The Projects in 7B- Gina

Drew working on his project.

Anna working on her heater.

For the past few weeks, we have been working on a project called the iGrow Project. This project's purpose is to use our creativity in order to make either a product or role that will benefit the greenhouse in any way.

Eugene, Daniel, and Sabine's new system.

Some people choose a product, which means they made an object for the iGrow Project. Jennifer and Rachel are making a poster, Nicholas and Michael are making a new system, Anna is working on making a new heater, Eugene, Daniel, and Sabine are also making a new system and Andrew is making a solar panel.

Nicholas and Michael's new system.

Jennifer and Rachel are making a
poster to spread the greenhouse. 

Other people are making roles and they're the ones who work in the greenhouse and maintain the systems and organise the materials

Greenhouse Report - Jeffrey 7C

Reports- December 5th

Farmer's Report- As I mentioned in my previous blog, some plants were growing slower than the other plants. After we tried out the rectangular foils on some of the plants, it actually worked. That is why we decided to put these on multiple plants that were not growing fast enough and need more sunlight. Today, the farmer accidentally put too much fish food in the tank for the fish. Unluckily, it was a problem. The fishes didn't eat all of the fish food so the fish food was ripped apart and it landed on the bottom of the tank. This would make the tank dirty. Another problem was the the fishes were so full. If this happens, some fishes might die, which we don't want.

Engineer's Report- On the previous post, I said that there was a leak and we fixed it by putting hot glue gun on it. It did work for a short amount of time but it started to leak again after a short amount of time. The Engineer put even more glue gun on the leak and the leak stopped. Even if the leak stopped, it is really fragile and one touch can make the leak start again so we have to be really careful.

Research Biologist's Report- Today the Research Biologist decided to check which plants were growing the best in which system. The pumpkins were dominating the Grow Bed System. In the Horizontal System, there were multiple plants that were growing pretty well. The super sioux tomatoes, beans, snow peas, and pumpkins were growing really good in the Horizontal System. In the Vertical system, there aren't any plants that are growing really well. We realized that the pumpkins were growing really well in the Grow Bed System because the pumpkin plant's roots are enormous. They need a lot of room to fit their roots in and the Grow Bed System had a lot of room for the roots. I feel that there aren't dominating plants in the Vertical System because the vertical System doesn't have enough room and it doesn't have the space to make plants sprout their roots. I also think that there were many leaks and other problems in the Vertical System that affected the plants.

The Boiler Room- Gina

Cardboards in the boiler room

Cabinets in the Boiler Room

Jennifer working on her project

The boiler room is a place where we can build things and use as a storage for objects that can be reused. The boiler room is also reused because it used to be a science room but the teacher changed rooms so we has no use to this room, until the science teachers decided to make it a boiler room. There are various objects and materials and we organise it in cabinets such as the cardboard, wood, glass, etc.

In the boiler room, we also make various projects with different sixes and shapes. Since we're in the middle of doing a project, the boiler room is very useful for us. This room is also useful because we can be messy without making and the supplies are there for us. Another reason the boiler room is useful is because there is a cutting area with scissors and knives.

A new system for a project

The cutting area

The boiler room

A new system for a project

Greenhouse Report- Jeffrey 7C

Reports- December 3rd


Farmer's Report-
The farmer realized that the plants didn't receive enough sunlight. If a plant doesn't get the enough sunlight, they end up getting smaller than we expected them to be. The problem was that the tall plants that has wide leaves were covering the sunlight that the smaller plants needed. As a result, the engineers found out a way to fix this problem.

Engineer's Report- As we stated it in the farmer's report, some plants were not getting enough sunlight from, so we decided to use foil wrappers. We made 2 rectangles out of foil wrappers that are about 15 cm tall. Then, you put it on both sides of  the plant. When the sunlight hits the tall foil, it would make a reflection towards the plant. With this, the plant can obtain more sunlight from before. There was another problem in the Vertical System. On the bottom of the bottle there was another leak. We realized that the hole on the cap was too large for the tube to cover, so there were drips of water coming out. First, we tried putting scotch tape around the tube and make the hole block up.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out so well. This time we tried the electric tape and it still didn't work. We finally found out the solution by using glue-gun and covering the hole.

