Students at Patriot High School in Nokesville are doing hands-on learning about nutrition and technology by growing their own tower gardens.
Starting in January, Patriot students built the tower gardens, which hold 20 gallons of water and several plants.
“The tower garden ties in with my nutrition class, as well as ‘Introduction to Culinary’ because we teach them about nutrients, and we talk about the toxicities, deficiencies, how to build a healthy plate, how to grow a garden to plate,” said Patriot High School teacher Kimberly Buford.
The students care for the garden, making sure that the plants are getting the nutrients they need, and doing manual pollination of the plants.
“If you’ve got one of these, you know that you have safe food. It’s organic – you grew it – you know where it came from, you know what’s in it,” said Buford.
According to sophomore Patriot student Julianne Castillo, the project has been a great experience.
“It’s a really cool idea, it’s a really great hands-on project that a lot of kids can do, and teamwork really plays a key role,” said Castillo.
In the gardens they classes are currently growing lettuce, arugula, basil, tomatoes, cucumbers, and bok choy, according to Castillo.
The students are also learning how to cook the food that they’ve grown.
“I hope that they learn the tie between science, technology, and where their food comes from – how to keep safe food,” said Buford.
