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Teachers in STEM: Full-Time Heroes & an Endangered Species
Sustainability and climate education have needed substantial, systemic improvement for some time now. But without teachers with feet on the ground (and sometimes, with smiling faces on Zoom calls), classroom studies would grind to a halt. Looking back over the past few years, it’s no secret that the U.S. is facing a shortage of STEM teachers, with schools nationwide reporting a continuous struggle to find and maintain qualified STEM professionals. With test scores in the realms of math and science on the decline and jobs in tech and medicine growing faster than ever, it’s critical that we address the dire need for more STEM educators.
Recruitment and certification programs for teachers in STEM fields have long grappled with this issue. Teachers in public schools have continued to face mounting challenges as our public education system struggles to meet the complexity of our present moment. Broader issues like the pandemic have also demanded teachers rise to new challenges, which can be offputting to those considering a teaching career. However, working in such close proximity to STEM educators has given us a deeper insight into the struggles faced by those delivering quality sustainability education to students around our city, and how to solve them.
Our mission is to equip young people with the knowledge to create a sustainable future, but we also want to continuously elevate and support the classroom leaders who make that mission possible. The programming in our farm classrooms is designed from the ground up to ensure teachers have easy access to a variety of support resources, are connected with peers in the field of STEM education, and feel confident exploring sustainability science topics alongside their students. In this season of gratitude (and all year round), we want to shout from the rooftops about the extreme importance teachers play in shaping our society. Thank you for all you do every day for the students, children, and young professionals around the world staring down a climate-altered future.
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Teaching Sustainability Science in the Big City
Building state-of-the-art hydroponic farm classrooms in schools around NYC is a challenge, but ensuring the teachers therein feel continuously supported is equally important in delivering quality sustainability science & climate education. One of the ways we offer that support is through our NY Sun Works Education Team, which provides year-round curriculum training and support to teachers as they teach in their hydroponic classrooms. In addition, they also design and continue to expand upon our NY Sun Works curriculum, which is a standards-based, year-round curriculum designed to guide students through their exciting journey as farmer scientists. But how do we design learning materials suitable for a student population as richly diverse as that of New York City?
Inclusivity is among the most important pillars supporting our approach to climate education. A deep emphasis on everything from culture and language to learning styles and classroom needs underpins the teaching materials we provide, ensuring that students feel safe and seen while learning about hydroponics, both in the classroom and at home. Similarly, differentiating the curriculum helps to provide an accessible and hands-on learning experience to students of all ages and backgrounds. Students enter our classrooms with varying levels of familiarity with climate science concepts. Our curriculum is structured in a way that both students new to sustainability science and climate education pioneers alike can expand their knowledge, learn new skills, and lead experiments alongside their peers. Additionally, keeping learning materials accessible and inclusive is a top priority, to ensure that the content of those materials is truly relevant to students’ lives. Diving into global concepts (such as water management or food waste) on a local level helps students connect broader issues with their local communities. In this way, the curriculum drives home core sustainability and climate science concepts, which we believe is a crucial part of what makes our program such a success.
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QNS.com: Astoria Queens Energy Tech High School Welcomes New Hydroponic Classroom
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NY Sun Works Brings Learning & Leadership to the Museum of the City of New York
NY Sun Works was honored to join one of the city’s preeminent educational institutions, the Museum of the City of New York, for a day of food-centric professional learning inspired by their newest exhibition: Food in New York. Our Executive Director, Manuela Zamora, shared the success of our program with science educators from all five boroughs during the day’s keynote presentation, highlighting the over 230 schools with NY Sun Works farm classrooms of their own, all of which are now sharing fresh, healthy produce with thousands of students (and their families)! Fabio Parasecoli, Professor of Food Studies at NYU also took to the stage for a discussion-based panel to elucidate foodways, food systems, and other food-related topics all within the complex context of New York City.
