Aquaponics in HKUST

We hope you guys had an enjoyable Easter Holiday! You have possibly heard of the case competition “Go Green! Secondary School Aquaponics System Design Competition 2021”. If you missed the first deadline, here is your second chance! All the deadlines have been extended by 2 weeks so you can still apply. Seize the chance by informing your teacher about your interest on or before 14 April!

For more details, click the link in the bio!

We are organising the “Go Green! Secondary School Aquaponics System Design Competition 2021”🌱🐟

All S3-S5 students in Hong Kong are welcome to join the competition. Participants will design an aquaponics system for their school to demonstrate self-sufficient consumption on the campus. Also, a virtual tour to the HKUST Aquaponics farm and mentoring will be offered🤩

For more details, click this link: https://connect.ust.hk/gogreen-aqdesign

Posted • With creativity, everyone can turn waste into something valuable, and even profitable. Meet Helga Vanthournout from Drink without Waste and Kevin Shi from Green Paws to find out how we can all help reduce waste through sustainable consumption.

🔔Link in bio to register
🗓Date: 10 Mar (Wed)
⏰Time: 6:30 - 8pm
📣Our great thanks to Prof. Davis Bookhart from HKUST Sustainability Unit for serving as moderator to facilitate the discussion.

It’s time for hotpot🍲!!! Do you prefer organic veggies for your hotpot? 🍲 In general, organic food is farmed with non-GMO seeds, synthetic fertilizers or synthetic pesticides.

Hold on is organic food necessarily more environmental-friendly than conventional food? 🤔♻️ Scientists have carried out research on organic and regular food in detail and their impact on greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption and land needs. The result showed that no production method is clearly better for the environment. Organic systems use less energy but have similar greenhouse gas emissions. Organic farms use less pesticides but need much more land to produce the same amount of crops. As far as we know, organic food is not superior to regular one.

Organic and conventional farming both have pros and cons, the best way to produce food would be a combination of their best features. For individuals, eating fruits and veggies 🍎🥬 of any kind, not necessarily organic, would be beneficial to our health. 🏋🏻‍♀️ If you really care about the environment, you can eat less meat and buy local food that’s in season. Not only can these actions significantly reduce the resources needed to produce food but also the greenhouse gas emission generated due to transportation. 🚛 One of the purposes of our aquaponics farm is to produce healthy, fresh and tasty vegetables locally. 🤤

又到打邊爐嘅時候!!! 你哋鍾唔鍾意買啲有機蔬菜嚟打邊爐🍲？一般而言，有機食品係由非基因改造種子種出嚟，種植過程冇使用人造肥料同人造殺蟲劑。

究竟有機食品係唔係必定環保過普通嘢食？♻️科學家對有機食品、普通食品以及兩者嘅温室氣體排放、能源同土地需求展開研究。結果顯示並冇邊種生產方式明顯地對環境好啲。雖然有機耕作用少啲能源，但係佢同普通耕作嘅碳排放差唔多。即使有機農場用少啲殺蟲劑，然而佢佔用多啲土地。就我哋所知，有機食品並非高級過普通嘢食。

有機食品同普通嘢食都一樣有好有壞，最好嘅食物生產方法係將兩者嘅優點結合。對個人嚟講，食任何蔬果🍎🥬都係健康嘅🏋🏻‍♀️，唔一定要有機。如果你真係好注重環保，就應該食少啲肉，同買多啲本地而且當造嘅食物。噉樣做不但可以大大減少生產食物所需嘅資源，仲可以避免長途運輸製造嘅温室氣體🚛。我哋嘅魚菜共生農場其中一個目的就係生產一啲健康、新鮮又好味嘅本地菜🤤。

How’s everyone doing?🤔
Hope school working isn’t stressing you out as...
THIS IS JUST WEEK 5!😏
Hang in there and get enough rest.
A long journey is waiting for us🌱🐠🥳

Our story quiz ended perfectly yesterday! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
The correct answer is A. Tilapia! 💯🎉🎊

As mentioned in previous posts, an aquaponics system is a closed-loop system between plants🌱, fish🐟, and bacteria🦠. Our Tilapia are doing a great job in providing nutrients for our cute plants to grow😊.

We chose Tilapia mainly due to its high adaptability. Tilapia not only can be found mainly in freshwaters, e.g. shallow streams, ponds, rivers, and lakes🏞️, they can also be seen in waters with lower oxygen level. More importantly, Tilapia are omnivorous, which also consume water plants and debris.

