From Seed To Harvest: Celebrating a Year of Climate Education
June 18, 2024
Summer is almost here, with schools hosting their final hydroponic harvests and students beginning to enjoy the sunshine. As we wrap up yet another year of climate education, it’s time to look back on some of our successes, and prepare for some of the amazing things still yet to come! From our annual Youth Conference to ribbon cuttings, harvests, science expos and more, there’s so much to be excited about when it comes to sustainability science in NYC.
This year, we hosted our first-ever Teacher Community Carnival, where educators from our partner schools came together for an evening of chit-chat and connection at Project Farmhouse in Union Square. A high note of the celebration was awarding our first NY Sun Works Educator certificates, which signify that a teacher has completed two years of technical training, hosted a harvest, and participated in NY Sun Works professional development sessions. We also introduced our newly revamped Farming Foundations curriculum, which this year received substantial improvements with new Climate Connections, which help students understand how their actions can influence the environment.
More recently, we made a wish for climate education in the new year, and thus far our wish has been granted as we plant the seeds of new partnerships around the city and welcomed nearly 100 new schools to our program! In February, we cut the ribbon at LaGuardia Community College with Representative Nydia Velázquez and University President Kenneth Adams, inaugurating one of the first post-secondary education partnerships of its kind. We also cut the ribbon on a host of other partner schools, where we look forward to growing alongside generations of young New Yorkers with sustainability in their hearts. We also launched our newly revamped website, which includes a map of all our school partners and beautiful new photos of our amazing NY Sun Works team!
In April, we welcomed the Harvard Business School Club of NY to the High School for Climate Justice, alongside members of our Board of Directors and students at the Manhattan high school. Members of the HBSCNY got a closer look at some of the cutting edge hydroponic technology used to grow food from seed to harvest, as students showed them around and even kicked off a harvest of their own! And shortly thereafter, we began preparations for our annual Youth Conference, where almost 1,000 students and educators from the five boroughs and beyond gathered at the Javits Center to present the independent climate science research they’ve been working on in their classrooms.
All in all, it’s been a year full of teaching, learning, and growing, both for us and our students. From little victories to huge successes, it’s been a whirlwind of climate education, and we couldn’t be happier to send off the school year with a bang. Whether you want to learn more about some of these events, or missed out on the magic that made them happen, check out our Instagram for snapshots into all the sustainability science that powered us through the 2023-24 school year!
