Pictured is an aquaponics system that Dr. Izursa and his students created. This system has goldfish on the bottom of the moving cart and it circles water from the goldfish tank up through the filters on the left, down through the plants.
Last week I was grateful for my ability to take a trip to UMD College Park campus and meet my fellow interns and see the moving parts of UME and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources on campus. Being on campus gave us a variety of training and opportunities to see and meet various staff involved in Extension. I really enjoyed experiencing campus with the other interns working in extension this summer. I noticed that we all have a lot of common interests and it was great to spend time with them, learn about their backgrounds and do leadership training to get to know them better.
I have visited UMD a few times, and knew it was a large school but I did not realize how massive the campus actually is. It was interesting comparing aspects of UMD to Salisbury University. I also was unaware that there was a farm on campus, which I really enjoyed visiting. I learned that the campus farm had horses, cows and goats for education purposes. It was also a great experience to get a behind the scenes of the labs and ongoing projects within the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. I appreciated every aspect of the tour, the memorable parts included visiting Dr. Izursa’s aquaponics lab, the green roof tour led by Mr. Michael Carmichael, Dr. Karen Rane's plant diagnostic lab and the campus farm tour. Dr. Izursa’s aquaponics lab used goldfish waste that went through a filtering process to fertilize plants. It was interesting to see how farmers could potentially implement aquaponics to their practice to be efficient and profit off of the fish and plant harvest. Dr. Karen Ranes plant diagnostic lab practices were slightly more familiar to me having taken microbiology. It was compelling to learn how her lab receives samples from all over the country, and the process they go through to identify the pathogen then report back to the client. The green roof was also beautiful to see and the campus farm was amusing to learn about the animals' role in education and their relationships with students.
After visiting campus, networking and learning about projects I hope to have a future in agriculture. Throughout the campus tour I was able to connect my background in biology to many aspects of the campus labs and even the farm. I have come to the understanding that I may want to further my education in animal science and strive to pursue a career that involves interaction with animals. My entire life I have had a passion for animals and I believe that learning more about them would be exciting and something I would be able to relate to. Although I may want to pursue a future involving animal science, I really enjoy all aspects of agriculture and being part of an organization that works directly to help those who devote their livelihood to feeding America. It interests me to be a part of an organization that improves the knowledge of the farming community and individuals who want to be a part of sustainable agriculture. I am very thankful for my trip to college park. It was a great experience!
This image was taken from the green roof during
the tour from Mr. Michael Carmichael. The roof
primarily consisted of succulents because they are
lower maintenance and can survive high temperatures
from the rooftop.
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