Source: RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK submitted to NRP
HYDROPONICS AT KINGSBOROUGH COMMUNITY COLLEGE OF CUNY
Sponsoring Institution
National Institute of Food and Agriculture
Project Status
ACTIVE
Funding Source
AFRI COMPETITIVE GRANT
Reporting Frequency
Annual
Accession No.
1030606
Grant No.
2023-67037-40106
Cumulative Award Amt.
$250,000.00
Proposal No.
2022-10176
Multistate No.
(N/A)
Project Start Date
Jul 1, 2023
Project End Date
Jun 30, 2026
Grant Year
2023
Program Code
[A7601]- Agricultural Workforce Training Grants
Recipient Organization
RESEARCH FOUNDATION OF THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK
2001 ORIENTAL BLVD
BROOKLYN,NY 11235
Performing Department
(N/A)
Non Technical Summary
Hydroponics at Kingsborough Community College: Project Summary1) Project Title: Hydroponics at Kingsborough Community College of CUNY2) AFRI Farm Bill Priority area: agriculture systems and technology; food safety, nutrition and health;3) Project Duration: 24 months4) Project Directors:Christine Zagari-LoPorto, Assistant Dean of Continuing Education and Workforce Development; Shannon Caravello, DrPH, Adjunct Lecturer and Kingsborough CC Community Farm and Garden Administrator5) Submitting organization: Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York6) Other organizations: New York Sun Works7) Name or type of industry-accepted credential the project will generate or participants will achieve: Hydroponic Farming Microcredential8) Number of participants: 369) Locations at which the proposed activities will occur: Kingsborough Community College 2001 Oriental Boulevard Brooklyn, New York 11235Abstract:The goal of this project is the increase the ability of New Yorkers to enter the world of hydroponic farming, especially those who might otherwise have not known about the industry. Hydroponics farming uses water-based nutrients instead of soil to grow plants. Farms are traditionally indoors or in greenhouses and can vary in size from large commercial farms to growing small plants in a person's home.Hydroponics at KCC (H-KCC) has 4 unique, yet interrelated components:Creation of a hydroponics classroom on campus at Kingsborough Community College;The development of a hydroponic microcredential;Newly trained hydroponic instructors; andCreation of Hydroponics at KCC, a hydroponic workforce training program.To accomplish these goals, KCC will work with NY Sun Works, a NYC-based non-profit that provides hydroponic farm-classrooms and related Discovering Sustainability Science curriculum to K-12th grade public schools in New York City. Through their program, NY Sun Works engages students, teachers, and the school community about science, sustainability, and local food production - all while students grow and harvest fresh produce to share with their families and school community.During the pilot, the program's audience will be recent high school graduates who have expressed interest in the green economy and alternative farming methods, focusing on those who were in schools with hydroponic farms. Upon completion of the pilot, and after its evaluation, program staff will then recruit for two additional cohorts that are open to the wider public.
Animal Health Component
(N/A)
Research Effort Categories
Basic
(N/A)
Applied
(N/A)
Developmental
(N/A)
Classification

Knowledge Area (KA)Subject of Investigation (SOI)Field of Science (FOS)Percent
90374103020100%
Knowledge Area
903 - Communication, Education, and Information Delivery;

Subject Of Investigation
7410 - General technology;

