Dale Minyo of Ohio Ag Net recently interviewed Kelly Lewis, Bioscience Technologies teacher at Eastland-Fairfield Career and Technical Schools in Gahanna. Lewis was introduced to GrowNextGen through a summer workshop a few years ago. Now she uses those resources in her classroom.
Lewis has set up an aquaculture lab, growing tilapia and having the students do nutrient testing and assessing the benefits of soy feed compared to fish meal. “They really liked the soy ice-cream that we made,” she joked. “Mostly, they’ve appreciated seeing the application of biotechnology to something other than health sciences, which is what suburban kids typically get.”
After a field trip to the Ohio State University’s Department of Food Science, some of Lewis’s students were inspired to do their senior capstone projects on ag-related topics. One student is working with a researcher, looking at different oil composition in soybeans.
Lewis said one of her favorite parts of the GrowNextGen website is the curriculum section, with many different lesson plans on a variety of topics “from GMOs to chicks!” She said her experience with GrowNextGen has changed the way she teaches.
