Hydroponic project connects science of healthy growth to student needs

What are they? Where did they come from? Is this some sort of alien invasion? Since the beginning of the school year, murmurs have circulated amongst West students concerning the towering, white, foreign machines taking up residence in the O-room cafeteria. On November 8, they discovered the contents inside these mysterious machines would be appearing on their lunch trays. Lettuce and herbs have been growing in the virtual gardens, using a system known as hydroponics. A relatively unfamiliar term, this brings a new addition to the Wildcat habitat.

Junior GJ Zahner, a heavily involved student gardener, describes the system as a self-sustaining indoor garden.

“Hydroponics is a soil-less, machine based garden system that uses water and light to simulate the traditional environment for plants,” they said. “It provides the same amount of nutrition, the same plants, and the same size, if not larger, than a traditional garden.”

Chemistry teacher Stacey Frankenstein-Markon brought the idea to Oshkosh after attending a science convention. What once was merely a dream is now lively, green, and making appearances at lunchtime. However, collaboration from a wide variety of sources was necessary to sow the seeds of the new project.

“After the conference, I started asking different science teachers and teachers in other buildings to see who has an interest in hydroponics. The news spread through the grapevine, and I had a meeting with food service to make sure that if we grew the lettuce, they could use it,” Markon said. “I also met with some people from the Oshkosh Area School District, our central office staff, who were interested in it. We built a buzz around the program and started the process of bringing hydroponics to not just West, but North as well.”

While Markon worked to bring hydroponics to life within the Oshkosh Area high schools, creating a hands-on experience for students was her top priority from day one. This connects the relevance of agriculture and science while nurturing the highly craved engagement that many students lack.

“Our initial goal was for students to be involved from start to finish,” she said. “We wanted students to be involved in planting, growing, harvesting, and managing the gardens so that they could have both the pride and experience of growing their own food.”

While the glossy sheen of the growing silos can seem slightly daunting, they are simplistic and accessible at their core.

“These gardens are self-contained. At the bottom we have our water reservoir, and they can hold about 30 gallons of water. If you listen closely, you can hear that there is water raining down. The water is pulled up with a pump and there are holes in the pipes so that the water rains down over the plants,” Markon said. “All of the plants’ roots grow behind the wall, so they’re constantly getting nutrient water as the roots come down. Because it’s all self-contained, we don’t have to water it as often as other plant systems; it’s pretty good at saving water.”

Students may be curious as to how the crops get sufficient sunlight. According to Markon, sufficient light is provided for the plants through technology.

“We have LED lights in the middle, and these lights are on eighteen hours a day. The plants, essentially, are getting exactly what they need; they have perfect growing conditions,” she said. “Eighteen hours of light, nutrient water, it’s not too cold, it’s not going to freeze.”

The simplistic system is truly ingenious when one considers the excellent conditions they provide for plants despite the confined space. This revolutionary agricultural technology holds another significant strength as the gardens require very little manual labor.

“One of the interesting things about hydroponics is that once everything is set up, there’s not a ton of maintenance,” Markon said. “There is some maintenance that you need to do, like routine maintenance, but really the busy times are when you’re planting and harvesting seeds.”

Hydroponics is not a class, nor is it a club. It’s a project that multiple classes contribute to from time to time. This includes Transition students, Stephanie Polak and Bruce Schreiber’s students, and, in the near future, agriculture and horticulture members will join the efforts as well.

Sammy Burns, one of Polak’s students, enjoys the daily task of watering the gardens.

By Jazmine Blustine

Published November 27 2023

Oshkosh West Index Volume 120 Issue II