BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//MI Water Stewardship - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:MI Water Stewardship
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://miwaterstewardship.org
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for MI Water Stewardship
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/Detroit
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20250309T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20251102T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20260308T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20261101T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20270314T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20271107T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20260114
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20260115
DTSTAMP:20260519T205103
CREATED:20251226T153052Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20251226T153052Z
UID:10000624-1768348800-1768435199@miwaterstewardship.org
SUMMARY:2026 Aquaculture Challenge
DESCRIPTION:Registration is now open for the 2026 competition! To register\, submit this Google Form by January 14\, 2026. \nThe Aquaculture Challenge engages students in STEM learning\, innovation\, and career development by developing aquaponics systems and business plans. \nThe Aquaculture Challenge is a collaboration between the Great Lakes Sea Grant Network and Lake Superior State University (LSSU) and is co-chaired by Michigan Sea Grant. This science competition engages students in grades 6-12 from around the Midwest in a four-month venture to: \n\nBuild and monitor aquaponics systems\nCreate business plans\nPerform a community outreach project\n\nHow to participate\nThe Aquaculture Challenge is a competition open to teams of 6th-12th-grade students with an adult coach or captain. Teams can come from rural\, urban\, and suburban schools or homeschool groups in Michigan and the surrounding Great Lakes states. New and returning teams are welcome; Michigan Sea Grant staff provide start-up guidance and resources for coaches before the competition cycle begins each January. \nAccess the 2026 team manual (Google Doc) \nThe competition consists of 4 parts designed to engage students in a wide variety of hands-on STEM and humanities topics. \nTeams will: \n\nDesign and build an aquaponics system of any size.\nMonitor the system using chemical and physical monitoring. Bonus points are awarded for using automated monitoring systems.\nCreate a business plan for the system or a scaled version of the system; the plan can follow a for-profit or nonprofit model.\nPerform a community outreach project promoting healthy seafood consumption.\n\nThe competition comes with support such as: $150 stipends\, a virtual coach training and kick-off meeting\, a team liaison assigned to meet virtually with each team throughout the season\, and several electronic resources. \nTeams work from January to April to design and engineer table-top aquaponics systems. They spend the competition window monitoring and automating the systems\, crafting business plans\, and creating seafood outreach projects. Staff from Sea Grant and faculty and students from Lake Superior State University provide guidance and mentorship to teams and coaches throughout the process. \nThe competition ends in late April\, when teams submit their accomplishments virtually using videos and PDFs to capture their hard work. A virtual awards ceremony takes place in April or early May\, and winning teams receive trophies in the mail. \nRegistration is now open for the 2026 competition! To register\, submit this Google Form by January 14\, 2026. \nFill in this Google Form to join the Aquaculture Challenge email list and receive updates about this program and other K-12 aquaculture opportunities. For more information about the program\, contact Michigan Sea Grant Extension Educator Elliot Nelson at elliotne@msu.edu or 906-322-0353.
URL:https://miwaterstewardship.org/event/2026-aquaculture-challenge/
LOCATION:Multiple Locations\, MI\, United States
CATEGORIES:Science Competition
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://miwaterstewardship.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2026-Aquaculture-Challenge-2.jpg
ORGANIZER;CN="Michigan Sea Grant":MAILTO:miseagrant@umich.edu
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR