Greenhouse Project FAQ

8/6/2019 Greenhouse Project FAQ

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http://nysunworks.org

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What is The Greenhouse Project?

The Greenhouse Project is a program of NY Sun Works created to improve environmental scienceeducation in urban schools. In 2003, NYSW created the model of a specialized 21st centuryenvironmental science lab by constructing NYC's first urban floating farm²the Science Barge. TheScience Barge was powered by wind and solar, heated with vegetable oil, and irrigated by rainwater.

The Greenhouse Project Initiativeis dedicated to bringing the concepts of urban sustainability andenvironmental science to NYC's schools. By constructing on-site science greenhouse laboratories,we aim to provide tomorrow's decision-makers²our youth²with a broader understanding of concepts of sustainability and urban agriculture as well as critical thinking skills which willenablethem to act in an environmentally responsible manner on a local, regional, and global scale.

What is a Greenhouse Project Science Laboratory?

The GreenhouseLab (that you will construct) is a hydroponic urban farm that serves as a sciencelaboratory to teach youth, ages 5-18.The space will educate students on the integrated concepts of plant science, chemistry, and environmental science as well as provide the opportunity to grow fresh,healthy produce for the school on site.

The greenhouse systems and tailored science education curriculum allow teachers to provide hands-on demonstrations on what are otherwise highly complex and integrated core science subjects:chemistry, earth science, biology, and food science.

A Standard Greenhouse includes:

A variety of hydroponic agricultural systems for the production of fresh, perishablevegetables; including a Vertical Agriculture system and an Aquaponic system.

Vermi-composting [worm] station and an integrated pest management system. A system for the collection of rainwater for use in the greenhouse hydroponic systems. A low-carbon winter heating system & low energy summer cooling system. Dedicated classroom space, SMART Board, and learning weather station.

How do we replicate this?

The Greenhouse Project can be replicated in a number of ways at your school facility. Working withthe NY Sun Work¶s team will enable you to design a system that meets your school communities¶specific needs and goals. The greenhouse is tailored to your community¶s vision and can range froma small, single scale system that relies on one or two systems, to a full scale environmental sciencelab. In order to ensure that teaching staff feel confident and well equipped to realize the facility¶s fullpotential as an environment education center, we will also advise on options and associated fees for

tying in the greenhouse systems with the development of specialized teacher training and curriculummaterial.

How much will it cost?

There are many factors to consider when estimating the cost of a greenhouse facility; includingexisting roof and/or site conditions, access, and agency and/ or entity site ownership. To date,project budgets have ranged between $212-$555/square foot and overall budgets have rangedbetween 350K-750K.



1Source: Dillon, Sam. N ew York Times. ³Few Students Show Proficiency in Science, Tests Show

January 26th, 2011.2Source: Obama, Barack. State of the Union Address. January 25

th, 2011. http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/01/25/remarks-president-

state-union-address http://nysunworks.org

What do New York Sun Works services cost?

We envision all Greenhouse sites as Partners in the promotion of innovative science education. Weare a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization and operate our organization based on standardfundraising activities including: foundation support, donor cultivation, earned income streams, andspecial events. The NYSW team offers a full range of services; from initial feasibility study,

fundraising assistance, through integrated system design, greenhouse systems assembly, systemcommissioning, and operator training.

Our costs cover engineering and design as well as installation of hydroponic garden systems andsystem equipment.These expenses are built into estimated projects costs and are typically a smallpercentage of the overall cost of the project.In addition to the build-out of the greenhouse, we trainoperators and teachers on the greenhouse systems and provide an innovative educationalcurriculum to site Partners.

Why are these labs important?

On the most recent nationwide science test, about a third of fourth graders and a fifth of high schoolseniors scored at or above the proficiency level,accordingtoresults released Tuesday. Only one or two students out of every 100 displayed the level of mastery that the federal panel governing thetests defines as advanced.1Numerous studies have proven that there is a critical missing linkbetween available educational opportunities and the skills necessary for the next generation tocompete and succeed in the workplace. This was also addressed as a critical issue by PresidentBarack Obama in his Jan. 25th

State of the Union speech.2In order for the NYC's youth to compete inthe global market, they will need to tackle the environmental challenges of our age: global climatechange, efficient use of water and energy, building greener cities, and growing a secure and healthyfood supply.

Why rooftops?

NYC is a densely populated, densely built environment and buildable ground space is extremelylimited. In addition, many schools have no yard or ground available at their site. There are anestimated 14,000 acres of unshaded rooftops in NYC that could feed up to 20 million people if

converted to hydroponic food production. There is an estimated 2 billion square feet of roof space inManhattan alone that has not been developed. Rooftops offer great potential and opportunity for innovation! Cultivation of food crops atop city buildings cuts transportation costs and greenhouse gasemissions, increases healthy food access, saves energy, and enhances the cityscape.

