Topics: STEM/STEM Education, Climate and Sustainability

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Description : This project will introduce students from UNO and Burke High School to the concept of hydroponics. Hydroponics is a form of sustainable agriculture practice that can be done on both a commercial scale as well as in individual persons homes. The technique uses only ten percent of the water used in traditional agriculture with up to thirty percent more yield. The students will be building their own systems. Due to uncontrollable circumstances midway through the project, the students were unable to grow the produce to donate to other students at Burke High School.

Topics: Rural Community Vitality

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Description : This project will introduce the concept of OpenAg – Food Computer to K-12 students. The personal food computer is a tabletop-sized, controlled environment agriculture technology platform that uses robotic systems to control and monitor climate, energy, and plant growth inside of a specialized growing chamber. Climate variables such as carbon dioxide, air temperature, humidity, dissolved oxygen, potential hydrogen, electrical conductivity, and root-zone temperature are among the many conditions that can be controlled and monitored within the growing chamber to yield various phenotypic expressions in the plants [1,2]. UNO students will assist in building the food computer while the King Science students will develop formulas for growing food. Additionally the community partner, Parallel Technologies, will benefit from the data collection facilitated by students throughout the semester.