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35 New Hydroponic Classrooms Open on the First Day of School in NYC
NEW YORK, NY – NY Sun Works Executive Director Manuela Zamora congratulates the city’s school children returning to class today and announced the opening of 35 new hydroponic labs, bringing the total number of NYC public schools equipped with NY Sun Works Hydroponic Classrooms to 350 and students reached to over 130,000.
“Today, we wish every student a successful academic year. At NY Sun Works, we are especially proud that more students will return to schools equipped with a NY Sun Works Hydroponic Classroom. Thirty-five new labs are opening today across the five boroughs, providing K-12 students hands-on learning through urban farming. We are also proud to serve more special education students and English Language Learners this school year. Our commitment to inclusivity is unwavering, which is why we are bringing our innovative technology and curriculum to students of diverse backgrounds.”
“A sustainable future begins in the classroom. Together with our NYC public school partners, we are cultivating the next generation of scientists empowered to create solutions to global climate challenges. We wish everyone a fantastic school year filled with curiosity and discovery!”
Below is a list of all 35 schools where labs will open this fall:
Hunter College Elementary School
K068 IS68 Isaac Bildersee
K090 PS 90 Edna Cohen School
K097 PS 97 The Highlawn
K114 PS 114 Ryder Elementary
K122 Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-Tech)
K131 PS 131 Brooklyn
K153 PS 153 Homecrest
K199 PS 199 Frederick Wachtel
K249 PS 249 The Caton
K285 IS 285 Meyer Levin
K369 PS K369 – Coy L. Cox School
K401 Christopher Avenue Community School
K594 Gotham Professional Arts Academy
K654 Van Siclen Community Middle School
M475 Stuyvesant High School
Q071 PS 071 Forest
Q078 PS/IS 78Q
Q131 PS 131 Abigail Adams
Q144 PS 144 Col Jeromus Remsen
Q400 August Martin High School
Q585 Maspeth High School
R721 The Richard H Hungerford School
The Ascension School
The Birch Wathen Lenox School
X009 PS 9 Ryer Avenue Elementary
X032 The Belmont School
X110 PS 110 Theodore Schoenfeld
X228 Jonas Bronck Academy
X231 Eagle Academy for Young Men
X277 PS 277
X439 Bronx High School for Law and Community Service
X469@X855 Bronx School for Continuous Learners
X670 Health Opportunities High School
X811 PS X811
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Professional Development Sessions
Are you a K-12 teacher at a NY Sun Works partner school interested in professional development and training? Do you have one hour on a Wednesday afternoon to get comfortable with our innovative online Learning Center and teaching materials?
To support education staff in the back-to-school season, NY Sun Works is offering Professional Development Sessions. Below you will find a short summary of the session, along with links that allow you to sign up for whichever timing best suits your schedule.
Who is this session for? Any K-12+ teacher currently working within a NY Sun Works partner school.
What will I learn at this session? Participants will receive an overview of our Learning Center and develop an understanding of how to navigate the system, access and modify the curriculum, and schedule the necessary trainings to get the year off to a strong start!
We will also review the curriculum, clarify the scheduling of teacher training and provide updates on both the curriculum and new content within the Learning Center.
Participants are encouraged to ask questions and pick the brains of our trainers.
Who is delivering this session? NY Sun Works’ Education Team will oversee the sessions.
When are these sessions being held?
Wednesday, September 4th, | 3pm | Register Here
Wednesday, September 25th, | 3pm | Register Here
How do I access these sessions? Sessions are all held virtually on Zoom. Just click on one of the links above to register.
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Horti Daily: NY Sun Works receives $500k USDA grant to provide teachers in partner schools
NY Sun Works Executive Director Manuela Zamora announced a $500,000 professional development and agricultural literacy grant (PDAL) from the US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA) to provide teachers in partner schools with comprehensive curriculum and technical training in hydroponic farming and sustainability science.
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NY Sun Works receives $500,000 USDA GRANT for urban agriculture and climate education teacher training
Welcome Back! What better way to start the new school year than with a $500,000-sized vote of confidence from the Department of Agriculture?
NY Sun Works Executive Director Manuela Zamora announced a $500,000 professional development and agricultural literacy grant (PDAL) from the US Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA) to provide teachers in partner schools with comprehensive curriculum and technical training in hydroponic farming and sustainability science. NY Sun Works joins a cohort of prestigious academic institutions that totals $7.1 million in grants among 14 awardees. The grant will also help to expand the organization’s professional learning content with new modules in classroom management practices in a hydroponic classroom setting and adapting the curriculum and classroom to support high level special needs.
“We thank the USDA for recognizing our excellence in urban agriculture and sustainability science education and providing this transformative grant to bolster professional development for science teachers at new partner schools,” said NY Sun Works Executive Director Manuela Zamora. “NY Sun Works is deeply committed to empowering our city’s extraordinary science teachers who are preparing the next generation of scientists, urban farmers and climate activists to help find solutions to climate change challenges and food insecurity in their communities.”
