So as a high school teacher I have always had an interest in projects that can help lead my students to learn something new, and hopefully even interest them to the level that they WANT to learn more on their own... To that end, this year I decided that I was going to involve my extra-curricular club in a little project called "Barrel-ponics". They had no idea what they were in for! We were able to "free-source" most of the materials (It is amazing what people will donate to a school!!!), and we bought the rest for a total investment of about $250 (which the school generously footed).
I don't have any pictures of us building the setup, these are as it stands today. There is a bit more work that we are going to do - namely adding a second Bell Siphon to a growbed and building a solid framework to hang our grow lights from. But we have plants (Basil and Strawberry) and a few goldfish. Soon to have some Tilapia (thanks Badflash).
Our school year ends here in about 3 weeks, so I think that I am going to be managing the system over the summer, but I hope to get a full greenhouse for the kids over the summer and find a way to either move this system outside, or build some new ones out there and keep this as an indoor display system...
Either way, I think I have my kids hooked and since they are finishing their freshman year now, I will have them in this program for at least a few more years. Two of them are already talking to their parents about building systems in their backyards over the summer! I think that it is safe to say that they have been bitten by the bug.
Phoenix