Performing Department
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Non Technical Summary
NY Sun Works is a non-profit that builds hydroponic farms in New York City K-12 schools to teach science, urban agriculture, and climate education. Fundamental to supporting the students we serve is our three-year teacher professional learning program, provided by our team of educators and hydroponic farming professionals. The training enables teachers to confidently implement our curriculum and use the hydroponic systems effectively as teaching tools, in turn supporting an optimal learning experience for the students and building student interest in and engagement with urban agriculture and the related foundational sciences. This "train the teacher" model includes 16 2-hour sessions of one-on-one curriculum and technical farming training in years 1 & 2, weekly systems maintenance support and farming mentoring in all 3 years, as well as group professional learning sessions throughout all 3 years. Funding from the USDA's PDAL program will enable us to:Deliver our 3-year teacher professional development program to 50 new partner public schools, reaching 50 K-12 teachers with a comprehensive curriculum and technical hydroponic farming training and ongoing mentoring support.Offer teacher stipends to the 50 teachers for participating in the professional development program, with the goal of incentivizing teachers to complete the full scope of training and providing a test case or assessing whether stipends should be incorporated into training moving forward.Expand our professional learning content to develop new modules and train teachers in a) classroom management practices in a farm-classroom setting and b) adapting the curriculum and classroom to support high level special needs.
Animal Health Component
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Research Effort Categories
Basic
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Applied
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Developmental
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Goals / Objectives
NY Sun Works is a non-profit that builds hydroponic farms in New York City K-12 schools to teach science, urban agriculture, and climate education. Fundamental to supporting the students we serve is our three-year teacher professional learning program, provided by our team of educators and hydroponic farming professionals, which enables teachers to confidently implement our curriculum and use the hydroponic systems effectively as teaching tools; this in turn facilitates an optimal learning experience for the students and buildsstudent interest in and engagement with urban agriculture and the related foundational sciences. We have requested funding from the PDAL program to deliver our teacher professional learning program to 50 new K-12 partner teachers. Through this training, participating teachers will:1. develop seed-to-harvest hydroponic farming technical skills, including crop cultivation, operating and troubleshooting hydroponic systems, and distributing & tracking harvests, to effectively teach these skills in a grade-specifc way to K-12 students; 2) build pedagogical skills for teaching grade-specific science & sustainability content through lens of urban farming; 3) build self-efficacy and confidence in their ability to teach hydroponic farming and sustainability science, in turn enhancing learning experience for students; and 4)build a community of teachers to facilitate peer mentoring and sharing best practices
Project Methods
NY Sun Works is requesting $500,000 in funding from the USDA's PDAL program to support and expand our train-the-teacher professional learning program for the next 3 years. With the funding, we will: 1)Deliver our 3-year teacher professional development program to 50 new partner schools, reaching 50 teachers with a comprehensive curriculum and technical training; 2)Offer teacher stipends to the 50 teachers for participating in the professional development program, with the goal of incentivizing teachers to complete the full scope of training; and 3)Expand our professional learning content to develop new modules and train teachers in a) classroom management practices in a farm-classroom setting and b) adapting the curriculum and classroom to support high level special needs Teachers will receive immersive training and ongoing mentoring in hydroponic farming technical skills and curriculum implementation and pedagogy, as described below.Teacher Training: Hydroponic Farming Technical Skills 20 hours of immersive, hands-on technical training in Year 1 (10 2-hour sessions over first 10-12 weeks of program implementation) provided by NY Sun Works GST member. Training covers hydroponic farming technical skills, including: operating 3 types of hydroponic systems; sowing, cultivating, & harvesting a range of crops (e.g. lettuces & other leafy greens, herbs, tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber, squash, beans, strawberries), troubleshooting/IPM; distributing and tracking harvests sent home with students; and supporting teachers in identifying additional crop types relevant to their students' cultural backgrounds & interests (note: each school is assigned a dedicated GST member to provide continuity and build a relationship with school staff). Teacher training and mentoring will focus on hydroponic farming technical skills and curriculum implementation will Teacher Mentoring: Hydroponic Farming Technical Skills weekly 2-hour mentoring visits by designated NY Sun Works GST member for each school to guide harvests, ensure hydroponic systems are functioning optimally, work one on one with teachers on pruning and caring for crops and systems, and answer teacher questions. Mentoring support provided all 3 years (note: based on our 10+ years of program implementation, 3 years of technical mentoring best supports the program's long-term success) Teacher Training: Curriculum Implementation & Pedagogy - 4 2-hour teacher training sessions in Y1, spaced 2 months apart and aligned with curriculum stages, by provided by the grade band-specific NY Sun Works Curriulum Specialist; sessions guide teachers through curriculum layering & phasing; conducting harvests; using hydroponic systems as a teaching tool; pedagogical tools for teaching climate change & sustainability through urban agriculure lens; developing & supporting student investigations & experiments in hydroponic classroom; preparing for Youth Conference; planning for Y2 of program implementaiton. Teaching Curriculum Mentoring - 2 2-hour mentoring sessions in Y2 of program implementation, conducted by NY Sun Works Curriculum Specialist (grade band-specific), as checkpoint and review of curriculum, discussing teacher plans and progress with teaching curriculum, and deepening hands-on, student-driven learning in the hydroponic classroom - group professional learning sessions, held throughout each school year, covering learning accessibility & accommodating special needs; making learning visible in the classroom; harvesting as a learning tool; classroom management skills for the hydroponic classroom;