Rochester Roots is a non-profit program with a focus on increasing the sustainability and fairness of the food system. The primary goal of the Rochester Roots program is teaching how people, technology and plants interact by creating city schoolyard gardens that allow students to come together and learn about agriculture.

Rochester Roots has been given a classroom at the Montessori Academy School #53. One of the many things they wish to do with the room is to start seeds in the late winter and early spring for later planting outdoors in the garden. This seed starter lab is also intended to provide the students at the Montessori Academy School #53 with hands on experience, allowing them to see and interact with the growing process on a daily basis. The idea of the lab is that through experimentation, the students will be able to see how plants react to different environmental conditions and find out which conditions are best for each of the plants. Incorporation of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art & Math) learning into the lab module also assists teachers when trying to teach the students the new Common Core curriculum.

The goal of this project is to create a small indoor seed starting lab that can be controlled and monitored by a team of 3rd-6th grade students. Each team will experiment with specific growing conditions for light, water, soil & temperature. Students will record data for the growth of their plant as well as their conditions and compare these results to other teams’.

Project Name

Rochester Roots Experimental Horticulture Lab

Project Number

P15419

Project Family

Sustainable Systems

Start Term

2141

End Term

2142

Faculty Guide

Art North, artnorth@rpa.net

Primary Customer

Jan McDonald Rochester Roots, jan@rochesterroots.org

Photo Gallery

Planning & Execution

Gate Reviews

Problem Definition

Systems Design

Detailed Design

Build, Test, Document

Publications & Presentations