Welcome Back from Manuela

September 9, 2021

Schools are starting up — and so are our labs! Across the city and in NJ, students will finally be back to learn and farm in their hydroponic classrooms after a year away due to Covid.  Last year, we had the privilege of operating many of our labs as indoor farms while schools were closed, providing students and the local community with freshly-grown produce.  Now, we’re especially excited to welcome back returning students and to welcome for the first time students, teachers, and school staff in our 34 new partner schools.  To our 170+ partner schools, we hope you’re ready to learn and grow!

Behind the scenes, the NY Sun Works team has been working through the summer to get ready for the start of school.  Our Greenhouse Support Team built 34 new labs and made sure all of the active labs are in prime condition for the first day of school.  Our Education Team expanded and revised our K-12 Farming Foundation unit, the introductory unit that takes teachers and students through how farming works inside the Greenhouse Classrooms, to make it even stronger and more user-friendly.  And that’s not all: we’ll launch our expanded middle school curriculum and new high school units in Biochemistry later this fall, and will be hosting additional professional learning seminars to continue to support our partner teachers.  As if that wasn’t enough, 25 additional labs are scheduled to be installed by the end of 2021.  

To everyone — teachers, administrators, school staff, and especially the student farmer-scientists – we wish you a safe, healthy, and productive school year.  Welcome back!