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Public Group active 4 days, 9 hours ago

For teachers interested in integrating windowfarms into their curriculum.

Brainstorming: Lesson R&D-I-Y (4 posts)

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  • Avatar Image James Nutter said 1 year, 6 months ago:

    Hello fellow educators! I think it is about time we start putting to use the philosophy behind WindowFarms for the benefit of our classrooms. R&D-I-Y lesson edition. Considering we have this website, group, and topic, why not utilize it for centralized collaboration on making some exciting and relevant activities, lessons, and curricula that other teachers can use to drive or inspire their classrooms?

    Some thoughts I have off hand:
    Aquaponics and ecosystems – Looking at a system that uses a fish tank as the nutrient source, delving into the ecosystem present between fish and plants. Use as a stepping stone into larger ecosystems, and the interrelation of systems in general.
    Hydroponics and plant biology – This one is pretty obvious I would think, I think that using hydroponics for plant biology is ideal because you can really see the root system, and be aware of exactly what goes into the plants. Also, it isn’t as messy, and takes up less space in a classroom or greenhouse.
    Social impact of home growing – Looking at the benefits of the most local food one can eat. How much is enough to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions in transport of food products? Should we grow all of our own food? What would this transition mean for our society, and or economy?
    Freshness, Oganicism, and Plant chemistry – A look into what a truly ‘fresh’ vegetable is. Most of what people eat is picked prematurely and allowed to ripen in transit, what effect does this act have on the nutritional value of our food? How is purely organic and truly fresh compare to the over processed, over transported, mass-produced food that we commonly eat?
    Community design and R&D-I-Y – Why are we so driven to live by others’ standards, buying pre-fabricated, new and wasteful products, when we could create our own, intuitive, more-appropriate-to-specific-needs products? How does collaborative, mutual-goal oriented development compare to competitive, egocentric development (i.e of ideas, products, answers, etc.)?

    I tried to think of some that would tie into multiple cotent areas. Anyways, these are just initial jump-off points, I hope that people will jump in and help think up some encompassing and interesting curricula, feel free to brainstorm in any capacity in this forum, more jump-off points, questions, developments on these posted, actual practices, tie-ins, frameworks, anything at all. The more we think together, the more developed the ideas will become!

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  • Avatar Image mccoolcg said 1 year, 6 months ago:

    I am hoping to use a WindowFarm workshop as a fundraiser and service-learning project for my debate team. Here in Seattle we have the Seattle Zero project which is the local movement to make Seattle the first carbon neutral major city in the U.S.

    As a debate project we would focus on socio-political issues. We would direct people towards the Victory Garden movement during World War II, how the cost of living index has risen over the years and how the chunk representing food has actually shrunk despite less gardening than ever, historically, in the U.S.

    Other discussions would be about the cost of growing/transporting food, outbreaks and food born illnesses/diseases/bacteria that becomes more likely in a mass produced environment. Mono-cultures, Monsanto seed intellectual property rights vs. the right of the people to grow food/feed themselves (Monsanto is the company that invented “Terminator Seeds”). Etc.

    Other thoughts would be a potential to focus on Urban Renewal. Pointing out that living near a park or “green area” increases lifespans. As a potential tool to transform malnutrition and poor nutrition in poor, urban areas where the nutrition chart consists of McDonalds, KFC, and Taco Bell because their $1 menu is cheaper than anything remotely healthy and life-sustaining.

    Furthermore, NASA studies have shown that growing plants indoors is one of the best ways to increase the air quality in your homes. HEPA air filters are fine, but they don’t do anything to deal with various chemicals and gases that are inherent to every household.

    For me, this is an access point towards local activism, movements, and grass-roots politics as a lesson, as well as an opportunity for some publicity for the debate team, which is much needed. It took almost 8 months for the front office at the school to even figure out that we had a debate team/program at the school!

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  • Avatar Image James Nutter said 1 year, 4 months ago:

    You have some great thoughts in there! I really like the point about food borne illnesses, hadn’t thought about that aspect, but is definitely a huge possibility for discussion. Urban renewal is a BIG one, some great parts of this all is that it is cheap/ recycled, so much potential for utilization in non-affluent communities. In the long run, it could be a way to make cities not be noxious. It is definitely an in for the social/ political side, I am an English teacher, so I won’t be doing the nitty-gritty measurements/ experiments, but I think that it is a good example of innovation that isn’t mass-market. Also the whole aspect of R&D-I-Y and crowdsourcing is a big topic that I think many would slide over. But it is an extremely innovative approach to design and production, one that should be highlighted in class, because it is more like what students will likely see in the future due to the drastic changes in communication technologies.
    Good call on the use in your debate program, using something this current is definitely an interesting way to draw in people’s interests!

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  • Avatar Image Jean said 1 year, 3 months ago:

    Gentlemen,
    It is exciting to read good ideas and suggestions to do with students. I would not have thought of a fundraiser. How exactly do you plan to raise funds through the window farm? I teach Biology and Ecology and am the advisor of our science club Green Team. We are serving healthier lunches one day a week at our campus as one way to raise funds. The window garden is a wonderful idea and I was planning to set up a hydro garden with tiny tim tomatoes last semester but the time was not right and our campus is undergoing a huge increase in student population and decrease in space. I may continue my intention for the the garden, but I would appreciate ideas on how you will use it to support your debate team – which is also a great idea.

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