NY Sun Works’ three-year teacher professional learning program includes one-on-one curriculum and technical farming training and mentoring as well as group professional learning sessions throughout the school year. This “train the teacher” approach, provided by NY Sun Works’ team of educators and hydroponic farming professionals, enables teachers to confidently implement the nonprofit’s curriculum and use the hydroponic systems effectively as teaching tools, in turn supporting an optimal learning experience for the students and building student interest in and engagement with urban agriculture and the related foundational sciences.
The PDAL grant under the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s Education and Workforce Development program trains educators and school administrators in the food and agricultural sciences, helping them to develop and apply skills necessary for integrating food and agricultural science concepts in their classes; explore science career paths in agriculture as well as cultivate mentorships with leaders and faculty at four-year institutions. For more information about the grant and recipients visit this link.
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NYN Media: NY Sun Works celebrates 20 years of climate education and hydroponic farming
This year marks a big milestone for the science education program NY Sun Works, which was founded 20 years ago as a floating urban farm in the Hudson River. The program has since evolved into hydroponic farms in classrooms in more than 300 New York public schools, and its success has caught the attention of education leaders and environmentalists around the world.
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HARLEM WORLD: Manuela Zamora Commends AFT Resolution Backing Nationwide Climate Education Initiative
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NY Sun Works Receives $100,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to Support Climate Education
July has brought exciting news for our growing community as our Executive Director Manuela Zamora released the following statement last week after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency selected NY Sun Works as one of only three organizations in New York and New Jersey to receive $100,000 grants to support climate education.
“I thank and applaud the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for making a $100,000 investment in students who are living in heavily climate-burdened communities of New York City. This grant will allow NY Sun Works to deliver our urban agriculture and climate education program to 8 partner schools — four in Brooklyn, two in Queens, and two in Manhattan – building students’ proficiency in inquiry-based climate and sustainability science, enhancing their understanding of urban agriculture’s role in sustainable communities, and expanding teacher knowledge of climate and environmental science.”
“This significant commitment will support the hands-on urban farming experience and teaching of sustainability science and climate education for NYC youth while also expanding access to fresh, healthy produce for students and their families. This funding will help an estimated 1,600 students grow vegetables and herbs – seed to harvest – year round in the classroom, while improving their learning outcomes and enriching their academic career.”
“The severe heat wave happening in New York City today only underscores the fact that climate change is the most existential crisis of our lifetime. Students, teachers and educators are hungry for more sustainability science curriculum in their schools – and NY Sun Works is the only organization in New York bringing both state-of-the art hydroponic systems and comprehensive sustainability science curriculum into the public school classroom at scale. Our transformative program is proven to increase climate and environmental literacy for teachers and students. With the help of our supporters at the EPA, we are empowering a new generation of Farmer-Scientists bound to build more sustainable communities for us all.”
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School’s Out, But Sustainability Science is Always In!
Summer is officially here, which means Farmer Scientists in schools around the city are enjoying the warm weather and some fun in the sun. While most of our labs close down while students are away, some remain open through the yearly break, with plants growing from seed to harvest as temperatures soar outdoors. We’re loud and proud about our stance that sustainability should be a year-round affair, but what does it actually take to keep a Hydroponic Classroom running for 365 days and counting?
Most of our classrooms that remain open over the summer do so to support their aquaponic tank systems, which utilize fish like Tilapia to grow plants. These systems combine nutrients produced by fish waste with plants growing above to create an almost entirely self-sufficient system! As fish keep on swimming, the plants floating above help keep waters clean for their waterborne friends. However, due to the animal component of these systems, they need a little extra TLC and can’t be left alone for long periods of time. Instead, our Grow Support Team specialists stop in regularly to keep fish happy and healthy, and ensure the system itself remains clean and fully operational. Aquaponics aside, other labs whose campuses remain open continue growing and harvesting throughout the summer for a variety of reasons including community harvests and other special programs, making full use of their cutting edge hydroponic farming technology.
One such school who has remained open for summer is the Brooklyn Urban Garden Charter School (BUGS), where students in 4th and 5th grade Summer Rising programs are diving into hydroponics thanks to a grant from the 2024 Urban Farms and Community Growers Program, which is run through the NYS Agriculture and Markets Department. As part of this program, almost 80 students are using water-based farming systems and soil-based alternatives to nearly double the school’s yield of fresh greens and veggies, maximizing the productivity of their school’s green space. They’ll also work to build a distribution pipeline of what they harvest, taking crops grown at school directly from plant to plate by sharing with community partners like Mixteca and the Center for Family Life in Sunset Park (CFLSP), who serve migrant families and asylum seekers. And finally, building on the first BUGS Harvest Festival held earlier this year, the summer farming program will help students and community members become both teachers and learners when it comes to urban farming, growing deeper roots throughout the school’s Brooklyn community.
We’re keeping the fish company, diving headfirst into hydroponic farming, and getting ready once more to reopen the rest of our labs come the start of next school year. But as we continue growing throughout the summer, climate education remains the core of our mission. Students are learning in labs, and plants are growing alongside them as they learn about the climate. Our team is growing to meet the moment and better support our community, so check out our website to learn more about current opportunities, and follow us on Instagram for more insights into what’s happening in our Hydroponic Classrooms this summer!
