STEM Hydroponic Kits
The NY Sun Works STEM Hydroponic Kits provide students with the materials, instruction and curriculum to build and learn from their own passive hydroponic systems, which students assemble using just the contents of the kit and a recycled plastic bottle. The kits and their accompanying 10- to 13-lesson curriculum (depending on grade band) enable students, with teacher guidance, to grow, study, and run investigations with plants in the classroom or at home. They are designed to engage students with topics in urban agriculture, hydroponics and sustainability science, and offer students the opportunity to practice observation and data collection skills.
We’re excited to share that we will be offering the kits again in Fall 2023! For more information, or if your school is interested in requesting STEM Hydroponic Kits for the 2023-2024 school year, please email us.
Topics students and teachers can explore together with the STEM Hydroponic Kits include:
- How to start seeds in a hydroponic substrate
- How to care for plants as they grow by monitoring pH and adding nutrients on a regular basis
- How to track plant growth and development by creating personal crop calendars
- How to transplant seedlings into DIY hydroponic wick systems
- Plant life cycles, parts, and nutrition
- And more!
For more information regarding the availability of STEM Kits and other important events, please visit our Upcoming Events calendar.
In September 2020, NY Sun Works introduced our STEM Kit program to support hands-on science and sustainability learning during remote and hybrid learning. Compact and portable, the Kits were designed to engage students with topics in urban agriculture, hydroponics, and sustainability science, whether in the classroom or at home.
Teachers, students, and parents have been resoundingly enthusiastic about the Kits and accompanying curriculum as a learning tool and as a way to provide social-emotional support through nurturing a living, growing thing. The benefits of the Kits were confirmed in a 2021 study conducted by Knology, a social science research organization, whose report concluded that the Kits and accompanying curriculum “embody innovation, flexibility, hands-on learning, and critical thinking that meet the challenges of an uncertain education landscape created by the COVID-19 pandemic.” Further, “The NY Sun Works team was the engine for innovation and creativity in envisioning a resource that could cultivate students and educators during the pandemic.”
Last year, we distributed more than 5,000 STEM Hydroponic Kits to students for hands-on learning both in the classroom and at home. Schools used these kits to engage a greater number of students in hydroponic learning in addition to those who visited their farm classrooms regularly, for remote or at-home learning, or to give students a head start on hydroponic learning at schools anticipating the installation of a farm classroom in the future.
To learn more about the kits and their impact, download and read the full evaluation report by Knology, Impacts of NY Sun Works’ Discovering Sustainability Science.
