BY PAMELA STERN
Students in Ms. O’Connor’s first grade class at PS 346 had lessons to teach them how to grow their own foods through an initiative called the Green Bronx Machine. This initiative’s mission is to cultivate student minds and engage them to understand how they can in urban communities grow their own food.
Stephen Ritz, founder of the Green Bronx Machine is a teacher, and a native of the Bronx. The whole purpose of the Green Bronx Machine was driven through watching students’ diets and knowing that there is a chance they can have a better opportunity for real whole food that would better fuel their bodies for better learning. Science shows that a higher percentage of students will try vegetables when they grow them themselves.
Through a sponsorship with Quest Diagnostics, the Green Bronx Machine reached out to the Brooklyn Borough office’s STEM leader to offer opportunities to schools in District 19 to engage in the curriculum and learning opportunities set out by the Green Bronx Machine. This curriculum was created to include multiple content areas and not just about science and plants.
Currently, O’Connor’s first-grade class is the control or “guinea pig” class to see how well this program rolls out. However, the Green Bronx Machine has a curriculum built for multiple grade levels and with the purpose for all students to access it with intrigue and a new love for growing their own food. The curriculum is differentiated and touches multiple content areas (science, math, ELA).
“Our hopes are to let this program flourish to all grade levels and have ways to access and possibly get more towers in our school to work with a variety of vegetables,” said O’Connor.
“The tower itself is an aeroponic system that uses air and water with nutrients and indoor LED lights to fuel the growth of the plants, mainly green leafy vegetables or as we teach the students: the colors of the rainbow,” said O’Connor.
The students have shown an incredible amount of curiosity, engagement, and love for learning about growing their own food. The first-grade students were the “guinea pigs” for this, and Ms. O’Connor was so excited to take on this opportunity.
O’Connor has personal experience with these Tower Gardens. O’Connor and her co-teacher, Susanne Martillotti were floored with how happy and excited our students were about this project.
“We started basic with growing vegetables that needed little pollination since the tower is inside. The student excitement and content when having “Harvest Parties” with equipment fully supplied by the Green Bronx Machine (i.e. salad spinners, safety knives for lettuce/herbs, plates, bowls, silverware, mixing bowls, measuring cups/spoons, etc.) is worth its weight in gold. They all describe the plants as “fresh” when they observe them with how rich in color they are and how they smell. This has been a very rewarding experience and gratitude for such an opportunity knows no bounds,” said O’Connor.
Every Tower Garden is equipped with a “starter” kit that includes a small variety of lettuces and herbs. The students picked the ones they grew: lettuce, Bibb lettuce, kale, basil, chives, arugula, Italian parsley, dill and cilantro.
There were three “harvest parties” and the students loved the Bibb lettuce the most. The Bibb lettuce grew the fastest and reproduced in a short ten days from when they first harvested. The students made their own salad for a salad party that they had. There was also a Taco Tuesday, where they used the Bibb lettuce as lettuce wraps for the tacos and used the cilantro to make guacamole and corn salsa.
Photos Courtesy of: PS 346
