Vision

To encourage students and their families to grow their own vegetable and eat healthier.

Action

Our hydroponics garden helped many of our students grasp scientific concepts in a way that was real and tangible. We set up our hydroponics garden in our school hallway so all of our students and staff, plus community members when they visit the school could see the plants growing. Our Environmental science students assembled the hydroponics and planted the first seeds. Once the plants started growing they were responsible for measuring and recording the pH of the water each day and if there was any change they would discuss what they thought may have caused a drop or rise in the pH levels. They were also in charge of adding water and nutrients to the plants as they got low. This provided many opportunities for assignments that they could connect back to our hydroponics. This includes connecting the units on uses of the environment both land and water, as well as air quality units.

The intermediate sciences also utilized the hydroponics set up to cover topics on soil quality and ecosystems. Science 1206 visited the Hydroponics hallway to explain the growth process through the carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, and oxygen cycle. They also used it to explain limiting factors as well as biotic and abiotic factors that affect different biomes.

Many classes then used their knowledge from Nutrition to make a salad and pesto out of our freshly grown vegetables, which some of the students really enjoyed, while other students were skeptical upon trying. Overall, the benefits of this hydroponics kit has been insurmountable, and the deep learning that has taken place is truly wonderful to see. This is something that our science students will continue to use in years to come and hopefully encourage more nutritional eating among our students and families. Upon growing vegetables in our school this now has spiked interest for some of our students to plant vegetable at their homes over the summer .

The Primary / Elementary students in our school were very eager to learn and see the plants grow. Even though they did not directly deal with the hydroponics system, the students in grades K – 6 were able to view the plants growing and have discussions about plant growth and nutrition.