understanding of math and science concepts; a "living laboratory" where students observe, record and analyze data as part of a meaningful "birth to market" experience; as well as, activities that encourage development of functional and social skills such as problem solving, planning, responsibility, and cooperation.  Additionally, students of aquaculture acquire skills and practical experience in the areas of water quality monitoring and analysis, aquaculture husbandry techniques, management, construction, plumbing and other areas that could lead to an aquaculture, natural resource, or environmental science career.

Generally, agriscience teachers are "infusing" aquaculture education into their regular course offerings as stand-alone full year curriculum, as a semester course, as a unit within the agriscience curriculum, or as an activity that integrates agriculture and other subject areas.  Aquaculture is also being taught as part of the environmental education, natural resources and/or animal science course offerings.  Some teachers of agriculture, natural sciences and other subject areas use aquaculture as a focal point for a relevant, multidisciplinary teaching approach.  According to a 1997 national survey conducted by Cornell University, it is estimated that nearly one-quarter (2,600) of all U.S. secondary agricultural education programs (n = 11,000) offer aquaculture to nearly 36,000 students.  It is also estimated that nearly 140,000 non-agricultural education students (K-12) have been exposed to aquaculture through visits to school aquaculture programs.  Between 1993-97, it is estimated that over 2,000 secondary teachers attended aquaculture workshops to lean about, improve, or enhance efforts to infuse aquaculture into their instructional programs.

During the grant period, the Council's aquaculture education project was managed by a full time Project Director, Mr. Gordon J. Mengel.  Aquaculture inservice opportunities are now coordinated through Mr. Mark Leitman, Special Projects Director for The Council. The project was overseen by The Council's Executive Director, Dr. Rosco Vaughn, it's Board of Directors, and a National Aquaculture Education Task Force, which includes national representatives from both the aquaculture (USDA and Sea Grant) and education sectors.  Instructional material development, training, and other special projects are undertaken by qualified subcontractors who are competitively selected through nationally advertised "Requests for Proposals" (RFP).  For the future, The Council is committed to a continued national effort to infuse aquaculture education into agriscience and other applied science curricula.  While instructional material development and teacher inservice training will continue with USDA grant funding through the end of 1998, The Council is actively seeking to strengthen partnerships in both the public and private sectors that will guarantee a sustained effort into the future.