This project fosters more equitable participation in computing, through the breadth and depth afforded by tabletop “smart” (automated) greenhouses. Working with K-12 faculty and staff across disciplines (“co-advisors”), high-school youth as teachers and mentors (“counselors”), and middle-school youth as learners (“campers” or “students”), our project has become more accessible across learning modalities (in-person, remote, or hybrid), hardware platforms (now Chromebook-compatible), and software platforms (now browser-based). Over the past 15 months, we have trained over 20 faculty/staff remotely, and over 10 high-schoolers in-person and remotely. Based on their feedback, and that of middle-school youth, our project has increasingly leveraged various physical aspects of the greenhouse (light intensity and color; temperature; humidity; soil moisture) in ways that bridge human senses and electronic sensors, connecting science with physical computing.

The high-school counselors and faculty/staff co-advisors worked with 14 campers over February Vacation week, and we will soon work with 130 eighth-graders during the school day. We partner with Massachusetts public schools in Boston, Springfield, and Waltham, each of which are racially/ethnically, culturally, linguistically, and socioeconomically diverse. Professionals across a variety of disciplines (environmental science, chemistry, physics, literacy, special education, and early childhood education) have shared how the project relates to their professional lives. Furthermore, both professionals and youth have made deep connections with family traditions related to gardening/farming, cooking, and multi-/translingual learning. Finally, noted increases in student engagement and self-efficacy suggest that youth may be better positioned to use computation in their lives, for a variety of personal, professional, and civic opportunities.

For more details about this work, see our recently-published article in Connected Science Learning (free access) or the project resources PDF for this presentation. Also, we look forward to engaging in discussion via the comments section below!

Hi-

This sounds like a project I’d love to do at home myself! Can you give some examples of some of the experiments and refinements that were made? What data did students decide to capture, and what did they do as a result? 

Hi Patrick (and all) -- links didn't work when I replied, so I'm making a new post here. In terms of experiments, students have manipulated the species of plants (basil, cilantro, various lettuces, assorted microgreens, etc.), colors of light (proportions of reds vs. blues, mostly), thresholds of high/low temperature or high/low humidity (lower temps for lettuces, higher temps for herbs, *in general*). Those data are used to automatically control whether lights are on or off, whether windows are opened or closed, and whether circulating and exhaust fans are on or off. Also, sometimes the LED strips are used for signaling purposes (rather than for plant growth) -- e.g., red = too hot, blue = too cold, green = just right (temperature) / purple = too humid, orange = too dry, yellow = just right (humidity).

The main data they collect are related to temperature and humidity, as well as intensity of light, plus they have also done soil moisture at times. Soil moisture remains troublesome, as misplaced or corroded sensors sometimes result in flooding.

We have STL files available here, if you want to 3D-print the connectors and holders yourself. We also have instructional videos for assembly of the greenhouse and coding of the micro:bit. Finally, here is a materials list for everything we’re using with 8th graders this term -- of course you can use as little or as much of the electronics as you want (the greenhouse is decent without them, and much less expensive than commercially-available models). 

Happy greenhouse-ing! :)

Thanks for a very interesting video.  I am curious whether you thought the online professional development for teachers was as effective as a face-to-face session.  There are clearly pros and cons to both versions, and I suspect that we will see many more online and hybrid versions in the future.  What are your long-term plans for the teacher PD?

This sounds like such a fun project and an amazing way to combine science and computer science! Experimentation is so important in both fields, and it's great that you were able to restructure things so students could still experiment at home, despite the pandemic.

Empowering high school students to lead the work is a great asset to this program. I wonder if you have compared the advantages of training students vs. adult learners and how it impacts other students. If you have, has the effect diminished in the virtual setting?

This sounds like a great project!  Can this be scaled down to younger grades just learning about plant growth and development and beginning programmers?  I am also interested in the data analysis aspect of the project. Do the students make changes to the greenhouse environment based upon the data that is collected by the raspberry pi, or is there  a level of AI that automatically informs the young botanists what conditions to modify to obtain the desired plant growth?