Our Program Development team, Megan Nordgren and Madeline Turner, also led teachers through the basics of hydroponics in the classroom, diving into how our program can be adapted to meet a wide range of learning styles. From District 75 & Title 1 to Transfer schools, it’s vital to our mission that students’ backgrounds and circumstances do not obstruct them from the climate education they both need and deserve. After wrapping up a brief introduction to the science behind hydroponics, STEM educators K-12 dove into a hands-on workshop, constructing passive hydroponic systems using simple materials all within recycled plastic drinking bottles. By using these tiny but mighty systems to grow adorable baby kale and lettuce sprouts in their own homes, teachers gain a first-hand look at the relative ease of the hydroponic growing process, as well as share in the joys of caring for a living thing of their very own.
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BronxNews12: Bronx School Celebrates Thanksgiving with Hydroponic Harvest, Thanks to Sun Club Grant
News 12’s Kurt Semder sits down with Dr. Dia Bryant, the executive director of the Education Trust New York, about the latest state math and reading test results.
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BKReader: NY Sun Works Opens New Hydroponic Farm Classroom in East Flatbush
Students enrolled in the NY Sun Works program are more likely to score higher on the 4th grade science achievement test scores, according data acquired by the nonprofit.
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NY Sun Works Brings the Harvest Season to NYC Public Schools!
Our Harvest Program is on the rise, and just in time for the autumn season! Engaging families with classroom learning and expanding access to healthy, fresh produce, this program is integral to our mission of delivering high-quality sustainability science education. Through take-home games, discussion cards, and regular distributions of leafy greens grown in our farm classrooms, the program extends science-focused learning beyond the classroom. By connecting our message about the role of urban farming in building sustainable, climate-resilient communities with students’ families, we’re able to support healthy eating and increase food security, while also integrating science into students’ daily lives.
The Harvest Program has the additional benefit of promoting parent involvement with their child’s education. Several studies have shown that students have better academic outcomes and improved social-emotional well-being when their parents are engaged with their education and curriculum. The produce and discussion cards included in this lesson encourage at-home conversations about healthy eating, where food comes from, and other science topics, helping students build confidence and self-esteem. As students share what they’re learning in school, their families feel increasingly connected to the classroom even when they can’t be physically present at the school, and are able to incorporate their own funds of knowledge into the learning experience.
During the 2021-2022 school year, the NY Sun Works Education Team piloted an updated version of the Harvest Program. Working with eight schools, all funded by the New York Power Authority, the team led professional development sessions and teacher training workshops, as well as assisted teachers with harvesting. Through a collaborative effort between the NY Sun Works’ Education and Greenhouse Support teams, we were able to gather data from principals, teachers, and students on the successes and challenges of The Harvest Program throughout its pilot year. We are excited to use this data to expand our efforts to all of our partner schools during the 2022-2023 school year, and make the Harvest Program and its many benefits a staple of NY Sun Works programming.
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A Bountiful Harvest: Year-Round, Every Year
We’re loud and proud about the benefits of hydroponic farming, and are excited to continue introducing hydroponics to the world of environmental education. From land conservation to resource management, hydroponics offers a variety of environmentally friendly ways to produce food while avoiding many of the hurdles faced by traditional outdoor agriculture. We were honored to share the benefits of hydroponics at this year’s North American Association for Environmental Education Conference held in Tucson, Arizona, and learn more about other initiatives bringing sustainability into the classroom. But what do the benefits of hydroponic farming look like exactly, and how do they play into our vision for a sustainable future?
Our ability to install fully functional hydroponic farms inside the diverse range of NYC classrooms speaks to their space-conscious design. With limited room for vast expanses of greenery, urban environments desperately need a way to produce healthy foods without the abundance of agricultural land available to rural farmers. Hydroponics opens a world of delicious leafy greens and fresh produce to city dwellers and presents the rural farming community with new methods of decreasing their dependence on agricultural land. By capitalizing on the verticality of hydroponic systems, we can benefit environmental restoration efforts such as reforestation and rewilding projects by proxy, and continue to minimize human impact on the natural environment without jeopardizing our food system.
Hydroponics also provides a sustainable alternative to outdoor agriculture, as farmers can control significantly more of the specifics involved in growing produce. Because hydroponic systems can be used indoors, their yield is year-round rather than seasonal, and not subject to weather conditions or dependent on soil quality. Temperature, light, humidity, and nutrient levels are all carefully controlled, making nutrient-dense food more accessible. Not only does this contribute to the overall stability of our food system, but it also can be used to help address food insecurity by introducing long-term food solutions to historically underserved areas. Similarly, it broadens the range of food options for cities like Tucson because their extreme climates and high elevations prevent much of their natural environment from being used for agricultural purposes.
