Blue School Grant delivers hands-on learning in the classroom
July 25, 2024
During the 2023–2024 school year, Wekiva High School math teacher Hai-Ahn Nguyen used her Blue School Grant from the District to convert half of her classroom’s aquaponic garden from freshwater to saltwater, allowing her students to be able to plant and grow mangroves.
For Hai-Anh Nguyen, a math teacher at Wekiva High School in Orange County, getting her students interested in what she was teaching was a challenge.
“They were struggling and disinterested in learning,” Nguyen explains. “They didn’t see how math connected to the real world or understand the value of STEM (shorthand for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). I wanted to bridge that gap and give them a way to apply what they were studying to something tangible.”
So, in 2015, Nguyen built an aquaponic garden to incorporate into her classroom. Aquaponics is a sustainable farming method that combines hydroponics (growing plants in water without soil) and aquaculture (raising fish) in a recirculating system. The garden allows her students to explore the symbiotic relationship where plants receive nutrients from the waste the fish make, and the plants, in turn, filter the water for the fish. Compared to a conventionally irrigated garden, an aquaponic garden uses significantly less water because of the closed-loop system’s ability to recycle water. Nguyen even uses any residual discharge to fertilize and irrigate her butterfly garden.
“I’m able to use the garden to expose my students to water conservation, agriculture, ecology and environmental science while also teaching math skills like volume, flow rate and ratios,” Nguyen says. “They recognize the connection to math and science, which helps them retain what they learn and see how it can apply to day-to-day life.”
I’m able to use the garden to expose my students to water conservation, agriculture, ecology and environmental science while also teaching math skills like volume, flow rate and ratios.
The St. Johns River Water Management District’s Blue School Grant Program has helped Nguyen maintain and expand the garden. The grant program’s goal is to provide students with an appreciation for Florida’s water that they can build on throughout their lives. Since 2016, Nguyen has received four grants from the program. Past grants have allowed her to construct raised beds to utilize all fish waste, incorporate rainwater harvesting to collect runoff from the rooftop and build a butterfly garden. Her most recent $3,000 grant enabled her to convert half of the garden from freshwater to saltwater so her students could cultivate red mangroves. Nguyen partnered with the University of Central Florida’s Coastal and Estuarine Ecology Lab (CEELAB), which specializes in the ecology of coastal and estuarine ecosystems, conservation biology and the science of restoration, to obtain the plants. Her students planted the mangroves, and after a year of growing, they will be returned to CEELAB, who will plant them in the Indian River Lagoon.
During class, her students can tend to the garden. They even test the water quality each week, making sure the pH, nitrate, ammonia and nitrite levels are favorable. Nguyen says she’s noticed a difference in her students’ behavior since she incorporated the garden into her classroom activities; they pay more attention and do better on her tests.
“It may seem surprising, but most of my students haven’t really spent time in a garden, let alone grown a mangrove or tested water quality, and it’s empowering for them to learn,” Nguyen explains. “I’m very grateful for how the District supports education and provides opportunities like this.”
Nguyen wants to open her students’ minds to the possibility of careers in STEM also. Each year, she invites Suzanne Archer, the District’s Agricultural Cost-share Program technical program manager, to visit her class to talk about the value of STEM careers in agriculture and at the District.
“Talking to students about careers they may have never known about helps build upon what they’ve been learning through their work in the garden,” Archer says. “Ms. Nguyen has found a hands-on way to bring STEM to life and inspire the next generation of innovators.”
Nguyen is one of the many teachers who have taken advantage of the Blue School Grant Program and other resources from the District. The program is open to kindergarten through 12th grade public and charter school teachers within the District’s 18 counties. The Blue School Grant application period opens on Aug. 1. To learn more, visit the District’s website at www.sjrwmd.com/education/blue-school and explore an interactive StoryMap.
