Aquaponics Continues!

Lesson: Design and technology

Class: Year 6 Year: 2025 - 2026

Having established our produce pod, we continued to learn about aquaponics and sustainability.  We discussed the importance of sustainability which is about looking after the planet by reducing waste, saving energy, and protecting nature so resources last for the future.

Aquaponics supports the planet by enabling us to growing of crops differently – we know that these crops can thrive on rooftops, the sides of buildings and even underground and be grown in city centres. 

We looked again at the produce pod and discussed how fish waste and any left over food become ammonia.  We know that this then travels to the top of the produce pod and bacteria living in the filter turns the ammonia into nitrates.  The nitrate rich water then feed the plants and the plants clean the water which is returned to the bottom of the produce pod for the cycle to begin again.  The fish and growing crops sustain each other – clever!

It was now time to plant seeds so we needed to consider how we would manage our investigation.  We know that an investigation needs a question which can be tested in order to gain answers.  We know that a hypothesis is a smart guess or prediction about what is expected to happen.  Having asked questions and made predictions, we set up the test, planting two types of seed in the propagator – Seed A (Klimt) and seed B (Blaster).  Our test is fair as the plug for growing each seed is the same, the food was added to the water they were soaked in and the water in the bottom of the propagator and atmosphere are the same.  We placed two seeds in each plug and five plugs of each seed.  Our variable is the seeds. 

We will now continue the scientific process by observing and measuring and let you know what happens next.