There are over 53,000 schools in the United States. Most of the students in school now will be graduating in the 21st century. These students SHOULD BE our hope for a bright tomorrow!
But many of the students today sit in boring classes, listening with half an ear to droning repetition of facts drummed into them from boring textbooks. They aren’t interested in the droll facts being spewed at them, they see no application to the “real” world outside the school door. They are just waiting , biding their time till the end of the school day (remember when YOU were in school) ?
But put those same students in a fun-filled classroom full of splashing, leaping fish and fast-growing plants that the students themselves are raising. Now you have bright, interested, involved students that are learning first-hand exactly why all of those once-boring subjects have a bearing on real life. Their hands-on experiences are helping them find fun in math and the sciences. Their in-depth studies on THEIR living, squirming, growing charges show them WHY they are learning those once-boring subjects. And when they find the teachers (and many other people) lining up at their door to buy the products of their labors, they find they’ve grown two other things along with their crops, self-esteem and marketable skills for use in the “real world.”
What’s turned these students from bored, lifeless zombies sitting at their desks into animated, lively, THINKING students of tomorrow? Hydroponics and aquaponics!
Hydroponics is the science of growing plants by feeding the roots all of the nutrients that a plant needs for fast growth already mixed into the water that the plant drinks. No longer does the plant have to slave away forcing its roots out through the soil, searching for food. Instead, since the food is coming right to the plant already mixed into the water, the plant spends its energy growing big and strong, in record time. A hydroponically grown plant reaches maturity up to 50% faster than a soil grown plant. Since the roots don’t compete for space to forage for food, the plants can be packed tightly together, and you get up to 10 times the yield per square foot per year. It’s a hyper-productive way of growing. It gives the plant the BEST growing conditions EVERY DAY of the YEAR, which means you have the best, most flavorful, healthiest vegetables, herbs, and flowers ever grown, EVERY DAY of the YEAR!
Aquaponics takes the growing process of hydroponics one step further, and creates a complete ecological growing system. In an aquaponic growing system, you feed fish living in an aquarium or tank, the fish wastes are broken down into nitrates and other dissolved minerals, and the minerals are fed to the plants growing in a hydroponic system. As the plants devour the minerals (and grow lush foliage), they clean the minerals from the water, which is returned to the fish as clean as a mountain stream. The fish have excellent growing conditions, the plants have the best possible nutrients for fast flavorful growth, and you have a veritable cornucopia of fresh organically grown food and flowers, right in the classroom!
Hydro and aquaponics are the two growing systems that the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture claim will be the major way of producing valuable crops in the 21st century. These are the methods that have made the desert bloom in Israel. When you bring cut flowers home from the market you are bringing home flowers grown hydroponically in Holland, fast growing, perfectly formed flowers that were cut hours ago and flown over to the U.S. in huge refrigerated planes. If you’ve ever eaten a meal at EPCOT, you’ve eaten food that was grown right there in hydroponic systems in the Land Exhibit. And when you slurp down a bowl of Campbell’s Tomato Soup, you are tasting the flavor of high quality hydroponically grown tomatoes.
Students see the tremendous market for hydro and aquaponically grown produce. They see specials on TV about these space-age growing systems, they read about the future where most food is growing hydroponically. They gaze at the future in EPCOT and see hydroponics. They KNOW where the future is. And they want to be part of that future!
Educators see the student’s excitement and skyrocketing interest in these new technologies. They see students that were in danger of failing or dropping out suddenly become invigorated to learn about these systems. The educators find themselves being challenged to keep up with their students quest for more knowledge in the fields of applied science and math that THEY can bring to bear on THEIR systems. And they see the administration noticing the rise in student attendance and interest that these low-cost systems have sparked. They LOVE it!
There is only one company in the U.S. that specializes in production of these interest capturing systems for schools, Hydro/Aquatic Technologies. The company has systems in use today in several states, and requests for information from literally thousands of schools across the nation. They have an excellent web site describing hydro and aquaponics at http://www.intercom.net/biz/aquaedu/hatech/index.html and they also sponsor the web site for the Hydroponics Society of America at http://www.intercom.net/user/aquaedu/hsa/index.html . Next Easter H/A Tech is giving a seminar at the Ocean City Flower Show for the HSA on educational uses of hydro and aquaponics, with educators signed up from as far away as Bermuda. H/A Tech is also giving classes for ANYONE interested in learning more about hydro and aquaP on Saturday at the Flower Show.
But H/A Tech has run head-on into one MAJOR stumbling block. Even though they have a virgin market of over 53,000 schools, and have no competition in the market, they are severely undercapitalized. They have thousands of requests in for more information and catalogs from teachers that want to buy systems, but they can’t afford to respond to the overwhelming interest, and they are searching for partners to help bring this exciting new technology to the schools of America. There is a great market with tremendous profit potential, but unless funding can be found to get the catalogs and information in the hands of the teachers by February first, the company may have to fold. This is a GREAT opportunity for investment in an exciting field that is financially rewarding and will improve the quality of life for millions of people.
H/A Tech needs YOUR help. If you would like to find out more about this exciting moneymaking opportunity, email Scott Jones at aquaedu@shore.intercom.net, or call 410-957-2859. You’ll be glad you did!