Moon Area wins national grant for aquaponics program

Moon Area SD was named the winner in Schneider Electric’s national “K-12 Bold Ideas” contest and was awarded a $100,000 grant to implement an aquaponics program at the high school. According to an article in Times Online, district officials say the program should be fully implemented by the end of the 2019-20 school year. The aquaponics system will raise fish using a hydroponics system—the process of growing plants in water. To prepare their proposal, staff visited other schools’ aquaponics programs and thought of ways to involve the community, students in life skills classes and those with career interests in business, engineering and other fields. Once the system gets up and running, the district hopes to work with local restaurants on a farm-to-table program.