It’s now a cold January day in 2018 and the STEAM garden is still going strong. This winter we will be taking a look at how the productive the garden is, what is needs to improve, and prepare to plant a new batch of crops. The fact that we can grow nearly anything year-round is proving to be beneficial on a variety of levels.

The STEAM garden was nominated for an impact award last fall. The following video was produced to introduce the garden to the judges. Without any dialog, the video attempts to illustrate the social emotional learning benefits and how it functions mechanically.

A little pepper
To date, we’ve successfully grown a single pepper. My junior staff, Daniel claimed it as his own and when it’s ready he plans to eat it. Daniel left just before the New Year to visit family in Texas and this little pepper has surprised us by changing colors this week. Hopefully Daniel returns soon because I think this pepper will be ready to eat very soon.

YOUTH STORY

ATHENA

Athena and her watermelon seedling experiment.
Athena had been seeking a way conduct an experiment that involved the STEAM Garden. She decided she should see if she could grow a plant from a seed in a cup. She convinced some of the other kids to conduct the experiment with her. When she created this experiment, the STEAM garden had already been planted for a few weeks. Within a week the cups all had sprouts coming up. These sprouts grew rapidly and the kids took their cups home. Athena’s simple experiment alerted us to a problem with the garden. Her plants had sprouted and grew rapidly while many of the seeds we planted in the garden were struggling or had yet to sprout. This lead us to make updates, add a pumps and a sprayer system. Effectively the garden has since become primarily a hybrid hydroponic / aeroponic garden and the growth rate has significantly improved. Thank you Athena.