NY Sun Works Learning Center Updated for Remote Learning

Our NYC teachers have done incredible work to quickly move our students to remote learning following the sudden schools closure last month.  To help teachers adjust to this new reality and to continue the science and sustainability education of the hydroponic classroom, NY Sun Works has updated the online Learning Center to include a new section, Lessons for Remote Learning.  We have pulled from our entire curriculum, lessons for grades K-8, that do not require direct interaction with the hydroponic systems, but connect with them through concepts, images, NY Sun Works reports, and exciting videos of our maintenance team conducting investigations at home. The lessons are available through the NY Sun Works Learning Center, our online teacher hub. Our initial focus has been on K-5th and 6-8th grade lessons, which are now available. Work on High school learning options is underway.

The remote learning lessons have been designed to give teachers immediate tools to continue the science and sustainability lessons they started in their greenhouse classrooms, and can easily be shared with  students through the Google Classroom platform.  The lessons can easily be student-driven, or facilitated by a parent, and do not require the virtual presence of the teacher.  Resources such as NYSW Reports are included in the lessons, as well as easy instructions for downloading and sharing with your students.

To further bring the hands-on science lessons home, our maintenance team is currently conducting a selection of investigations in their own homes!  They are doing the experiments the same way that the teachers would have done in their hydroponic classrooms, and sharing their results via video.  But they are also adapting the experiments so that students can replicate them in their own homes with items they have on hand.  For example, instead of using rockwool, students can use cotton.  Each video will be accompanied by a lesson that can be shared through the Google Classroom platform. These videos, which will be available on the Learning Center soon, will be a great way to help students navigate the experiments at home, but also have a chance to “see” their NY Sun Works maintenance staff! New investigation videos will be uploaded weekly, so be sure to continue checking the Learning Center.