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This teacher needs your help!

Mr. Dukes from Tucson, AZ is requesting lab equipment through DonorsChoose, the most trusted classroom funding site for teachers.

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Cultivating Health and Sustainability: Empowering and Inspiring Students Through Aquaponics

Help me give my students the thrill of stewarding their own vibrant, diverse, aquaponic ecosystem in our classroom, which will also enable them to grow their own healthy food as part of a thriving community of aquatic plants and animals!

  • $941 goal

This project expired on July 20, 2025.

This project expired on July 20, 2025.

My Project

Our project will provide students with hands-on opportunities to learn about and manage their very own aquaponic system! Our long-term vision centers on our garden as the jewel of our entire campus, inviting students, staff, and community members to explore, learn, and connect to one another in a beautifully diverse, educationally engaging, nutritionally rich, environmentally sustainable system. Our garden would benefit greatly as a teaching space by including indoor aquaponics, which is why we need tanks, lighting, and the Aquasprouts 10 Gallon Garden. Aquaponics systems represent a key area of sustainable agriculture in the future and would provide our students with experience managing the systems’ technology and ecological relationships.

The systems are also beautiful and interesting to observe, sparking students’ imagination for what’s possible in sustainability!

Our goals are to inspire and excite students with the possibilities of sustainable agriculture. The project will engage students, helping stoke their interest and create a memorable connection. It will also provide students with experience and confidence with the tools of aquaponics. This small system will be accessible, allowing students to work closely and benefit from the responsibility of managing their own projects.

These materials will be used to teach students to enhance their own food security by growing fresh and healthy food. Teaching students to use indoor aquaponics ensures that they can always grow food, even if they lack access to traditional outdoor space.

The primary need that this project will address is food insecurity for our students and families. This project will serve both RUHS and UHS on our shared campus. This need is pressing, as 1,218 RUHS students (54%) qualify for the free/reduced-cost lunch program. Additionally, RUHS has Title I status, identifying it as having a “high number or percentage of children from low-income families” (AZDE, 2022, https://www.azed.gov/titlei).

Mr. Dukes University High School Grades 9-12

Equity Focus

This project directly supports students at a historically underfunded school. Learn more about our Equity Focus.

This project will directly impact historically underfunded classrooms.

Tucson, AZ View local requests

More than half of students from low‑income households Data about students' economic need comes from the National Center for Education Statistics, via our partners at MDR Education. Learn more

400 students impacted

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Where Your Donation Goes

Where your donation goes
Materials Cost Quantity Total
Aqueon Aquarium Fish Tank Starter Kit with LED Lighting 10 Gallon Fish Tank • Amazon Business $93.89 2 $187.78
Aquasprouts 10 Gallon Garden • Ward's Science $152.96 1 $152.96
hygger 22W 24/7 Lighting Aquarium LED Light, Sunrise-Daylight-Moonlight Mode and DIY Mode, Adjustable Timer Adjustable Brightness Fish Tank Light with Extendable Bracket 7 Colors for Planted Tank • Amazon Business $47.99 2 $95.98
Barrina Plant Light, 144W(6 x 24W, 800W Equivalent), 2ft T8, Super Bright, Full Spectrum led Grow Light, T8 Integrated Growing Lamp Fixture for Indoor Plants, 6-Pack • Amazon Business $68.59 1 $68.59
Submerged Aquatic Plants Set for 5- to 10-gal Tank • Carolina Biological Supply Company $22.05 1 $22.05
Tetra PRO PlecoWafers 5.29 Ounces, Nutritionally Balanced Vegetarian Fish Food for Bottom Feeders, Concentrated Algae Center • Amazon Business $3.99 5 $19.95
Live Amazon Sword Plant (Echinodorus • Ward's Science $18.06 1 $18.06
Myriophyllum Living Pack of 12 • Carolina Biological Supply Company $11.30 1 $11.30
Ceratophyllum Living Pack 12 • Carolina Biological Supply Company $10.62 1 $10.62
Ludwigia Living Pack of 12 • Carolina Biological Supply Company $10.62 1 $10.62
Chara Living Pack of 12 • Carolina Biological Supply Company $10.48 1 $10.48

Materials cost

$608.39

Vendor shipping charges

 $108.46

Sales tax

 $43.50

3rd party payment processing fee

$9.13

Fulfillment labor & materials

$30.00

Total project cost

$799.48

Suggested donation to help DonorsChoose reach more classrooms

$141.08

Total project goal

$940.56

Our team works hard to negotiate the best pricing and selections available.

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