Harnessing the Whole World with Hydroponics

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Originally appears in the Summer 2021 issue.

By Amber Carlin-Mishkin and JoEllen Schuleman

Want to boost student engagement, feelings of investment, and understanding? Hoping to inspire a sense of agency and activism for the survival of our planet? Feeling pressure to craft lessons that will improve skills for a generation of students who will need quick reflexes for solving complex problems? You might be surprised to find that you need only add one tool to your classroom — a hydroponic system. It’s true! 

This solution might seem surprisingly simple. You might wonder how growing crops in a hydroponic system can possibly relate to the entirety of academic content being taught today, while forging an indelible connection to the earth. Well, within a classroom, a hydroponic system naturally becomes a medium for students to take charge of their learning, test out new ideas, and connect to one of the most basic human activities — farming.  

In an age where exponentially increasing information is immediately available through computer search engines, students seem to have an answer for everything they need to know. Yet, we would argue that there is something missing from this — context. Students who farm will find themselves thick in context while tending lush vine crops and involved in practical pursuits while pruning herbs and greens. Students who farm will freely engage in spontaneous and genuine conversations about their plants, food, and climate rather than acting as fact-seeking archeologists digging through the internet to find knowledge. While facts might inspire a curiosity about the natural world, farming will develop a relationship, and it is this very relationship that we believe every child needs.