Find It Fund It Florida - Hillsborough Education Foundation

Hydroponic Gardening for K-5

School:: Dunbar Elementary Magnet School
Category:: Science
Teacher/ Administrator:: Sarah Cote-Goralewicz
: 173187
Students Impacted:: 300
Grade Levels Impacted:: K-5
Date:: July 26, 2022

Investor

Thank you to the following investor for funding this grant.

Amgen Foundation - $1,940.00

Project Goal

At Dunbar Magnet, we focus on STEM and want to incorporate food production and especially how STEM can help feed more people. We want to start an indoor hydroponic garden inside the media center, to be used by all students and especially our House of Botany students.

How Project Benefits Students

All grades K-5 have plants/ life science embedded in the science standards. By having a hydroponic garden set up in the media center, all students will be able to learn about this incredible system of growing plants! We will explore the basic needs of plants as we show how science and technology can assist us in creating the environment for plants to thrive and produce food for us and our school pets!
One of the 4 'houses' in our school is the House of Botany. These students meet monthly to learn more about botany, so this will provide an amazing learning opportunity for this group of students. We will also have lessons for the individual classes to come in and get a deeper dive into what hydroponics is and how it can help feed us.

Expected Outcome(s)

A single shelving unit will be housed in the media center containing the hydroponic setup. This will include drip irrigation, grow lights, and timers. Throughout the year we will be able to grow different crops that will reinforce the science standards and also give the students the first-hand experience of gardening indoors. This project will help us teach Florida's science standards including 'parts of the plant', how the parts work, plant needs, and more. As the new head of the House of Botany, I am excited to be able to blend science standards with technology in a way that will help students learn about food production.

Detailed Cost Summary

I am working with the local hydroponics store, Urban Roots. They were able to create a quote for me that includes everything we will need for this project for one school year. After this year, we will still have the hardware such as the shelving, trays, tubes, and lights. We will need to replace the consumable materials such as growing substrate (coco fiber), plants, fertilizer, and the PH kit.

Items

#	Item Description	Total Cost
1	shelving unit	$100.00
2	trays, tubing, lights, growing medium, etc	$1,495.00
3	seeds	$45.00
4	books, teaching materials	$300.00
	Total:	$1,940.00

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