My Students

My students get excited about projects, especially projects about food. My students will design, build, and maintain a hydroponics growing system from the materials requested, recycled materials, and some common, household materials. Students will realize how easy growing nutritious food can be.

My students will be energetic and creative sophomores, juniors, and seniors in high school.

We are part of Boston Public Schools so all students reside in the greater Boston area. We have a very diverse student body (53% African American, 28% Latino, and 15% white). Our students take public transportation from all over the city and crave engaging and project based learning opportunities. This project will affect approximately 100 students this year, many of whom are ELL and SPED students. Our school has recently relocated from South Boston to the Brighton neighborhood. We are in an old, but beautiful building with a lot of space to build and go "green".

My Project

Students will use the materials provided to design, build, and maintain a hydroponic growing system, using techniques they've researched, to learn about sustainability, gardening, and green engineering. In groups, students will research growing techniques and submit a design for approval. The materials requested will allow students to pursue a variety of growing techniques including NFT (nutrient film technique), EFT (ebb and flow technique), and SAT (static aerated technique) among others. Students will then build their growing system and choose what type of plants they want to grow. Over the course of the school year students will monitor growing conditions and collect data about plant growth. Students will eventually be able to eat or bring home the plants they've grown. Materials include rockwool grow cubes, hydrocorn clay pellets, nutrient solutions, two CFL lighting systems, aerators/oxygen dividers and four submersible pumps, grow trays, netted pots, valves and tubing.

This project will allow students to build and collaborate something green and sustainable.

Students will take pride in engineering a creative and useful grow system for our classroom and to their education. Additionally, students will learn that growing nutritious food can be done with relatively basic materials and a little bit of ingenuity. Soilless growing will reinforce many environmental science concepts including land remediation from soil erosion, water usage, and nutrient cycles.