School ponics meets home ponics

Shoolponics on the wall

Until last week, the School Ponics system was enjoying an outdoor summer and beginning fall, but last week end, the schoolponic moved out of Quaint's back patio. Originally, the schoolponic systems was to spend the summer in quaint, and move back to the Bronx Writing Academy, once the fall school semester started. However, this did not happen. The school decides that hydroponic was not fitting their school projects, therefore, the indoor garden could not continue.    Although, after spending the summer and part of the fall at Quaint, I recovered the system and brought it home. I am now looking for another school to continue the project, but in the time being, I am trying to keep the plants installed by the 6 graders form Bronx writing academy live and producing.    So after the last harvest, I brought the system home, but in a new York city apartment, one has to find a space management solution!

Bronx Writing Academy - Students journals

During the spring project, Amrita (Bronx Writing Academy teacher) and I asked the group of 6 grade students to write a few lines after each session summarizing what they have done, how they felt and what they think on that day.
Here are a few excerpt form the notebooks.


3/11/15
Today we were building the frame. I learned how to measure the center [on the piece of wood we used to build the frame]. I drew a X on the wood, the center of the X is the center. I like how we made the legs of the machine [frame], this will make it stand up. Sebastian

We are building a sort of table to grow the plants in hydroponics. One thing I liked is that we build

Update on the composting systems

Its been now 9 months that the indoor worm composting experiment has started. During these 6 months the small Styrofoam (very) mini box grew to a slightly bigger composting crate, then expanded into a soy sauce bucket for the Bronx Writing Academy, and 3 (very) mini worm bin. All of that, in an apartment, with no odour, escapees or inconvenience.
In 9 months, 50 kg (110lbs) of food scraps, 16kg (35 lbs) of paper-cardboard and wood dust (dry weight) have been diverted from landfills and transformed on 20 kg (44 lbs) of compost.

The school hydroponics moved to a new neighborhood for the summer!

Today I was able to set up to system at Quaint, a Sunnyside, Queens restaurant!

The start of the journey of few bloks on wheels,

The hardest part was to pile everything on a dolly and get it to the door.

Hydroponic at the Bronx Writing Academy, be prepared to be WOWed by 11years old kids.

Last week ## edit  now already 3 weeks ago## of the project with the Bronx Writing Academy and Citizen Schools was quite eventful!

A student taking interest in her schoolmates accomplishments

This last week was the WOW! The WOW! Is the culmination of the programs that Citizen Schools offers, and plays out in a unique show, product or showcase by the students. For the Hydroponic apprenticeship, the WOW! was planned to be a public showcase, right in front of the school, to show the community what the students had accomplished.

Bronx Writing accademy - hydroponics in the news !

This week was quite exiting: the local Bronx news Chanel took an interest in our project. Wednesday, a journalist came to the class and did some filming and interviewed a few students. The students where actually quite amazing as they kept "business as usual" passed the first few moments of excitement after seeing the camera.

A quick shot during the class

The news post (click to read)

The TV broadcast:

EXITING !

Earth day Hangout with JT Bear at the Bronx Writing Academy.

This afternoon was quite a day at the Bronx Writing academy!
After watching and discussing what earth day is/means, we had a hangout session with JT Bear. JT Bear is a gentle man from the west cost of Canada, who has youtube channel where he talks about his aquaponic set-up without hiding the problems he runs into.
We had a great time ! the students where a bit shy at the beginning, but they started to show what they had built, from top to bottom, explaining how the water flows from the bucket to the towers, as well as the difference between how on system is fed using store bought fertilizer and the other using compost tea. They showed in detail the different plants growing in the system : lettuce, spinach,"cabage" (actually Swiss chard), basil, cilantro, parsley, basil, and strawberries.