New Greenhouse Will Grow Class Offerings at Ivy Tech Community College in Fort Wayne
New Greenhouse Will Grow Class Offerings at Ivy Tech Community College in Fort Wayne
This architectural rendering by Design Collaborative provides a view of the greenhouse now under construction on the North Campus of Ivy Tech Community College in Fort Wayne. The greenhouse, which is scheduled for completion this fall, will include space for conducting soil and plant testing, growing produce and raising fish for food. (Courtesy of Ivy Tech Community College in Fort Wayne)
New classes will include fish farming, hydroponic growing and more.
News-Sentinel staff reports
Thursday, August 17, 2017 12:01 am
A new greenhouse scheduled to be completed this fall at Ivy Tech Community College in Fort Wayne will allow the college to offer a variety of new classes in its Agriculture and Hospitality Administration programs, a news release said.
The college released information about the greenhouse project after receiving a donation Wednesday from Old National Bank. The bank will donate $50,000 during the next three years toward construction of the greenhouse, which is being built on the southwest corner of the Steel Dynamics Keith E. Busse Technology Center on the college's north campus off St. Joe Road.
Old National also will donate an additional $11,000 over the next three years to provide scholarships for Easterseals Arc of Northeast Indiana clients to participate in an agriculture and culinary training program, a news release said.
The Old National contributions are among $486,000 in donations and grants from private individuals and foundations that will fund construction of the greenhouse, which will contain more than 3,000 square feet, the news release said.
Agriculture majors will use the greenhouse to do soil and plant experiments and to grow a limited variety of produce, the news release said. Hospitality administration majors will use the produce in their classroom cooking assignments.
“We anticipate our (enrollment) numbers to increase,” Kelli Kreider, agriculture program chair, said in the news release. “We also hope to attract a different audience wishing to learn how to grow food using nontraditional farming methods.”
The greenhouse will include hydroponic (plants grown without soil) and aquaponic (hydroponics assisted by farmed fish) systems, along with an area for raising fish and a “glass classroom” that also can be used as a growing space, the news release said.
New classes that will make use of the greenhouse will include aquaculture (raising fish), greenhouse management, hydroponics and wine appreciation, the news release said.