Soil-less farming methods are also typically more resource efficient than their soil-based counterparts, which is a key consideration for desert cities where water is in short supply. Hydroponic systems don’t rely on saturation or soil absorption to help plants grow, and frequently utilize what are referred to as “closed-loop systems.” This means that hydroponics conserve and maintain the water supplies they use, which in our greenhouse classrooms, is actually purified rainwater! In these instances, a fully functioning greenhouse including 3 or more hydroponic systems can be operated year-round with limited or no reliance on external water sources. Similarly, hydroponic systems can grow plants more densely than traditional farming, meaning that smaller amounts of water can be used to produce a higher overall yield. For urban populations with limited natural resources, incorporating water-conscious agricultural methods like hydroponics into their food system could prove to be a considerable boon.
While there’s no perfect answer to any environmental issue, we can make small but meaningful strides toward a sustainable future by implementing solutions like hydroponics on a larger scale. Traditional farming methods employed by local agriculture have long supported us with the nutrient-dense foods we need to thrive, but we hope to continue to innovate alongside rural and urban farmers alike. With over 230 farm classrooms across the NY metro area, NY Sun Works hopes to set the bar for science educators and inspire a future generation of farmer scientists to build on the foundations we share.
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An Exciting Visit to Biosphere 2!
During their visit to the NAAEE conference last week, NY Sun Works leadership had the exciting opportunity to visit Biosphere 2 and experience its unique enclosed science environment firsthand. The glass structure is a large-scale example of controlled environment agriculture, in the same vein as the work we’re doing in our hydroponic farm classrooms, but instead utilizing soil farming and experimenting with a variety of climates. Meant to mimic Biosphere 1 (Planet Earth), Biosphere 2 houses seven model ecosystems including a mature rainforest with over 90 tropical tree species, a 91,818-cubic-foot ocean, and three desert hillslope grass-shrubland landscapes.
Located 20 miles north of Tucson, Arizona, Biosphere 2 is one of the most powerful initiatives in climate and sustainability research today. This 3-acre research facility is described as “a unique large-scale experimental apparatus”, and is easily recognizable by the iconic 6,500 windows which comprise the glass facility’s exterior. Since its main apparatus concluded construction in 1991, it has seen over 500,000 K-12 student visitors who are encouraged to view themselves as scientists. Known primarily for the 2-year research mission in which 8 men and women were sealed inside, living completely off the food, air, and water contained within, the facility’s diverse structure has provided us with deeper insights into complex environmental systems and their sustainability. Thanks to projects like Biosphere 2, the future of climate research and environmental education is looking ever brighter.
Learn more about Biosphere 2 Here!
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NY Sun Works Presents at National Education Conference
NY Sun Works was honored to present at this year’s North American Association for Environmental Education (NAAEE) Conference. Executive Director Manuela Zamora and Director of Program Development Megan Nordgrén attended in person in Arizona, alongside numerous other sustainability and education icons such as Kimberly Noble of the US Environmental Protection Agency, Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer of SUNY, Jerri Taylor of the Sustainable Forestry Initiative and Tucson mayor and environmental champion Regina Romero.
The first in-person conference held by the NAAEE in three years, this event’s focus lay squarely on the powerful role education plays in creating healthier, more sustainable communities. Attendees tackled today’s complex environmental and social issues and dove into vital topics in the field, such as climate change education and climate justice, the benefits of connecting to nature, building a green workforce, protecting biodiversity, and centering equity in our work. Virtual and in-person booths supplemented the conference with information about each of the participants, amplifying our message and helping create a network of informed, environmentally conscious education specialists.
NY Sun Works joined Alex Kudryavtsev of Cornell University and Chrissy Word of the City Parks Foundation to present on the topic of urban agriculture and how it can foster youth civic engagement. NY Sun Works also held another presentation on our science and sustainability program and the STEM Hydroponic Kits. The NY Sun Works booth was a big hit, drawing visitors from across the country to learn about how hydroponic farming can be used for the teaching of science and critical climate topics.