Field Of Science
3020 - Education;
Goals / Objectives
Project GoalsThe goal of this project is the increase the knowledge-base and capacity of New Yorkers to enter the world of hydroponic farming, especially those who might otherwise have not known about the industry. Hydroponics is a type of farming that uses water-based nutrients instead of soil to grow plants. Hydroponic farms are traditionally indoors or in greenhouses and can vary in size from large commercial farms to growing small plants in a person's home. This proposal is addressing the Agricultural Workforce Training at Community Colleges priority area, one that focuses on building and training a food and agricultural workforce that is knowledgeable, experienced and work-ready. Currently, NYC does not have any comprehensive hydroponic training programs that focus on workforce preparation and higher educational advancement.To accomplish these goals, KCC will work with NY Sun Works, a NYC-based non-profit that provides hydroponic farm-classrooms and related Discovering Sustainability Science curriculum to K-12th grade public schools in New York City. Through their program, NY Sun Works engages students, teachers, and the school community about science, sustainability, and local food production - all while students grow and harvest fresh produce to share with their families and school community.During the pilot, the program's audience will be recent high school graduates who have expressed interest in the green economy and alternative farming methods, focusing on those who were in schools with hydroponic farms. Upon completion of the pilot, and after its evaluation, program staff will then recruit for two additional cohorts that are open to the wider public.Hydroponics at KCC (H-KCC) has 4 unique, yet interrelated goalcomponents:1) Creation of a hydroponics classroom on campus at Kingsborough Community College;2) The development of a hydroponic microcredential;3) Newly trained hydroponic instructors; and4) Creation of Hydroponics at KCC, a hydroponic workforce training program.
Project Methods
MethodsThe efforts for this project consist of hydroponics lab development, formal classroom, and laboratory instruction, development of curriculum, microcredentialing, experiential learning opportunities, and workforce development.Lab creation and Program/Curriculum DevelopmentHydroponics at KCC will be managed by Christine Zagari-LoPorto, Assistant Dean of Continuing Education and Workforce Development. Dr. Shannon Caravello, a faculty member at Kingsborough Community College, and manager of the KCC Community Farm and Garden, has been selected to oversee the project. Dr. Caravello will be responsible for all components of the program including, but not limited to, the Learning Lab creation, personnel, curriculum development, public outreach, marketing, instruction and program sustainability. Creation of the LAB will be led by Sun Works with oversight from KCC's Department of Buildings and Grounds to ensure the lab is up to Department of Buildings codes and other matters related to student safety.The VP of Continuing Education & Workforce Development and VP of Finance and Administration will provide higher-level, institutional guidance in regards to the overall creation and administration of the lab. In Y1 New York Sun Works, as the contractor, will regularly meet with the PI and co-PI to construct the lab, provide guidance, and train KCC staff on using the hydroponics equipment. In Y2, they will provideadditional support for running the lab and additional staff training.Hydroponics at KCC stages:Stage 1: Construction of the Hydroponic Learning Lab (Sun Works, Ms. Zagari-LoPorto, Dr. Caravello, KCC's Buildings and Grounds)Stage 2: Train KCC staff to be proficient to teach hydroponic farming at KCC's Lab (Sun Works, Dr. Caravello).Stage 3: Curriculum and microcredential development (Sun Works, Dr. Caravello, industry partners)Stage 4: Program implementation: Dr. CaravelloHydroponics at KCC will initially be piloted for an audience of recent high school graduates, focusing on those who were in schools with hydroponic farms. Working with New York Sun Works, we will identify and recruit students from those select high schools. Upon completion of the pilot, and after its evaluation, H-KCC will then recruit for two additional cohorts that will be open to the general public.Courses in hydroponic science offer an innovative, forward-looking approach to preparing students for further study and careers in food & agricultural sciences education.The Hydroponic Farming Microcredential will prepare people for entry into the workforce. This new curriculum will set our students ahead of other job applicants, particularly those who have little training and experience. As a workforce training participant, students will also receive valuable job readiness assistance including resume and cover letter writing, job applications, mock interviewing, professionalism and office etiquette, and worker's rights and responsibilities. Students who complete this training will be prepared to enter jobs as entry-level hydroponic farmers.EvaluationThe Program Coordinator will develop a survey tool that will consist of pre and post-summativeLikert-scale quantitative questionnaires conducted via Qualtrics.Topics of the survey tool will include knowledge of hydroponics, hydroponic-industry careers, and overall program success. Formative assessment qualitative questions will ask students to provide feedback regarding the student experience as it relates to program instruction, the usefulness of material, and resources available to students. The surveys will also collect sociodemographic data to assess the student population. Students in each cohort will complete the pre- and post-surveys. Survey data will be processed and evaluated at the end of each cohort and combined in a final summary. This data collection will be under the supervision of the Kingsborough Community College Institutional Review Board.

