Becoming environmentally friendly is something everyone is more aware of and trying to do. The students in Jessica Morgan’s science class at Salem Middle School are learning first hand its importance. This is increasing their knowledge for engineering, mind thinking and hand eye coordination skills. The kids learn all kinds of engineering techniques on how to fix, make, and produce something.
For Morgan's class, they are learning how to grow vegetables and herbs in the classroom. They are able to do this by having a fully funded “Grow Tower” in her room. She first found out about this Grow Tower when she visited another school in Plainfield, IN. She decided she wanted one for her students to learn with as well and began looking into different options. The Grow Tower was funded by a grant from the STEM Acceleration Program, allowing the students to learn to grow with the plants.
When Morgan was asked what she wanted the outcome of the project to be, she replied "I would like the students to learn where and how they get their day-to-day food, and how it gets to the store on the shelves then onto their dining rooms tables.” She added, “I would like for my students, and students around me to be more interested in agriculture and learning how to grow food.”
The Grow Tower can hold up to 20 growing plants at a time, holding 20 gallons of water. The Grow Tower waters the plants automatically every 45 minutes. On Mondays, Morgan has the students check the water levels and the Ph levels in the water. If the Ph levels are off then they add a Ph buffer, if the levels of Ph are too high they add a leveler. They also clean out all of the lime that gets built up in the water and on the surrounding base of the tower. Morgan also has a germination case where the starter plants sit in the case for four to five days. During this time the seeds start to sprout, after they sprout they sit for at least a week and then they can be put into the Grow Tower.
While the plants are in the Grow Tower, they go through a light process at the end of the day due to not being outside in natural daylight. The tower does get some sun through the window but not enough to keep them going without a light process. The light cycle is a 14-hour cycle. The lights are four long, thin arm-like structures that come from the top of the Grow Tower and drape down along the plants towards the floor, reaching just a few inches past the last row of plants. It sits upon a large pot that has wheels so that it can be easily moved and accessible to every angle.
When Morgan was asked if there were any restrictions as to what can be grown in the Grow Tower, she said, “Yes, they can only plant plants that are on the smaller side such as tomatoes, lettuce, chard, kale, basil etc.” Morgan added that another restriction is having the students’ and herself figure out how to pollinate the pumpkin plants. She said she is struggling with this because the plant tower is inside and there is no access to bees or bugs to pollinate like outside. It requires weekly and daily maintenance in order to keep plants growing strong and quite large.
Overall, the Grow Tower is a pretty phenomenal experience for the students. The students' minds are learning and growing right along with the Grow Tower.