Photos courtesy of Jeff Bracken
Jeff Bracken, chemistry teacher of 25 years, has been doing amazing things with the school hydroponics program since it began in 2007. With the help of his students, Bracken has been growing plants and produce which are then donated to the Westerville Area Resource Ministry, a local Westerville food pantry.
Hydroponics is the unique method of growing plants without soil. With traditional growing methods, the soil is what provides the plants with the nutrients needed to thrive. However, plants grown in hydroponic gardens receive their nutrients from a water solution that the roots are exposed to. This method has its advantages, as plants are grown faster and produce more in the same amount of space as plants grown in soil. Bracken adds that the method reduces worry about insects or droughts but can be very labor intensive. After each harvest, the equipment must be cleaned and sterilized perfectly or else future plants run the risk of contamination by fungus. As to be expected, this method requires more supervision than the conventional method of growing plants in soil. Fortunately, Westerville North High School has plenty of helping hands, with many AP and first year biology students participating in the hydroponics program.
Using hydroponics, students were able to turn 30 milkweed plants into 300 in no time.
What started as a donation of grow lights from the Westerville police has become a program of imaginative projects to keep the Westerville North students inspired. Over the years, Bracken has helped students grow lettuce, pineapple, tulips, hyacinths, strawberries, oregano, cherry tomatoes, peppers, marigolds, daffodil and basil, to name a few. When growing basil, Jeff reports having approximately 840 plants at one time. After six months of delivering 11 pounds a week to local Italian restaurants, they were able to save enough money to purchase a commercial-grade cotton candy machine for studying the chemistry of food science.
Lettuce
Another exciting project was hydroponically growing tropical milkweed for the purpose of raising monarch butterflies from eggs. In their first year, students raised 135 monarch butterflies. Using hydroponics, students were able to turn 30 milkweed plants into 300 in no time. Having a preference for this particular plant, the butterflies would eat and lay their eggs on the milkweed. After tracking the migration of the butterflies, organization Monarch Watch informed the high school that one of their butterflies had made it all the way to Mexico a couple of years ago.
John Nixon John Nixon Photography
In one year, students planted 24,000 carrot seeds for W.A.R.M. They also found that W.A.R.M. was receiving an abundance of tomatoes but not enough green beans so they set themselves the goal of growing more green beans to donate.
A particular highlight for Bracken is how he and his students are always looking for their next challenge and how one project often rolls into another. He enjoys making discoveries, such as what works well for basil that also works for strawberries, but not for lettuce. The joy comes in figuring it out, and as Bracken says, “finding out things in real time together.”
The most recent project Bracken and his students have been working on is their soap and bath bomb business, Chem Gems. The team has focused a lot of their attention on this new endeavor of growing lavender and wave-style petunias.
Recalling projects like these, Bracken adds, “I still get a smile coming in to work every day.”
To learn more about Chem Gems, visit www.wnchemgems.com.
Sophia Fratianne is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