Research Biologist's Report- As we mentioned in the farmer's report, some plants didn't receive enough sunlight. The less the sunlight, the shorter the plant would be. Photosynthesis when the plant makes food from the sunlight, but if they don't get sunlight, it's same as not giving the plant it's food. If we leave the small plants alone, they are going to eventually die and we don't want that to happen. That is why we decided to make those rectangular foil to make the plants get enough sunlight and grow healthy.

How the Plants are Growing- Gina

Interviewing the Greenhouse "roles"

Zaiu (engineer)

The systems are doing well and nothing major has gone wrong. The water is flowing and the algae hasn’t been a big problem but the heater isn’t woking well and needs to be fixed. Also, the fish are okay so far but they may have a hard time during winter.

Plants in the horizontal system

Karoline (manager)

The greenhouse is very cold and the snow has piled on top of the greenhouse which stops and blocks the sunlight from going in the greenhouse. The plants are doing fairly well so far but none of them has fruits and some have withered or are starting to. The fish are in very cold water and they and the plants might have a hard time during the winter.

Jared (safety manager)

Everyone is doing they’re jobs and the greenhouse is organized. There hasn’t been any major problems yet but there are many things to be done and people need to be more aware about the greenhouse

JiHee's tomatoes in the vertical system

Pumpkins in the grow-bed system

Greenhouse Report #2 - Jason 7A

Introduction: We have recently started a project called the iGrow Project in which every student contribute to the greenhouse one way or another. I have chosen to do blogs about the greenhouse. I will post updates to this blog weekly. 

Grow Bed System: I saw many successful, and healthy plant growth in the grow bed system. The grow bed system is particularly for plants that requires a lot of space. For example, if the plant has big leaves, then it would cover the other smaller plant and would block out the sun. While in the grow bed system, there are big plants such as pumpkins, which I think is the reason to why the grow bed system is so successful. The bigger the plant, the more it can endure. Most of the plants in the grow bed system is pumpkins and they grow very big. As you can see in the photo (picture #1) underneath, the pumpkin leaves are taking over the system, and growing at an exponential rate. No plants in the grow bed system is having trouble in growing. 

Picture #1

Greenhouse Fixers: The students in the picture (picture #2) below volunteered to fix leaks, and algae issues in the greenhouse. In the picture, Stephen and Steve are sharing the silicon, stopping leaks. On the other photo (picture #3), it is a picture of Aldous, and Min Woo cleaning up the algae that grew in the rubber tube, which was a big problem and harmful to our plants growing in the greenhouse. Thanks to the 4 people, the greenhouse is slowly recovering from leaks, and the algae is being cleaned continuously.

Picture #3

Picture #2

Another Problem: The plants are still in very dangerous conditions because the big plants in the horizontal system is about to snap off, which is not good. We need farmers that can help me fix the problem by using wires, and plastic strings. This problem is also from the last post, and this problem seemed to occur once again when I visited the greenhouse today. Please help me by fixing the problem with the method I've used, or if there are any other better methods you can think of, then you are always welcome to use it.

Greenhouse Report - Jeffrey 7C

Reports- December 1st

Farmer's Report: The farmer realized that there were some plants that were growing the way we didn't want it to. On some of the plants, they had leaves with brown tips. Some plants were facing downwards and they didn't seem to look healthy. Thankfully,  most of the plants are healthy

Engineer's Report: Today in the Vertical System there was a leak under the cap of the bottle. At first we knew that there was a leak in the Vertical System, because water was dripping, but we didn't know were the actual leak was. We started to find leaks. As we looked for it, we realized that it was coming out from the under of the bottle. We realized that between the tube and cap, there was a small gap. As a result we fixed it by just simply covering the tiny gap.

Research Biologist's Report: Because some plants were not growing the ways we want, we decided to research about why this is actually happening. Some of our plants had brown tips. This was happening because of dryness, not getting enough water, or if the humidity of the temperature is too low. Some plants were facing down and they look like they are withered. This is because they didn't have enough water or if they receive too much water.
       