Progress 07/01/24 to 06/30/25

Outputs
Target Audience:Our target audience consisted of recently graduated high school students, local educators and college students, as well as local community members interested in Hydroponics workforce development. In our efforts to recruit for the three Hydroponics Workforce Training cohorts, we promoted through our partner organization NY SunWorks to reach out to graduating high school teachers and educational professionals as well as through our network of local high school partners. In addition, our Division of Workforce Development and Continuing Education program promoted our cohorts through their Constant Contact email list to reach local community members. Changes/Problems:We had experienced some unexpected delays in hiring and cohort scheduling that were beyond our control which pushed the cohorts back to run later than expected. One issue that came up was due to working around school calenders for both the NYC Department of Education as well as the City University of NY's scheduling. The goal for the first cohort was to initially have it limited to just recent high school graduates, but we struggled to fill it as many of the high school graduates were not responsive to outreach from NY Sunworks, educators at the NYC Department of Education as well as our efforts. This resulted in us opening the cohort up to community partnerThe Campaign Against Hungerwho were very much in need of the training. As a result of the above mentioned delays, we requested and received a no-cost extension so that we could finish out the cohorts, finalize the curriculum, and staff our hydroponics learning lab. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project provided unexpected opportunities beyond the initial cohorts as we were able to share elements of training with high school and college student volunteers who frequent our urban farm,college students in KCC courses visting the farm and the hydroponics learning lab, as well as for our Federal Work Study students who also participated in hydroponic lab activities as part of their urban farm assistant placement. In addition, a number of our cohort memebers worked for NYC based The Coalition Against Hunger organization which helped prepare them for moving beyond traditional soil farming and into the area of hydroponics. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?The outreach to communities of interest is part of our next phase of promotion. We do this promotion through our general channels but would like to expand upon this in the future, once our program is fully established. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?During the next reporting period, we plan to finalize the curriculum and educational materials and begin heavily promoting the new course through our advertising channels (Constant Contact), as well as through our extensive community partnet network. As we already have a mechanism to run the course through our Continuing Education Catalog, we will promote the course in the catalog for all four seasons that our catalog runs. We will also be fully integrating the learning lab into our soil-based community farm and garden and connect with the wider NYC Urban Farming Community.

Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals? The Hydroponics classroom lab was created and reported in our previous report. During this reporting period the following goals were either completed or nearing completions: 1) The development of a hydroponic microcredential(completed):The Hydroponics Workforce badge was created and issued to any student who successfully completes the requirements to earn the Hydroponic coursework leading to the microcredential. The Division of Workforce Development and Continuing Education and Kingsborough CommunityCollege offers a variety of microcredentials in the form of a digital badge through the Credly organization. The created microcredential badge can be viewed HERE 3) Newly trained hydroponic instructors (completed): We were able to hire a new Instructorand administer training to them as well as to the main Project Director. NY Sunworks provided a trainer to share knowledge and materials used at the high school level training. The instructor was hired to teach the 3 cohorts. 4) Creation of Hydroponics at KCC, a hydroponic workforce training program (nearing completion):Now that the cohorts are completed, the Instructor and project manager will be finalizing the curriculum with the goal ofteaching upcoming Hydroponics Workforce Training courses that will run through the Continuing Education program.The non-grant funded hydoponic workforce course is set to run in Fall 2025 semester (dates TBD), and our focus will be to recruit for ongoing courses during the upcoming year.An example of the course promotion can be viewed in the Continuing Education catalogHERE

Publications


    Progress 07/01/23 to 06/30/24

    Outputs
    Target Audience: Nothing Reported Changes/Problems:The approaches and goals have stayed the same and we will move forward to achieve them. The only obstacle we encounteredwas the expected start date was anticipated to be in May 2023, however, we were delayed with lab installation until August 2023 due to award/release of funding delays. What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?Our team has been working with NY Sun Works to conduct extensive professional development with lab staff and educators. We now have the lab up and running efficiently, are creating standard operating procedures (SOPs), and partnering KCC educators/curriculum developers with Sun Works curriculum developers to ensure appropriate development of workforce training and educational materials for a variety of lab participants (students, community members participating in workforce training). How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?We have been working with our partner NY Sun Works to recruit recently graduated High Schools students to join us for our first cohort of students for micro-credentialing. We are doing this through flyering, and networking with educators and staff from the NYC Department of Education. We will begin reaching out to local community members interested in joining our next cohort in spring 2024. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Our team plans on curriculum and micro-credential development during Winter 2024, and implementing cohort #1 in April. This first cohort will be followed by two additional cohorts to be completed by summer 2024.

    Impacts
    What was accomplished under these goals? As of 12/23/23, the goals that have been completed are as follows: 1) Creation of a hydroponics classroom on campus at Kingsborough Community College; 2) Newly trained hydroponic instructors We are currently in the developmental stage of the hydroponics micro-credential and the creation of hydroponics at KCC as part of the workforce training program. The finalization of the micro-credential is expected by April 2024 with our first cohort. The original timeline of the program was delayed due to awaiting on funding release and delays with the installation of the hydroponics lab, as well as the academic timeline. However, we are working towards completing all goals in a timely manner despite the delays.

    Publications