In the 6th-grade S.T.E.M, things are growing in the back room,  plants. CF Middle School students are studying hydroponics,  a useful tool for growing plants indoors and in winter because hydroponics is the act of growing plants without dirt and soil.

Mrs. Amanda Thompson decided to teach students about hydroponics after she took a professional development workshop where she learned how to teach and use hydroponics in the classroom. Hydroponics helps plenty of people around the world with food, because people can have a hydroponics system and help that human access food by growing it with the system. Hydroponics can grow mostly any plant that one can think of and some people start growing their plants in the system and then move them outside. Although some people utilize sand and gravel to help plants grow, in Mrs.  Thompsons’ class she only uses water and that’s most common when people grow plants using the hydroponics system.

Mrs. Thompson has a hydroponics system in her back room and is having students growing plants in her class. Some of the plants she has her students grow are cucumber, squash, melons, bean, and pumpkins at times. While in the classroom there is a restricted time limit there are only some plants grown but private hydroponic growers have no limit on what plants they can grow like Gale Mausolf, who is growing lettuce, celery, and bell peppers at the moment.

Typically, in Mrs. Thompson’s class, she uses some basic materials like  plant seeds, paper towels, grow lights, air tubing and some more. Mrs. Thompson makes her own hydroponic system while some buy them from the internet. Gale Mausolf has made his own but the lettuce, celery, and bell peppers are growing in one he bought. Gale thinks that hydroponics is good because he can grow plants year around and monitor them. He also thinks that growing plants in the soil is better because in hydroponics someone will have to add the nutrients that the plants need instead of the soil giving the nutrients to the plant. So, hydroponics can help anyone no matter where they live because it helps one grow plants and provides food. Gale Mausolf and Mrs. Thompson both think that hydroponics will help us in the future no matter what happens.