                     

The 2014 Greenhouse- Gina Lee

Fish in the Greenhouse

The Greenhouse this year(7th grade) and the greenhouse last year(6th grade) are basically similar but we have more fish and more materials in order to make the greenhouse more attractive and easier to handle. The systems are the same but 
they've become cleaner and more organised. The algae from last year still remains so we have to clean it but otherwise the greenhouse is in good shape. Although the greenhouse is good, some plants aren't growing well and some withered. This may be because we germinated them in autumn when the weather was getting cold and there weren't enough sun. Pumpkins, peppermints, and bok-choy are growing the best and the pumpkin is especially growing at a fast rate.

The vertical system last year

The Vertical System is a system which we made out of recycled 1liter water bottles. We stacked the bottles "on top of each other" and but pipes between them so the water flowed. Although this system doesn't require much water since it reuses the water, algae forms frequently in the pipes and the pipes sometimes gets blocked and the pots flood.The vertical system flourished with plants last year. Most of the plants in the vertical system were cucumber and basil.

Lettuce growing in this system

The grow-bed system last year

The Grow-bed system is made of clay beads we use for every system and has a total of 3large rectangular "pots" in which 2classes share one large "pot". This system can hold big plants and the cucumbers especially flourished in the grow-bed system. There are also "poles" in the back of the grow-bed system so plants like beans or pumpkins can climb and by steadied. This system is good for all types of plants and the water flow is excellent, but the plants sometimes gets unorganized, the plant leaves might get scattered, and the big plants covers the small plants and prevents it from getting sunlight.

The horizontal system last year

Bok-Choy in this system

The horizontal system is a system in which we have plastic pipes with "pot holes" evenly in them. We placed the pots(with plants) in the holes and made sure the roots reached the water flowing in the pipes. The horizontal system is an aquaponics system and uses fish to nutrient and helps the plants grow bigger and stronger. Our fish survived through the year, even during summer when we didn't take good care of them, and they don't require much money. This system is great but big plants like the pumpkin or the cucumber don't grow as well since there aren't enough space for the plants and the roots to grow.

Greenhouse Report #1 - Jason 7A

Introduction: We have recently started a project called the iGrow Project in which every student contribute to the greenhouse one way or another. I have chosen to do blogs about the greenhouse. I will post updates to this blog weekly. 

Update: 

1. Horizontal System: So far there are not many unhealthy plants in the greenhouse and not much problems are encountered yet, but there are still some plants that are having a hard time growing. For example, take a look at the picture below (picture #1). This plant isn't growing well, and some parts of it is brown, which means it is unhealthy. Take a look at the other picture (picture #2). That plant shown in picture #2 is the same type of plant shown in picture #1. So why doesn't it grow equally if they are planted in the same date and are the same type of plants? They received an equal amount of sunlight as well. It turns out that the plant in picture #1 is at the edge of the horizontal system and the plant shown in picture #2 is in the middle of the horizontal system. I thought that might be the problem, but I don't know if my thesis is true yet. 

Picture #1

Picture #2

2. Vertical System: The vertical system is very interesting. Plants that are thriving are growing at an exponential rate, while plants that aren't growing isn't showing any growth for the past few days. For example, the plant shown in picture #3 is a bean. This bean is very unhealthy and seems like it's about to die, but in picture #4, the same kind of plant is growing very well. So why is this? I came up with an idea that it is the effect of the algae in the rubber tube. In picture #3, the pipe is full of algae. On the other hand, in picture #4, the tube is very clean. These two plants are the same type of plant, and is near each other so the germination date, or the sunlight does not have to do anything with the amount they are growing. It's just that one tube is more taken care of than the other. 

Picture #4

Picture #3

3. Another Problem: Please take a look at picture #5. The plant is bent, and is about to snap. We have to prevent this from happening and find a solution. I came up with a solution (with Mr. Martin). Picture #6 is after the set up is complete. It requires a wire, and a plastic string. It's quite simple, but I don't like how we have to add a lot of plastic strings to tie the plant to the wire. Perhaps we can use another type of object that would be capable of tying the plant easier and doesn't need a lot of something. This is only a first draft, so we can polish it to make it more effective, and more compact. I would like suggestions from people in the comment section of how to fix this kind of problems. 

Picture #5

Picture #6