RE Log Spring 2018

36 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2018 On Campus Ninth-grade biology students are planning to feed their peers this spring with a meal of tilapia and greens produced inside the school’s new 400-gallon aquaponics tank, which the ninth-grade scientists have tended this year. “Team Tilapia,” a team of National Science Honor Society students under the tutelage of Cecilia Calleros ’94 , worked throughout the summer to assemble and prepare the aquaponics tank. Once classes began, biology students took over the system. Students populated the aquaponics tank with plants and monitored the system during the summer months. As the plants grew, bacteria developed and the water quality reached desired levels, biology students added tiny tilapia. Plants and fish clean the water and provide food for each other in the self-sustaining system. In December, the students supplied the annual holiday party for faculty and staff by cutting kale, bok choy, lettuce, basil, mint and rosemary plants for Chef Alfredo Silva. Ben Arriola ’18, Jasper Beardslee ’18, Rebecca Hadwen ’18, Lauren Marx ’18, Leo Menninger ’18, Noa Richard ’18, Hannah Tacher Lois ’18 and Jed Warshaw ’18 worked on the tank over the summer. From Aquaponics Tank to Table Biology students raise food to feed their peers Biology students clip and collect greens from the aquaponics tank for RE Chef Alfredo Silva. Head of the Upper School Kenneth S. Mills in photo above; teacher Cecilia Calleros ’94 in photo to left.