PECT works in partnership with Rethink Food and Grow Seed to bring this amazing project to local schools, empowering children to think about food and the planet.
Hydroponic growing towers are innovative way to show children how the vegetables they eat can be grown without planting seeds in the ground.
Schools can borrow growing towers for free and are provided with seeds and plant food. Plants are suspended in net cups and a nutrient solution is periodically pumped to top of each tower, trickling down over the roots. Four LED grow lights on timers enable the plants to photosynthesise indoors.
There’s no need for messy soil – meaning children can learn about growing food inside the classroom, at any time of year.
Since 2021:
- 22,790 students have benefited from a growing tower visiting their school
- 54 schools across Cambridgeshire, Fenland and Peterborough have borrowed a growing tower
- 1,080 individual food items have been grown in our towers and planted in schools
The eight-session growing-tower programme introduces children to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, highlighting the vulnerability of global food systems. It also provides a platform for sharing positive solutions.
How the programme works?
- Session 1 is an overview of why we need to Rethink Food. By 2050, the global population will pass 9 billion, with major implications on the demand for food. The session also explores how space for crops and livestock will be limited, as will the nutrients in the soil, along with the availability of fish as part of our diets due to pollution in the sea and overfishing.
- Session 2 This seed-planting session takes between 30 and 45 minutes. It is more of an observation session for pupils rather than a hands-on one.
- Session 3 This is an introduction to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – these are 17 goals set by the United Nations with the aim of helping to “save the planet”. This session highlights how the food we eat can impact on the planet. Children complete an individual task to work out which goal is most important to them.
- Session 4 As a class, decide which goal is most important – and with this goal in mind, consider what’s at stake and what could happen if we did nothing. Start to think of creative solutions.
- Session 5 This is the tower construction session. It takes from 45 minutes to an hour to complete.
- Session 6 Children present their possible solutions (this can be set as a homework task beforehand). Consider the advantages and disadvantages of each one.
- Session 7 Creating content that will be submitted to Rethink Food, to be shared during COP26. Pupils are asked to present their positive solutions in the form of a social media post. All suggestions will be shared as part of a wider social media campaign. (All content will meet safeguarding requirements to protect children.)
- Session 8 Harvest and eat the produce grown in the tower during the project.
The growing towers have been funded by local businesses and are available to book for a whole school term, offering two growing cycles. The growing tower is delivered directly to your school and collected at the end of term. It is then delivered to another school, so it must be looked after.
Book a Growing Tower
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If you would like more information, please contact Heidi Latronico-Ferris on 01733 568408 or email [email protected].