Aquaponics is the conjoined farming of fish and plants in the same system. Researchers have found that aquaponics can provide many educational and nutritional benefits to schools such as educational opportunities and access to fresh food, but many schools lack the funds to build them (School Systems, n.d.). This finding from previous studies sparked this study's question: How Can a High School Student with Little to No Building Experience, Construct an Inexpensive and Reliable Aquaponics System

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... for School Usage? To answer this question a convergent parallel mixed study was conducted, comparing the fish and plant growth, ease of maintenance, and construction of 2 different aquaponics systems, one of a raft design and another based on a pipe design. It was concluded that a pipe system would be better for schools, as it resulted in a better growth rate of both plants and fish, along with lower costs, easier maintenance and simpler construction.