The sound of water takes over the Aquaponics lab at Westdale Middle School. Aquaponics is a type of agriculture that uses farmed fish to grow fresh produce.

"In this instance we were looking at fish being grown," Foreign Affairs Administrator for the U.S. Department of Agriculture Daniel Whitley said. "And we're using the nitrogen and waste products to also grow plants, vegetables, various lettuces and those sorts of things."

Wednesday morning, students gave Whitley a tour of the lab.

"So the water flows through here and into the clarifiers, which just kind of cleans some of the water."

Representatives for LSU and Southern Ag schools took the tour as well. The LSU dean, Matt Lee, was so impressed that he offered a new proposal on the spot.

"I think the next step in our relationship here is [that] I would like to propose that we establish a 4H partnership with Westdale Middle School, we're going to get it off the ground, and we're going to give these young people the set of tools to augment what they're learning here," Lee saod.

Students get hands-on knowledge of how to care for the fish and grow the crops.

"Agriculture is the one commodity that we need to sustain life," Whitley said. "A lot of people don't understand that and what they're learning now, what we're pouring into these students, they are learning a skill set that they can carry with them for the rest of their careers and lives."