In the future, we are also planning to try on different fishes🐟🐠 or even shrimps🦐 to keep on searching on which suits our system the best to maximize the efficiency of our aquaponics system🐟🐠🌱.

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我哋琴日嘅問答遊戲已經完滿結束咗啦！👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
正確答案係 A. 非洲鯽魚！💯🎉🎊

先前我哋提及過，魚菜共生係一個由植物🌱、魚🐟、同埋細菌🦠組成嘅自我循環系統。而我哋嘅非洲鯽魚就為可愛嘅植物提供咗重要嘅養分好讓佢哋茁壯成長😊。

我哋揀非洲鯽魚最主要係因為佢有非常強嘅適應力。除咗可以喺比較淺嘅河流同埋湖泊🏞️見到佢哋嘅之外，大家都有機會喺溶氧較少嘅水裡面見到佢哋㗎。更重要嘅係，非洲鯽魚係雜食性動物，水中植物同埋碎物亦都係佢哋嘅主食。

係未來，我哋亦都準備會嘗試用唔同嘅魚類🐟🐠，甚至係細蝦🦐，去搵出邊一種同我哋個系統最夾，從而幫助提高我哋魚菜共生嘅效率🐟🐠🌱。

What's your staycation activity? Do you like sharing that with your friends?🤩
Many of our plans have also been forced to changed bcos of COVID-19 🦠 . We have to adopt other delivery methods to continue our education plan on the HKUST aquaponics farm🐠🌱. All campus and aquaponics farm visits, or even f2f meetings have to be cancelled, and this is quite disappointing. So what can we do to cope with this situation🤔? How can we provide interesting info to public virtually💻? What can we do at home instead 🏠 ?
Despite being affected by the pandemic, we would still like to give some updates on the system. Now, we are also keeping a mini aquaponics system at home as a staycation activity😽.
Remember, wash your hands and stay safe💦! Also stay tuned for updates on our mini aquaponics system🤪!

困左係屋企甘耐，你最鐘意做啲咩活動呢？你會唔成日post上網同朋友分享呢？🤩
因為疫情嘅爆發🦠，我地本來嘅計劃都被迫改變，所以只可以採用其他方式去教育大家科大嘅魚菜共生系統🐠🌱。所有嘅校園同設施參觀，甚至係面對面嘅會議都被迫取消，我地都覺得好失望，但都係度諗，我地可以點樣面對呢個情況🤔？我地可以點樣提供有趣嘅資訊俾大家💻？我地可以係屋企做咩啲咩🏠？
雖然受疫情影響，我地都希望能夠繼續提供系統最新嘅資訊，而家我地都開始係屋企放置一個迷你嘅魚菜共生系統😽。
最後記住要勤洗手同小心身體💦
同埋要留意我地下次嘅更新呀🤪！

🌾🐟
Check out our trip to Cambodia 2 years ago! 🗓Today is 31/7/2020 which marks our 2nd anniversary of our founding trip🎊. It's the trip which makes everything happens! 🎉
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In 2018 summer☀️, we went to Wat Opot Children’s Community as an experiment of using aquaponics on a practical ground🧪. In these 7 days, we met tons of limitations, from language barrier 🗣️ 🤷🏽🤷🏻‍♀️to equipment shortage🛠. Despite the challenges, we managed to build our system upon multiple make-shift tanks from household plastic storage boxes📦. It was both hilarious and amazing how we managed to pull it off🤣.

Although our primitive aquaponic farm was no longer functioning ❌after a few months, it provided us the foundation and inspiration 💡for continuing our research on aquaponic system. Thus we could one day return to Cambodia 🇰🇭 and build a much improved and truly sustainable aquaponic farm♻️.

Hope that the coming year we could go back and continue with our work there! Stay tune 😝!!!


Opot Children's Community

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After we have talked about aquaponics for weeks, we aren't introduced in person to you all🤔
So...
Let’s introduce the Education Team first! They are the ones managing this Instagram account💪🏻 Swipe right to learn more about the individual members on the team, and remember to hit Like🤪
講左科大嘅魚菜共生系統甘耐，我地都唔記得介紹返自己添🤔。首先登場嘅係Education Team，亦都係呢個IG account嘅小編💪🏻。想了解佢地多啲？甘就Swipe right去認識下佢地啦🤪