During the past few years, hydroponic workshops for teachers have been presented by former Hydroponic Society of America (HSA) Board Member Carol Spoelstra-Pepper. Although they were conducted all over the state of California, most of them were in the general Stockton, Tulare, and San Bernardino areas. What are these workshops like? Let’s take a look at a recent one given at Rolling Hills Middle School in Watsonville.

Remember the covered wagon of the snake-oil peddler of yesteryear? Fast-forward this picture into the late 1990s: The wagon is now a white, oversized pickup truck with a camper shell. The state license plate attests to its legitimacy. It contains everything you need for an introductory, hands-on workshop, in addition to a suitcase of personal belongings, enough for most of the week, plus a lap-top computer and a cellular phone to keep in touch with the rest of the world.

Getting teachers interested in hydroponics isn’t easy. With all of the problems they face from students and administrators, they need this new teaching tool like a hole in the head. Setting up a hydroponic-education program in a school takes inspiration and incentive. Inspiration comes from some of the success stories (see Sources) such as Peterson Middle School’s Astro-1 science classroom/lab in Sunnyvale, California; the Basil Buy Us project at Ravinia Elementary School in Highland Park, Illinois; the Aquaponic project at Eagle Valley High School in Gypsum, Colorado; and the Hydroponic Gardening in the Classroom project at Woodrow Wilson High School in Portsmouth, Virginia.

The incentives come through the state’s Agricultural Literacy & Fairs Alliance Program and partnerships with other groups and organizations, such as the MESA (Math, Engineering, Science, and Agriculture) program. MESA’s objective is to interest students in these disciplines so that they eventually qualify for college admission or employment in technical jobs. Hydroponics is an ideal vehicle for accomplishing these goals.

The teachers and their students are provided with what they need for basic hydroponic lessons to increase their knowledge of both plants and chemistry as they carry out hydroponic projects. The results, in the form of posters or exhibits, must be entered in the county fair. The teachers sign up to participate in the program. Every student who participates gets a blue ribbon. Carol handles the behind-the-scenes cajoling of county-fair management to cooperate.

On the day of my visit, six science teachers recruited by the MESA Coordinator Gale Day are participating in the three-hour educational session on their own time. Also present are two college students who are willing to assist teachers when they embark on their hydroponic journeys in the classrooms.

Class starts at 3:30 p.m. with teachers listing the standards that they expect to meet. Salient features of the workshop are excerpted from Cornell University’s “Instructional Package,” “Classroom Hydroponic Plant Factory,” and “Understanding Nutrients: Nitrogen, Potassium, and Phosphorous”; it all came out of the “covered wagon.” To demonstrate principles involved in hydroponics, they build rafts that float on a simulated river in plastic-lined boxes, and they plant seeds on these rafts to simulate the floating gardens of Biblical time or more recent “chinampas” of the Incas. They also plant seeds in rockwool cubes and convert 2-L soda bottles into static wick systems that hold plants in a mixture of vermiculite and perlite. They mix nutrient solutions and measure pH.

Carol Spoelstra-Pepper says, “I got involved in hydroponics like most people do, by asking ‘What is that?’ and ‘Can I take that to my teachers?’ However, once I attended an HSA Convention, I was hooked and became one of Otto Silber-stein’s pigeons. Thus, I was exposed to various hydroponic techniques, which in turn I taught my teachers each step of the way. Soon, three of my teachers decided to put together a new teachers’ handbook (“Classroom Hydroponic Plant Factory”) with step-by-step hydroponics for elementary-, middle-, and high-school levels. Now, the course is even more important as California moves to Standard 9 testing and evaluation of teachers and students.” Hydroponics will soon be on the map in the Los Angeles education system, with pre- and post-tests for students and even individual student testing for positive results. A Los Angeles science instructor says, “It’s science at its best, and it’s 21st-century techniques.”

