Integrating Interdisciplinary Education at the High School Level through Hydroponics

Blinn, Hannah

Integrating Interdisciplinary Education at the High School Level through Hydroponics

Persistent URL

http://hdl.handle.net/10456/42653

Author(s)

Blinn, Hannah

Date Issued

April 20, 2017

Abstract

Through a sub-grant of the Environmental Education Grant Allegheny College received from the Environmental Protection Agency, Union City High School, in Union City, PA, built a stackable hydroponics system to be used as a tool for teaching students about food, agriculture, biology, and a variety of other topics. This project involved the research and design of an interdisciplinary lesson series that used the hydroponics system as an anchor to explore complex challenges and issues currently being addressed in the real world around food access. Lessons were introduced in two classrooms and encouraged students to think critically about hydroponics from perspectives among the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The series also allowed students to experience a form of education that differed from the traditional discipline-based pedagogy present in primary and secondary education. Implementation of the lesson series took place during the third nine weeks of the 2016-2017 school year. Pre and post interdisciplinary-natured activities were used to measure students’ ability to engage in interdisciplinary thinking around a food procurement project. At the completion of the project, one class showed an increased ability for interdisciplinary thinking, while the other class showed the opposite result based on quantitative measures.

Major

Environmental Studies

Honors

Environmental Science, 2017

First Reader(s)

Haywood, Benjamin K.