Sensing Change: Embracing ag-tech in school gardens
Pressing the call button on the elevator at the ‘Iolani School Sullivan Center, I filled a few idle moments scanning the bulletin boards and flyers on the walls. The brightly-colored butcher paper and Comic Sans MS font transported me back to my own schooldays, and I imagined things probably hadn’t changed too much in the last 10 years.
As if in contest to my own ponderings, a passing student tucked away her iPhone to open the door opposite the elevator. The door swung back, revealing a fully-equipped fabrication lab, stocked with CNC machines and all.
The elevator dinged to signal its arrival. The doors peeled back to expose a mini dance club — outfitted with colorful lights, hip music and bold wall decorations almost certainly made in the fabrication lab across the hall.
Bobbing my head to the mellow beats in this reimagined elevator, it became clear that the social media generation is using technology not only to connect, but also to create and innovate.
When the elevator ride came to a stop, Adele’s power ballads were replaced by studious, rhythmic silence. Students were buzzing about independently, rotating the lights on a gleaming tower of chard. Beyond the vertical garden, a group of students were huddled around a circuit board, programming a Raspberry Pi to do their bidding.
Sensors in hand, I proceeded down to the school garden to get Dr. Millikan’s 4th grade classes setup with Smart Yields technology, feeling welcomed by the high-tech atmosphere at ‘Iolani.
Step 1. Download the Smart Yields app
Step 2. Connect the WST Ethernet Tag Manager to the internet
Step 3. Pair Soil Moisture/Temp Sensors in the Smart Yields app
Step 4. Place sensor in garden
And wa-lah! 75 students can now harness data monitoring and record keeping to learn more about their plants.
Each year, according to Dr. Millikan, there is one crop that explodes with abundance. This year, it’s cucumbers. After digitizing their garden in the Smart Yields app, the students recorded observations, like pests and height. The students began tapping away intuitively, adopting the technology with an ease that put even me to shame!
Completely unfazed by the task of integrating a new tool, the students enthusiastically carried about maintaining their gardens as usual. Half the class hoisted monstrous cucumbers in the air, comparing the size of their harvest before recording their yields in the Smart Yields app. It was crystal clear why the garden is one of the students’ favorite classrooms here.
The kids are diligently cultivating vegetables for their “Iron Chef” challenge, featuring produce they grew themselves. Meanwhile, they will be using Smart Yields soil moisture and temperature sensor data, along with manual records, to identify trends in different crops and growing environments. They will also be taking on the role of UX designers, imagining creative ways to visualize the data in our app. We look forward to being inspired by their culinary creations and design iterations!
