Grantee: Diane Bezdicek – Reading Recovery Teacher, Hillside Elementary, District 833
Project Title: Growing Young Minds with Tower Gardens
Grant Amount: $3,000.00
Utilizing state-of-the-art vertical aeroponic Tower Garden technology, our grant project allows 150 students in grades four and five to engage in foundational science and math skills by growing their own food year-round in their classrooms. We purchased two complete Tower Gardens with grant funds. A Tower Garden is a compact, state-of-the-art, vertical aeroponic growing system. It is easy to assemble and maintain by using grow lights. Tower Gardens provide students with a daily opportunity to observe, collect data, and journal the growing process as they learn to maintain their classroom garden. The young, healthy scientists also gain an understanding of the role technology and engineering innovation plays in modern food production. With three to four annual harvests, students were provided the opportunity to touch, smell and eat what they grew, and experience the pride that comes with tending to their own crop. While nurturing their plants, each student is also tending to their health by learning about vegetables and their connection to health and well-being.
Positives: This project is cross-curriculum in that students are journaling, drawing, and measuring the growing process. Students learn where their food comes from, take ownership of the plants, and learn lessons like how sometimes seeds do not grow even with light and nutrients.
Challenges: One of the timers on one of the units would switch off affecting the watering process, but it was fixed.