|
What's
New???
Bridgeport
Regional Aquaculture Science and
Technology
Education
Center
Hosts
a Wave of Events
Aquaculture
School
Dedicates New
Addition
A
ribbon cutting and dedication ceremony for the
new addition to Aquaculture
School will take
place on Monday, October 25,
2010 at
11:00am.
The
state-funded expansion has nearly doubled the
school's size, and it broadens student exposure
by providing new, trade-related technology and
gadgets, larger labs, and easier access to
other areas of the school. The new
33,000-square-foot wing also has a "bookless"
library, rich in technology and amenable to high
profile presenters and
speakers.
Parts
of the existing building were renovated as well.
In the fourth floor tower of the school, a
classroom has been replaced with a navigation
simulator that will allow students to practice
sailing on five ships and ten harbors --
including Black Rock, New
York and Alaska --
depending on the software used. It is not unlike
the training given to individuals in the Coast
Guard or Maritime
Academy.
The
school draws 500 students from Bridgeport, Fairfield, Stratford, Trumbull, Milford, Monroe and Shelton, an
increase of about 150 over last year. Roughly
half of the students come from Bridgeport.
This
compelling, inter-district and shared-time,
themed program focuses scholars in grades 9-12
upon academically rigorous, aquatic-oriented
sciences, as well other numerous and diverse
sciences combined with innovative,
technologically advanced studies that forcefully
address higher educational and career choices
for the 21st Century.
To
RSVP for the ribbon cutting and dedication
ceremony, contact Veronica
Douglas-Givan at (203) 275-1015 or
vdouglas-givan@bridgeportedu.net.
Student
Run Fish Market
Debuts
(Courtesy
of the Connecticut
Post)
 
Doors
to Angie's at Aqua had barely opened, and
Associate Superintendent of Schools Robert Henry
came running in with an empty Styrofoam cooler.
An order of tilapia, scallops, tuna and
oysters awaited.
"Red
snapper," he thought out loud, looking at a
four-pound fish nestled in ice and staring up at
him from the case of what is to be a student-run
fish market.
A
project to give students studying seafood
science a hands-on experience, the market is
located in a corner of aquaculture's $31 million
state-funded expansion that nearly doubled the
school's size and broadened student exposure to
aquatic-based careers. The school draws students
from Bridgeport,
Fairfield,
Stratford,
Trumbull,
Milford,
Monroe and
Shelton who
spend the morning or afternoon at Aquaculture
and the rest of their school day at their home
school. Aquaculture supplies them
wit
h
all their science and
technology credits.
The
new market is open two afternoons a week,
Wednesday and Thursday, and is run by student
volunteers who take Kranyik's seafood science
classes. The classes teach student how to
handle, prepare and market seafood safely and,
essentially, to run a business. A student came
up with the shop's name.
The
morning and afternoon classes take turns with
set-up each week. There is a crew that cleans
and sanitizes the cases, another that fills the
case with sculpted ice, a group to handle the
fish, a design group that works on making an
attractive display and a
marketing group.
During
a lull, Alessandro Torri, a senior from
Trumbull High, said there is a lot more to
seafood science than
he thought.
"It
keeps it interesting," he said, placing some cod
on a scale. He managed to cut a nearly
perfect pound.
Ana
Medina, a junior from Bassick, said she was
nervous about getting orders right but was
interested in seeing how a
business works.
"You're
doing fine. Remember to breathe and remember to
smile," Kranyik coached.
In
short order, both Medina and Brandon Labraga,
a Stratford
senior, were scaling a pair of red snappers
purchased by Rob Burlinson, who works next
door at Captain's Cove.
Stephen
Apgar, who lives in the neighborhood, came in
for some shrimp
and oysters.
"The
prices are really good here," he said. All
proceeds from the market go back into
the business.
For
now, the fish comes from Fulton's Fish Market in
New
York. As soon as the
state approves the school's paperwork, it will
start selling tilapia raised by students in the
fishery lab as
well
as aquacultured oysters from beds the students
tend. For now, the oysters, sitting in a rowboat
filled with ice in the shop, come
from Milford.
During
down times, all three of Thursday's student
workers were learning how to
shuck oysters.
Thursday
there was a special on frozen barramundi. If it
sells well, the school may raise some of
its own.
What
doesn't sell during the shop's two-day week will
be cooked up on Friday into fish stew to be sold
the following week.
Amy
McLeod, who teaches biology at Aquaculture,
admitted she wasn't a big seafood eater when she
stopped in for an order, but she has a husband
who is. "For now I am buying things for him and
my neighbors," she said.
Aquaculture
School
Open House
Events
Parents
and students are cordially invited to attend the
Bridgeport Regional Aquaculture Science and
Technology
Education
Center's
Open House Events scheduled for
Thursday, October 28 and Tuesday, November 9
from 6-7:30pm on both nights.
The
recent completion of a $31.5 million expansion
to the existing facilities offers secondary
students a unique opportunity to investigate,
evaluate, research and create in an environment
that is global in scope and virtually infinite
in possiblities. | 
