Riverbend Environmental Education Center

Gladwyne, Pennsylvania

Riverbend partners with schools and teachers to implement Aquaponics as an interactive educational platform to engage students in nature-based STEM learning. Built in 2015, our state-of-the-art 300 square foot aquaponics greenhouse is a living learning laboratory that advances Riverbend’s mission of environmental literacy.

Building STEM Skills through Aquaponics

Implementing an integrated curriculum that enables teachers to investigate deeply in a single topic across multiple subject areas, aquaponics provides experiential learning opportunities that engage students in STEM topics, food systems, farming production and sustainability. It invites students to think critically about how community and societal goals can be met using agricultural practices such as aquaponics. Through this program, students will practice science skills in developing investigable questions, collecting and analyzing data and communicating science content.

Riverbend offers a comprehensive program that will provide teachers with all the tools they need to build their STEM classroom, bringing theoretical principles to life and enabling students to see for themselves the real impact of sustainable systems on the environment. Students learn first-hand how the nitrogen cycle works and investigate the natural systems that rely on this process. They will be able to apply what they learn about bacteria to many other areas of study; they will explore where our food comes from and how our current food systems impact our environment. They will also recognize how water conservation is crucial in smaller communities and globally.