Lab to Table: The Future of Agriculture Immersed with Project-Based Learning

Guest Blogger: Stephanie Klixbull, M.Ed.
Stephanie is an Elementary STEM education specialist from Summerville, South Carolina. During her time as a teacher, Stephanie received multiple prestigious awards such as Teacher of the Year for the state of South Carolina Independent Schools, 2019 and an International STEM education award for her STEM curriculum for early childhood education. Recently, Stephanie has left the classroom to complete a fellowship with the Albert Einstein Distinguished Educator program with the Department of Defense in Washington D.C. 

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The power of speech is amazing. Someone else's words can uplift you or give you the motivation to make a difference. For me, I was inspired by a TED Talk at an educational conference. The first words from the speaker told the truth about our produce in our grocery stores. He said, “Did you know that the average apple at the grocery store is anywhere from 6-14 months old from the time it was picked off a tree.” At that moment, I was hooked. I kept listening and I couldn’t believe the engrossing facts about our food. In fact, I didn’t want to believe it and so I did my research. Sure enough, the presenter was right. 

The amount of preservatives and wax coatings we put on produce to preserve our produce illuminating color from aging. To the point that our fruit and vegetables are practically wasted shells by the time they come home to us. Practically mummified veggies sitting on the store shelves that have lost the nutrients within.  The revelation of food production made me want to make a change. 

I would like to tell you that I am a CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation or a state representative that created a bill for change from that moment. But I am not. I am an elementary school teacher and I was teaching 4th grade at a title I school in South Carolina when I saw that TED Talk. Here is the story about how I shared the science behind that TED Talk with the 32 ten-year-olds in my classroom. ​​

I needed a way not only to inspire my students to become healthy eaters but to also teach my students to understand food labels, nutrition, and how they can strive to make better choices when eating. I started to brainstorm, I could bring in a speaker to my class, maybe a farmer or a nutritionist to speak about plant growth and food. But if you teach elementary, you would know it’s all about the “glitz and glitter” to get those kids excited about school. So I went to a trusted source (Google) to help me find something that could be hands-on with gardening. 

This is where I found Stephen Ritz, a kindergarten teacher from the South Bronx who used hydroponics to teach students how to grow plants and how his students could make healthy eating choices. Like a moth to a flame, I had found my light. To be honest, I was attracted to the illuminating UV grow lights. The hues of purple and green was the perfect way to visually engage my students to see the future of agriculture and yet would teach them about plant growth and healthy eating habits. ​

​Hydroponics is a way to garden that uses no soil. Instead, plants can grow indoors using a vertical system that requires recycled water from a reserved tank, a mixed solution of nutrients, and UV light. As a teacher, all I can think about were the positive effects on student learning, and the best thing: no complaints from administration or parents! 

I wouldn’t have to worry about bugs and pesticides, I wouldn’t have to worry if students had enough sunscreen on, or listen to students moaning about having to go outside in the hot Carolina sun to water the plants. Instead, the students could watch the plants grow from inside the classroom. We didn’t have to move or go on a field trip. No one had to worry about watering the plants since everything was on a timed system. Finally, the system uses 90% less water than an average garden and wouldn’t take up space in my already cramped classroom. Have I hooked you yet?

Although cheaper than taking students on multiple field trips, hydroponics can still be expensive. So like all public school teachers, I wrote a grant. After a few attempts at grant writing and getting administration to approve, I finally purchased a hydroponic tower for my classroom. This is a must-have if you want to focus your curriculum around a project-based unit like I did. I wanted my students to understand how the hydroponic system worked and the difference between greenhouse farming compared to an outside setting. 

From the grown up, (pun intended) students would learn what it would be like to be a hydroponic engineer. The lessons were engaging and the science content was aligned to the standards, the only issue was with the product. What would we do with the veggies and fruits grown in the hydrogarden? I could not give it to the cafeteria or let the kids eat in class. (Could you imagine the paperwork and administration meetings about safety and sanitation I would have to go through?!) ​

However, I knew about one loop hole with food and school administration. I went to the parent association. I bargained for a deal to donate the produce to parent association family night events where students would present the garden tower and donate veggie and fruit produce to families within our school community. Families would come up and ask students for a head of lettuce or some basil and the student would harvest the plant right in front of the family. This moment would give the students a real world experience by showing how their harvest would then end up at a neighbor’s kitchen table. I was creating a farm to table experience for my students but inside my school community.

This project had a positive impact on my entire school community. My students learned about plant growth, built a hydroponic system, farmed and harvested their product, and gave it all back to the community. In fact, this project went on to win first place at the district science fair that year and that funded the purchase of  a second hydroponic system. 

Years later, I was still farming with students inside the classroom but our little 24 root system had turned into a hydroponic lab that harvested over 180 plants at one setting! All of that harvest went on family dinner tables and not one cherished head of lettuce went to waste. Over the years, I have used my project-based gardening curriculum with hundreds of students from Kindergarten to eighth grade. ​

I still can’t go into a grocery store without looking at an apple from a different perspective. Someone's story inspired me to create a hydroponic lab facility for hundreds of elementary students. I hope maybe my story plants the seed (pun intended) for you to try gardening in the classroom or even to give you the mindset to try something new! ​