While the class is in progress, Carol is constantly explaining the principles involved, demonstrating, answering questions, and discussing the almost endless versatility of suggested student experiments. Every participant takes home the books and the results of their handiwork: a plant growing in a passive hydroponic system.

Some teachers who are in year-round programs sign up immediately and take home the needed materials; others defer their decisions. By now, Carol has lost her voice, and everyone is late for an appointment or has missed dinner. So, pizzas appear as a reward. The classroom is cleaned up, and the “covered wagon” reloaded to be ready for the next stop. A great deal of work goes into preparations and follow-up.

At a recent MESA conference for middle-school teachers in San Ramon, California, workshops were conducted on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning involving 35 teachers. On Thursday, Carol had picked up the necessary plants and materials at Foothill Hydroponics, who cooperated splendidly by providing some specially prepackaged items at minimal or no cost. The state-funded Agriculture Literacy Program covers the estimated cost of about $125 per teacher, for whom the workshop is free. The cost includes the above-mentioned texts.

Carol spent the rest of the day driving the more than 400 miles from Los Angeles to San Ramon. Friday morning was spent unloading the truck and setting up the classroom at PG&E’s training facility for the two three-hour workshops. After reloading the wagon on Saturday around noon, she spent the rest of the day driving home. It takes a great deal of enthusiasm and stamina to do this one-woman show.

How successful is the program? Because it’s only three years old, it’s hard to tell. But, this year alone, close to 200 teachers have taken the workshops. From year to year, teachers are becoming more confident. The program is proliferating; some qualified teachers are now putting on workshops for other teachers. A successful hydroponic project at Kettleman Elementary School (kindergarten through eighth grades) is an example.

Hydroponics will make a strong showing at the upcoming Conference of California Science Teachers (to be held in Long Beach, October 7–10), where Carol will have a double booth filled with items that teachers can see and smell and get excited about. In addition, some of her teachers will be doing a vendors’ workshop, a teachers’ workshop, and a separate overview for teachers.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has defined, piloted, and determined that basic hydroponics belongs in the middle-school arena. They are determined to teach it to all seventh-grade students. Toward this goal, the LAUSD has developed a list of standards that they expect to be met so that hydroponics will become the chemistry unit within the science-education framework.

A hydroponic conference is planned for October 23 at North Hollywood High School to which all Los-Angeles teachers (grades six through twelve) are invited. The conference will feature a morning three-hour teacher’s training workshop for middle- and high-school teachers followed by an afternoon seminar during which expert guest speakers will cover specific subjects. It’s a partnership between the Agriculture Literacy & Fairs Alliance, Los Angeles Unified School District’s science departments, and Foothill Hydroponics. For more information about the conference, call 1-800-83-HYDRO.

From The Growing Edge, Volume 11, Number 2.

Sources

• “Hydroponics in Schools: An Educational Tool,” The Growing Edge Volume 5, Number 1.
• “Science Made Fun,” Vocational Education Journal, March 1994.
• “Adventure In the Classroom,” Aquaponics Journal Vol. 4, No. 4, 1998.
• “It’s Catching On: The Hydroponic Curriculum,” covering the “Basil Buy Us” project at Ravinia Elementary School, The Growing Edge Volume 8, Number 1.
• “A New Wave of Farming Comes to Colorado: The Bio-Building at Eagle Valley High School,” The Growing Edge Volume 9, Number 2.
• “Hydroponic Gardening In the Classroom: Woodrow Wilson High School In Portsmouth, Virginia,” Practical Hydroponics & Greenhouses, March/April 1999.
• “Hydroponic Instructional Package” by Stephen Butz and Andrew Fagan, Cornell University, Department of Education, 1994.
• “Classroom Hydroponic Plant Factory,” by Patricia A. Brown, Ginger R. Krelle, and May C. Tam, Foothill Hydroponics, 1998.
• “Understanding Nutrients: Nitrogen, Potassium, Phosphorus,” by Katherine Griffin, Potash & Phosphate Institute, Norcross, Georgia, 1999.