LibGuides: Educator Guide: Elementary Hydroponics: Elementary Hydroponics Educator Guide

Elementary Hydroponics

Tips to Come Prepared

Before you visit the Genovesi Environmental Study Center (GESC) with your class, review the Educator's Guide to prepare for your students.

Read the Essential Questions (p. 1) and Connections to Standards (p. 2) to decide how you want to link your curriculum with your field trip
Complete the Pre-Visit Lesson with your class activating student interest and engagement
Come to GESC ready to engage and learn with our experiential, hands-on field trip program, Elementary Hydroponics

Library Finds

Growing Good Food by Anne Flounders Have you thought about where your food comes from? Do you know the difference between organic and nonorganic foods, and is organic always a more healthful choice? Some farmers have opened their farms to the local community to help grow and pick crops. In this book, you'll read why community-supported agriculture is growing fast and how the choices you make at the grocery store can make a big difference in Earth's health as well as your own. Book features: Table of Contents; Glossary; For More Information including books and web sites; Index; photos and captions; charts and graphs; source notes.
Potatoes on Rooftops by Hadley Dyer From high school students to high-rise dwellers, people--including Michelle Obama--are discovering innovative ways to grow fresh, healthy, and delicious fruit and vegetables at home, in community gardens, and at school. This brisk, informative overview explains how farming in the city is not only fun, but also important for the planet. There are many ways to farm in the city: a Detroit high school program teaches students to grow food and raise chickens; in Tokyo, a bank vault was converted into an underground greenhouse; in Nairobi, local youth transformed part of a slum into a garden that helps feed their families. Read about modern inventions such as futuristic pod greenhouses, food-producing wall panels, and industrial-sized composters. Short, kid-friendly descriptions and vibrant photos and illustrations keep the pace moving and the tone light. Toronto Public Health and FoodShare, two respected agencies, both have contributed to the book. Potatoes on Rooftops is the perfect book to get you thinking about how you, too, can grow food in the city.
Old MacDonald Had an Apartment House by Judi Barrett; Ron Barrett (Illustrator) Mr. MacDonald, an apartment super, turns his building into a four-story farm with hot and cold running sweet potato vines, ceiling carrots, carpets of cabbages, and other farm produce and animals, prompting all the tenants to move out.
What Do Roots Do? by Kathleen V. Kudlinski; David Schuppert (Illustrator) This factual, rhyming picture book digs into the wonders of roots and the amazing things they do for trees, flowers, and all kinds of plants. The lilting text and richly-detailed illustrations are sure to appeal to kids and teachers alike!
Urban Farming by Rebecca Rissman Urban Farming helps readers trace the history of farming in urban areas, understand why we do it, explore the science behind it, and discuss controversies from an objective viewpoint. The title will engage readers on the topic and help them to weigh the pros and cons as they make their own food decisions. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Core Library is an imprint of Abdo Publishing, a division of ABDO.
Building Green Places by Ruth Owen Building Green Places takes a "green" look at careers in planning, designing, and building energy-efficient facilities in which to live, work, and play. It also includes the development of communities built in a way that will complement and enhance Earth's ecosystems.
Growing and Eating Green by Suzy Gazlay; Ruth Owen Come inside for a fresh look at careers in "green" food, from planting to cultivation, and merchandising to selling. In addition to the "greening" of conventional methods of food production, this book examines careers in alternative energy, equipment, packaging, and delivery systems.
Growing Nutritious Food by Tamra B. Orr In this book, students see the scientific method at work in a real-world situation. Readers practice close reading as they look for clues that will lead to a deeper understanding of food, health, and the transfer of energy. The scientific method pushes students to apply critical thinking as they learn new methods of exploration and build on concepts they may already know. Additional tools, including a glossary and index, help students learn new vocabulary and locate information.

Essential Questions

What is hydroponics?
What is aquaponics?
Why are scientists developing hydroponics as an alternative to traditional farming?
How do you design an experiment?

Our Educator Guide

Elementary Hydroponics Educator Guide

Sora eBooks

Access these free ebooks by signing in to the Sora app with your NYC DOE credentials.

