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Tower Garden Project Used To Teach Students

Ring Elementary School second graders in Samantha Hasbrouck's class shows off their Tower Garden.

Ring Elementary School second graders in Samantha Hasbrouck’s class are learning a bit more about healthy foods with their Tower Garden provided by the Chautauqua County Health Network. The Tower Garden is a vertical, aeroponic growing system, allowing students to grow up to 20 vegetables, herbs, fruits and flowers in less than three square fest, indoors or out, without any dirt.

“Most of the students in my classroom have never tried vegetables or do not like cooked vegetables,” said Hasbrouck. “So watching the plants grow gives them a big incentive to try them. The lettuce has been growing like crazy; two students were able to take home a gallon-size bag of lettuce and then discussed what they did with it at home. This has been really fun for my class and we can’t thank the Chautauqua County Health Network enough for providing the Tower Garden to our school. ”

The students set up the Tower Garden, added 20 galloons of water to the base, brainstormed what vegetables they wanted to grow, planted seeds for the garden and maintained the proper water level throughout the process. Once the vegetables were grown, the class had a salad party. They were able to try lettuce and different kinds of dressing. Students learned that they could add protein to such as hard-boiled eggs, which they learned how to peel and add to the salad.

Students are also decorating a pot to take home with their choice of a vegetable plant to take care of over the summer.

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