If your roof is not appropriate for a greenhouse due to a variety of potential technical constraints,there are a variety of ways that the Greenhouse can be incorporated at your school; such as utilizingyour school garden space²if available. An initial feasibility study will help your team understand themost viable placement for the Greenhouse at your school.

The Greenhouse Project Curriculum:

Our curriculum was developed based on the requirements set forth in TheN ew York State Science

Scope and Sequence.

A Greenhouse Project Laboratory provides the context for hands-on, project based scienceeducation. Environmental Science content addressed in the curriculum will include topics in biology,chemistry, physics, earth sciences, and the living environment. Topics such as food and health willbe integrated by helping students to understand where our food comes from, how it is produced, therelationship between our choices and our health, and the links between our food and theenvironment.




In addition to enhancing its science curriculum, a Greenhouse Project Lab will enrich the school¶sarts and social studies curricula by connecting nature to culture. Students will learn the relationshipbetween humans and the environment and will gain a greater appreciation of sustainabledevelopment and its direct relationship to cultural diversity.

An adapted version of the curriculum is being developed for motor impaired learners and will beimplemented at the Manhattan School for Children, PS333 site.

Who will teach these courses? Will they require training?

We require our partnering schools to commit to providing a teacher to operate the greenhouse as wellas teach classes. This is vital for the success of a greenhouse project laboratory.

NYSW¶s team of hydroponic designers and trainers supportGreenhouse sites with in-depth teacher training and ongoing technical and strategic support. In addition to direct support, NYSW linksGreenhouse sites with external support and guidance through partnerships with a variety of environmental education networks; including NY Academy of Sciences, Solar One, CornellCooperative Extension, and NYS Department of Conservation.

What do we do with all that food?

The by-product of a Greenhouse Project Science Lab is fresh produce throughout the year ² andhydroponic systems yield lots and lots of crops! There are many creative ways you can use theproduce and we can help you choose the best option for your school. To put it into perspective, thegreenhouse at PS 333 has the potential of growing approximately 7000 lbs of delicious fruits andvegetables per year. Here are some of the things we recommend:

Run a student operated farm stand. Form meaningful partnerships with local shelters and food banks. Use crops in the school cafeteria. Have a Community Harvest Celebration. Teach cooking lessons with truly local school food.



THE PROCESS


PHASE 1:Establish Greenhouse

Committee

(parents, principal/ admin)

PHASE 2:Partner with

PHASE 3:

Preliminary Design andFeasibility Study. Develop

Budget and Fundraising Plan

PHASE 4:Identify Construction Team

and Partners

(Architect, MEP, structuralengineers)

PHASE 5:

Construction

PHASE 6:

EquipmentStocking

PHASE 7:

Curriculum andTeacher Training

PHASE 8:

Operations andMaintenance

PHASE 9:

Teaching



Shakira Castronovo stood in a classroom at the Manhattan School for Children on West 93rd Street on a recent

afternoon and hushed a squirming group of kindergartners perched around a blue carpet.

Where do you think I picked this? she asked, pinching a leafy-looking thing between her index finger and thumb.

It was picked fresh just few minutes ago.

Someone wondered if it had come from the recess yard. Maybe from a farmers market? A minute later, a little girl

in pink came up with the answer. Greenhouse! she shrieked as her hand shot into the air.

This is called mizuna, Ms. Castronovo said, enunciating the new word. And we are finally ready to harvest some

of our lettuces.Mizuna? Its the kind of thing that adults put with other lettuces when they have a salad, she

explained. But you can still take a nibble.



The grown-up lettuce came from what its founders say is the first

hydroponic laboratory greenhouse on a New York City public school roof.

The garden will officially open Dec. 6. But plants are already sprouting,

making their way into classrooms.

Theres no soil in a hydroponic greenhouse, which captures and

recirculates rainwater to the roots of plants. In capable hands though

maybe not in 5-year-old hands the 1,400-square-foot structure can

produce up to 8,000 pounds of vegetables every year. It is an experiment in environmental education its founders

hope will be replicated in schools citywide.

Two mothers at the school, Sidsel Robards and Manuela Zamora, founded the greenhouse, inspired in 2008 by a

trip to the Science Barge, a floating urban farm docked in Yonkers. They got New York Sun Works, the nonprofit

green-design group that built the barge, interested enough to execute the greenhouse, a bright, open and

wheelchair-accessible space, covered by glass and entered from the schools third floor, that is essentially the

Barge on a roof.

It includes a rainwater catchment system, a weather station, a sustainable air conditioner made of cardboard, a

worm-composting center and solar panels. In the center of the room is a system resembling a plant-filled hot tub:

an aquaponics system home to a community of tilapia, whose waste is converted into nitrate. The system loseswater only when it evaporates to help cool plants, consuming only a tiny fraction of the water that a field of

conventional dirt does.