How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? by Chris Butterworth; Lucia Gaggiotti (Illustrator) Fresh retro artwork lures little readers on a tasty trip to farms, dairies, and more. Yum! The best part of a young child's day is often opening a lunchbox and diving in. But how did all that delicious food get there? Who made the bread for the sandwich? What about the cheese inside? Who plucked the fruit? And where did the chocolate in that cookie get its start? From planting wheat to mixing flour into dough, climbing trees to machine-squeezing fruit, picking cocoa pods to stirring a vat of melted bliss, here is a clear, engaging look at the steps involved in producing some common foods. Healthy tips and a peek at basic food groups complete the menu. Back matter includes an index.
The Vegetables We Eat by Gail Gibbons What are vegetables, anyway? Give kids the 411 on veggies with this richly illustrated introduction to produce! Peppers, beans, corn, and peas!  Nonfiction superstar Gail Gibbons lays out the basics of veggies with colorful watercolors and straightforward text. Learn how they grow, how they get to stores, and how many kinds there are--and learn some weird trivia, too! Diagrams, cross sections, and illustrations get kids up close and personal with glossy red peppers, plump orange pumpkins, delectable little peas, and dozens of other vegetables in this essential primer on the subject.
The Good Garden by Katie Smith Milway; Sylvie Daigneault (Illustrator) From the best-selling author of One Hen comes the inspiring story of one struggling farming family in Honduras and their journey to growing enough food to meet their needs. Based on the real story of farm transformation underway in Honduras and many other countries, this book offers children ways they can be part of the movement to grow "good gardens" and foster food security.Eleven-year-old María Luz and her family live on a small farm. This year their crop is poor, and they may not have enough to eat or to sell for other essentials, such as health care, school uniforms and books. When María's father must leave home to find work, she is left in charge of their garden. Then a new teacher comes to María's school and introduces her to sustainable farming practices that yield good crops. As María begins to use the same methods at home, she too sees improvements, which allow her family to edge their way out of the grip of the greedy "coyotes" --- the middlemen who make profits on the backs of poor farmers. Little by little, the farms --- and the hopes --- of María and her neighbors are transformed as good gardens begin to grow.
Let's Eat by Kimberley Veness All the food you eat, whether it's an apple or a steak or a chocolate-coated cricket, has a story. Let's Eatuncovers the secret lives of our groceries, exploring alternative--and sometimes bizarre--farm technology and touring gardens up high on corporate rooftops and down low in military-style bunkers beneath city streets. Packed with interesting and sometimes startling facts on agriculture around the world, Let's Eatreveals everything from the size of the biggest farm in the world to how many pesticides are in a single grape to which insect people prefer to eat.
Right This Very Minute by Lisl H. Detlefsen; Renee Kurilla (Illustrator) What's that you say? You're hungry? Right this very minute? Then you need a farmer. You have the stories of so many right here on your table! Award winners Lisl H. Detlefsen and Renee Kurilla's delicious celebration of food and farming is sure to inspire readers of all ages to learn more about where their food comes from--right this very minute!
The Curious Garden by Peter Brown This New York Times bestselling modern classic explores the perennial topic of environmentalism in an urban world, from the creator of The Wild Robot and Mr. Tiger Goes Wild One boy's quest for a greener world... one garden at a time. While out exploring one day, a little boy named Liam discovers a struggling garden and decides to take care of it. As time passes, the garden spreads throughout the dark, gray city, transforming it into a lush, green world. This is an enchanting tale with environmental themes and breathtaking illustrations that become more vibrant as the garden blooms. Red-headed Liam can also be spotted on every page, adding a clever seek-and-find element to this captivating picture book.
Harlem Grown by Tony Hillery; Jessie Hartland (Illustrator) As featured on Humans of New York "Hartland's joyful folk-art illustrations bop from the gray-toned jazzy vibrancy of a bustling city neighborhood to the colorful harvest of a lush urban farm." --The New York Times "An inspiring picture book for youngsters with meaningful ties to the environment, sustainability, and community engagement." --Booklist Discover the incredible true story of Harlem Grown, a lush garden in New York City that grew out of an abandoned lot and now feeds a neighborhood. Once In a big city called New York In a bustling neighborhood There was an empty lot. Nevaeh called it the haunted garden. Harlem Grown tells the inspiring true story of how one man made a big difference in a neighborhood. After seeing how restless they were and their lack of healthy food options, Tony Hillery invited students from an underfunded school to turn a vacant lot into a beautiful and functional farm. By getting their hands dirty, these kids turned an abandoned space into something beautiful and useful while learning about healthy, sustainable eating and collaboration. Five years later, the kids and their parents, with the support of the Harlem Grown staff, grow thousands of pounds of fruits and vegetables a year. All of it is given to the kids and their families. The incredible story is vividly brought to life with Jessie Hartland's "charmingly busy art" (Booklist) that readers will pore over in search of new details as they revisit this poignant and uplifting tale over and over again. Harlem Grown is an independent, not-for-profit organization. The author's share of the proceeds from the sale of this book go directly to Harlem Grown.

Elementary Hydroponics

Materials for Pre-Visit Lesson

Materials for Post-Visit Lesson

Elementary Hydroponics Post-Visit

Hair-Raising Hydroponics Facts!

Hydroponically grown crops can eliminate the need for pesticides or herbicides that greatly benefits our environment.
Hydroponic farming can help assist in water conservation because farmers claim that some hydroponics crops use 90% less water than traditional farming.
Hydroponics takes up less space than traditional farming. Some say you can plant four times the amount of crops in the same space!

Educator Guide: Elementary Hydroponics: Elementary Hydroponics Educator Guide

Elementary Hydroponics

Tips to Come Prepared

Library Finds

Essential Questions

Our Educator Guide

Sora eBooks

Elementary Hydroponics

Materials for Pre-Visit Lesson

Materials for Post-Visit Lesson

Hair-Raising Hydroponics Facts!

Connections to Standards