On Tuesday, October 21st, students in the Hydroponics class had the opportunity to showcase their astonishing work from the past few weeks.
Hydroponics began last year after three students in the Plant Science class took it on. The school received a grant that allowed them to get four of the Flex Farm towers from Fork Farms. Each tower is worth close to $5000; though highly priced, what they produce is worth the amount of money they cost. Every year, each tower is able to grow 394 pounds of produce.
Instead of having a small group of students take on this project, Mrs. Colangelo decided to turn it into an elective science class. The students used the Fork Farms program to go through training videos that taught them how the towers worked, how to fill them with water, and how to troubleshoot problems. After finishing all of these videos, the students had to plant the seeds into the slots in the towers, which ended up being lettuce and dill. Each day, they use a special reverse osmosis water to water the seeds.
During their harvesting day, the students harvested what they had grown in the towers. They each took turns picking the lettuce and dill from the towers, and then cutting it up. After it was all cut up, they placed it out to be served to their peers during lunch. Previous to lunch, a small group of students took it upon themselves to create a dill ranch recipe to be served on top of the lettuce.
The advisor, Mrs. Colangelo, expresses how pleased she is with the students’ work these past few weeks. She says, “They just light up when they get down there to show [food services director] Mr. Breneman and ask questions. We tasted our own lettuce; it was so good.” She adds that on top of being engaging, it is also very scientific. She challenges them to make charts using the scientific data they gather from doing the towers and just work together. Mrs. Colangelo also explains that this program educates the students about food security: “It teaches them how there are people who have food security… It is actually making them global citizens, as well as local, because we get to feed the kids our lettuce.”
Senior Alex Searles is one of the students in the class who has had the opportunity to work with the towers. He believes there are many benefits to using a hydroponic system. He explains that, “You get more crop yields because it is easier to monitor the plants. It also takes up less space and reduces carbon emissions; we also do not have to use any pesticides.” Searles adds that the usage of hydroponics is known to be the future of farming because of the abundance of crops that it is able to produce. He says, “One space can produce more crops than the size of our cafeteria.” Searles also shares that the only instructions they were given were how to use the towers and where the seeds were, giving students responsibility for the success of the process. Specifically, they pick what they want to plant, plant it, and manage the daily care based upon the data they gather.
Junior Macy Sinden was another student who worked with the towers; in particular, she was involved in the growth of the dill. When asked why they decided to make dill ranch, she responded: “We wanted something easy and simple to make using our dill instead of something that takes weeks, like pickles. We also wanted something that would pair well with the lettuce we grew.” Sinden also shares that she feels as if there are many benefits of using the towers vs. using farming. These benefits include the produce being much healthier than that sold at grocery stores and the towers being able to grow much more produce than traditional farming. She finishes off by saying that she enjoys being able to grow produce for the school and having the responsibility of taking care of the plants.
Superintendent Mrs. Hutchinson believes that the towers are so much more than just the food they are creating. They are giving the students an innovative way to learn new skills. She explains, “It is teaching them sustainability, how to care for things themselves, and how to be more self-sufficient because they have the ability to grow their own food.” She also adds that the bond that is being created throughout the many departments is also a positive outcome of using the towers. She adds that she has hopes of expansion for the program in the future: “I would love to see the program expand especially down more to the middle school and elementary school. I think that knowing that you can grow your own food, feed your peers…be innovative, and lead change in the building is super important in terms of skills.”
Junior Maddox Hutchinson was one of the students who had the opportunity to try the lettuce during lunch. He explains his opinions on it: “It was good and it tasted very fresh.” He adds that he thinks it is better than the one bought at a grocery store not only because it is better for you, but it also tastes better. Overall he liked it all: “I feel like you can’t really mess up lettuce, but I liked it. I think my favorite thing about it all was probably the dill dressing.”
We are incredibly proud of the Hydroponics class as they continue to utilize the tower system and create more produce for their classmates.