You basically can have this closed system, this symbiotic thing going on, where plants are eating food, creating

waste, youre converting it and then the plants are taking it up, said Zak Adams, director of ecological design at

BrightFarm Systems, which designed the greenhouse and the barge.

Including everything from permits to teacher training, the project cost about $800,000, most of which came from

outside the school community. City Councilwoman Gale A. Brewer and the Manhattan borough president, Scott M.

Stringer, provided grants.

Ms. Robards and Ms. Zamora, working in partnership with New York Sun Works, hope to spread the gospel of hydroponic farming to other city schools and are working to build a greenhouse at Public School 89 in Cypress Hills,

Brooklyn.

The food produced at the Manhattan School will probably go to a farm stand in the lobby, a nearby shelter or to

cooking projects in the classroom and cafeteria. But its founders are careful not to think of it as a bona fide food

production system.

Its important to remember that its a science lab and we want the kids to be able to fail, too, Ms. Robards said.

At its heart, the project is about making science both accessible and exciting in a natural way, said Ms.

Castronovo, the schools science teacher. Explosions always grab attention. But how many kids voluntarily eat

something weird and green and leafy? (We really, really, really loved the leaf, one kindergartner said near the

end of the mizuna lesson.)

In the summer, the center will be used for teacher training programs. But during the school year, it is Ms.

Castronovos classroom. When the kids get inside, she said, she plans to lead scavenger hunts to help familiarize

them with the room.

I want it to be a place that they respect, Ms. Castronovo said, but I also want it to be their home.



NEW YORKStudents at Manhattan School for Children

(MSC) on West 93rd Street guided tours through their new

science classrooma 1,420 square-foot, state-of-the artrooftop greenhouse on Monday. It is the first of its kind in

the city at a public school, a pilot project, which may expand

to 100 schools across the city over the next 10 years if

successful.

The greenhouse got its start when a small group of parents

banded together after visiting the Science Barge now docked

in Yonkers. They were inspired to create a similar educational

green space right on school premises. The barge is an urban

farm on the water, formerly run by state corporation New

York Sun Works.

The MSC parentsManuela Zamora, Sidsel Robards, Rebecca Edwardson and Nancy Eastonapproached New

York Sun Works to help them get The Greenhouse Project off the ground. New York Sun Works also put them in

touch with BrightFarm, a greenhouse engineering company that designed the barge, to incorporate the same

sustainable and energy-efficient technologies into the schools rooftop project.

Here while students grow their food, explained Zamora, they learn hands on about water resource

management, efficient land use, climate change, biodiversity, contamination, and sustainable developmentevery

child should have access to a hands-on science program like this.

While the garden has the potential to grow 8,000 pounds of fruit, vegetables, and herbs, the primary purpose of the facility is education.

A good education does not come cheap. The $800,000 project was mostly funded by private contributors, but

some public funds were allocated to the cause by Borough President Scott Stringer and Council Member Gale

Brewer.



We can totally change the way New Yorkers eat, creating healthier neighborhoods around the city. But it all starts

on our rooftops with our kids, said Stringer.

He is hosting a seminar Wednesday night (Dec. 7) at Greenwich Village School, P.S. 41 to discuss the future of

green rooftop learning facilities in public schools.

In addition to funding, permits, and space were obstacles to the development of this pilot greenhouse. The law

states that only one-third of a rooftop can be used for this purpose. MSC had to get a waiver as an exception to the

rule. Brewer has introduced legislation that would make the process of attaining such a waiver much simpler.

One of the bills that comes out of this discussion is getting some abatement for people putting greenhouses on

their roofs, stated Brewer.

The schools custodian, Mark Rubinsky, was a great help throughout the construction of the greenhouse said

Laurie Schoeman, managing director of New York Sun Works. Being familiar with the building systems in the

school, his enthusiasm for the project really helped it along. Essentially, many eager participants helped break

through barriers encountered in the establishment of this public school pioneer.

Weve worked through a lot of the obstacles, which will make it easier for other schools to follow, said Zamora.

Full Circle

The greenhouse cycles rainwater, uses hydroponics, and creates the many levels of a complete ecosystem, thereby

requiring few external resources.

There are fishes, pointed out fifth-grader Calvin Robards,

son of project founder Sidsel Robards, as he stood beside a

hydroponics tank with plants above and tilapia below.

When the fishes poop, the nitrate comes out of the poop

when it breaks down and it comes up here to feed the

plants, continued Robards. He then explained that wormsfrom the compost are used to feed the fish.

Little water is lost in the hydroponics systemmuch less

than is needed in the traditional soil method. Giant water

tanks will capture 40,000 gallons of rainwater a year. An

added benefit of capturing rainwater, aside from saving on

water obtained through the city is that less water will pick

up pollutants and carry them into the citys sewer system.

