Education Through Agriculture

Hydroponics, soil-less farming, has been around for many years, mostly at the university level. However, soil-less farming also promotes education through hands on experimentation. Why bother with hydroponics? Because yields can be bigger and better when using soil-less methodologies. Also, by not using soil, many diseases and problems that farmers have are eliminated.

Through asking questions and doing analysis young agriculturists are able to measure the growth cycle of several plants. They are also able to influence the life cycle by providing more or less of certain nutrients. This semester we will be working with several types of vegetables and fruits. How long does it take for a bean to produce and how can we speed up the cycle? These are some of the questions our young farmers are asking themselves.

Young Animators Using Animation

Young animators can have a great time using animation tools like Alice and Scratch to create games and cartoons. One young team of animators illustrated three girls and then used their keyboards to have the illustrations dance around the screen. This sequence fits nicely into a game or a cartoon.

FLL Queens Tournament

On December 20th P.S. 139 went to a robotics tournament held at Aviation High School. It was a great event. Many parents came to see Robotech, our team, in action. P.S. 139 worked as a team in everything that they did that day. They cheered each other on in the pit and everyone participated in the research. They also sang and danced beautifully. I was proud to be their teacher and coach.

P.S. We took first place in teamwork and 2nd in robot performance!

Robotics Team Helps Plant Trees in Rego Park

It took over three months but we did it! TreesNY donated 5 trees, two arborists, and an educational coordinator to help P.S. 139 plant trees, educate over 120 kids about trees and tree maintenance and help us have pride in our school. The educational coordinator went into over 5 classes ranging in grades 1-5, talked about trees for 20 minutes, took the kids outside, and helped them plant trees. Arborists were on hand to answer questions and help install the trees. NY1 also came and interviewed people from our school. P.S. 139 was on NY1 and had the opportunity to tell their story to all of NYC.

Rego Park P.S. 139 First Lego League Pre Competition

This was a fun day filled with learning and dancing. The kids had a chance to see other kids' robots. They also had a chance to practice with their own robot. We made sure to remember that gracious professionalism was an important part of the competition. When other children asked us about our robots we made sure to answer their questions and not worry about them taking our ideas. FLL is all about sharing and not being overly competitive or hoarding information. We also danced the Cotton-Eyed Joe. What fun!

P.S. 139 meets P.S. 40 kids and Environmentalist

It was such a welcome surprise to get an invite from Iffat to meet her team and at the same time hear a scientist discuss climate change. We learned a great deal. Did you know that the warm current from the Florida Gulf also helps warm Barcelona, and if climate change keeps occurring Barcelona may no longer be as warm as it is today? The children asked many questions and learned a great deal, I suspect so did the parents.

Getting Help From a 20 Year Veteran

This weekend several kids came over for pizza and robotics. They worked on several challenges with a programming veteran of over 20 years. The big challenge was restructuring the robot because its bottom piece was touching the ground. This meant that skidding of the wheels was occurring often because the treads were not on the floor.