Farm on Wheels Update

Earlier this year, you helped four, third and fourth grade classes at BCS purchase a hydroponic garden for their class. The original design was a farm on wheels, which could be moved to different classrooms. Well, what began as a lesson in the life cycle of plants became something else entirely...

The original hydroponic garden was built on to a cart, but when students came back on Monday after leaving the farm for the weekend, they found that the garden had sprung a leak. This lead to a call between all of the students and the manufacturer to figure out the problem. The manufacturer suggested mounting the farm on a wall at the school.

Soon, students, teachers and parent helpers were removing a section of old cupboards from in order to mount the farm to its new home on the wall. As time went by, the students and teachers continued to struggle with the Farm, eventually coming to recognize that the Farm was a flawed design and would not function properly. 

The students then got a real life lesson - asking for a refund on a product that didn't work as advertised. The third and fourth graders, along with their teachers, began contacting the company to return the Farm and get a refund. 

The happy news is that they were successful! The class used the refund to purchase a hydroponic tower garden, which is working great!

According to teacher, Scarlet Butzin, the new farm is working great and students love it. She says, "Our tower garden is now mobile and we can house it in one of our 4 classrooms.  Having it in the classroom is the most fabulous gift.   The kids just love having the garden in our classroom!  They say it is calming and it sounds like we have an ocean in our classroom.  It makes our room smell fresh and feel bright. I want this garden to stay in my classroom all year!   It has transformed our community!" ​