The greenhouse is herbicide and pesticide free. The kids are having fun raising critters to keep pests in control.

We grow ladybugs in our classroom to kill the aphids, explained kindergarten student Lucas.

There are predatory wasps that are harmful to humans, but can flatten the pests, added fourth-grader Jonah

Rohlfing. The wasps may not be used in the garden, but it is evident that the students are learning even beyond

what they are actually working on.

Proper insulation, heat blankets, a twin-wall polycarbonate roof, and solar paneling will reduce energy





January 26, 2011

Why are other countries doing better in

science than the U.S.?

By Sarah Butrymowicz

Students in the United States generally start to learn about the human eye in elementary school. Students in manyother countries, though, dont discuss the eye until eighth grade. At first glance, this difference would seem to

indicate that our eight- and nine-year-olds are receiving an advanced science education compared to their peers

elsewhere in the world.

But the disparity instead provides an apt analogy for the problems with the U.S. approach to science education,

according to William Schmidt, a professor of education at Michigan State University.

When our elementary school students learn about the eye, they

typically memorize the different parts and leave it at that.

Meanwhile, their peers in high-performing countries study the

basics of atomic structure and photons. When they first turn their

attention to the eye, in eighth grade, they know enough to

understand how one sees and they study how photons of light are

translated into electrochemical impulses.

American students memorize the facts while students in other

nations learn the foundational concepts that make complicated

processes understandable later on, Schmidt explained. In other

words, they see. We dont.

In 2007, the average U.S. fourth-grade science score was below

those in Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Japan, according to

the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study

(TIMSS). And in eighth grade, U.S. students were outperformed by

their peers in nine countries, including England, Hungary and theCzech Republic.

The downward trend continues after middle school. According to

the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)

results, 15 year old students in the U.S. ranked below 20

countries, including Estonia, Finland and Korea, and two regions in

China in science literacy. Shanghai, China came in first place, with their students averaging 73 points more than

their American peers. In a 1997 TIMSS study that didnt include Asian countries, U.S. students in their final year of



high school ranked well below students in 11 other countries, including Sweden, Iceland and Canada, in general

science knowledge.

Perhaps its no surprise, then, that by the time U.S. students get to college, interest in science is scant. In 2006,

only 29.3 percent of first-year male college students intended to study a STEM field and just 15.1 percent of first-

year females did. And even fewer actually complete these fields of study: out of over 1.5 million bachelor degrees

awarded in 2007, only 16 percent were in STEM subjects.

The problems in our science education start early on and only get worse. At the root of it all is our approach to the

content, experts say.

Finding the right sequence

By the time students in high-performing countries learn how the eye functions,

they have enough background knowledge to comprehend the complicated

process. This careful sequencing of topics is seen across the board in these

countries but it is conspicuously absent from most U.S. curricula.

For instance, the concept of plate tectonics is generally covered early in U.S.

curricula. The topic is reserved for middle school in other countries. In order to

really understand what drives those plates, you need knowledge of physics and of the elements, Schmidt said.

Without the fundamentals, students can only gain superficial knowledge of a

subject. In science, as in most subjects, building on top of foundational

knowledge is key. Where you start and how you get to a goal needs to be

thought out, both within a school year and across multiple years, said Richard

Duschl, a professor in Penn States College of Education.

But U.S. curricula often ignore the research that demonstrates the importance of

sequencing in science education. According to a 2005 study by Schmidt and

others that analyzed curricula in high-performing countries as well as the U.S.,

science education in America starts in first grade, whereas most high-performingcountries wait until third grade to teach science.

First-graders in America, according to the topics specified at each grade in the

National Research Councils National Science Education Standards, dive right into

topics such as organism sensing and responding and the dynamics of motion.

These topics are reserved for study in eighth grade by most high-performing

countries, at a time when students have enough background knowledge to learn deeply about them.

A mile wide and an inch deep

In the same study, Schmidt and his colleagues found that the U.S. not only lacks coherence in its standards, but it

also advocates teaching far too many each year. The National Research Councils standards recommend covering29 out of 41 total topics in third grade. The majority of high-performing countries include only seven of these

topics in their third-grade curricula.

Science education in the U.S. is frequently described as a mile wide and an inch deep, Duschl said. In an attempt

to cover too many topics, none is taught or learned in sufficient depth, a problem that plagues both science and

math education in America.





Contact:

New York Sun Works, Inc.

928 Broadway, Suite 1207

New York, NY 10010

P: 1-212-757-7560

F: 1-212-757-7564

E: [email protected]


Laurie Schoeman

Executive Managing Director

[email protected]

Manuela Zamora

Director of Educational Programming

[email protected]

Sidsel Robards

Director of Program Development

[email protected]

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