Challenge 1B and 1C
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Below are the files for the handouts that were sent home for 2nd & 3rd Grade students.
Below are the files for the handouts that were sent home for 4th & 5th Grade students.
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Below are links to help with research for two of the three ecosystems. These videos are from Everglades National Park and are hosted on YouTube.
Everglades National Park: Pine Rocklands (video)
Everglades National Park: Hardwood Hammock (video)
Explore Natural Communities
Florida Uplands
Tropical Hammocks
Extension - South Forida Rocklands
FNAI Global and State Ranks
Challenge 2B and 2C
Growing Beyond Earth Garden Illustration
For Individuals or Groups (2–5 students per group)
YOUR CHALLENGE: Astronauts will soon travel on spaceships far away from the Earth, first to the moon and then to Mars. To complete these long duration missions, astronauts will need fresh, healthy food to eat along the way. Fairchild and NASA would like your help designing an automatic garden that can grow fresh vegetables for astronauts during long journeys.
Illustration Challenge — Design and draw a picture of an automatic garden that is able to care for vegetable plants by itself. Entries must include a brief written description of how it works.
Systems must be able to:1) Automatically give plants everything they need to grow (light, water, and nutrients).
2) Automatically adjust the amount of water, light, and nutrients when the plants need more or less of those things.
3) Have enough room for plants to grow, but fit inside a spaceship.
Illustration Challenge — Design and draw a picture of an automatic garden that is able to care for vegetable plants by itself. Entries must include a brief written description of how it works.
Systems must be able to:1) Automatically give plants everything they need to grow (light, water, and nutrients).
2) Automatically adjust the amount of water, light, and nutrients when the plants need more or less of those things.
3) Have enough room for plants to grow, but fit inside a spaceship.
Welcome video from NASA
Historic Vegetable Moment on the Space Station (video)
Veggie 01 (video)
Space Nutrition Book
Resources on Autonomous Gardens:
Automated Garden (video)
7 Geeky Ways to Automate your Garden this Spring
Ten Futuristic Garden Tools
Due to there being several Mondays that were holiday or Teachers workdays, this challenge is being done in the classroom. It is a mandatory class assignment and includes a written description of their system. Students are allowed to work on their own or in teams to make their full color design. This will insure that we have 100 percent participation and the work represented is authentic. Students that have Art class on Monday (Nov 19th & 26th) and who need extra time may be allowed to take work home but must return it to get credit for the work (please don't throw it away by accident!).
Historic Vegetable Moment on the Space Station (video)
Veggie 01 (video)
Space Nutrition Book
Resources on Autonomous Gardens:
Automated Garden (video)
7 Geeky Ways to Automate your Garden this Spring
Ten Futuristic Garden Tools
Due to there being several Mondays that were holiday or Teachers workdays, this challenge is being done in the classroom. It is a mandatory class assignment and includes a written description of their system. Students are allowed to work on their own or in teams to make their full color design. This will insure that we have 100 percent participation and the work represented is authentic. Students that have Art class on Monday (Nov 19th & 26th) and who need extra time may be allowed to take work home but must return it to get credit for the work (please don't throw it away by accident!).
More About the Fairchild Challenge
The Fairchild Challenge is an award winning, interdisciplinary, environmental science competition designed to engage students of diverse interests, abilities, talents, and backgrounds to explore the natural world. The program has been recognized as a benchmark for exceptional STEM education and for empowering PreK–12th grade students to become the next generation of scientists, researchers, educated voters, policy makers, and environmentally-minded citizens. The Fairchild Challenge in practice
The Fairchild Challenge takes place over the course of the academic year and offers an annual menu of activities (called Challenges) for individual students and groups. Schools can participate in any number of the annual challenges. Best entries selected by the schools and submitted to Fairchild are evaluated by panels of independent judges and awarded points based on the judges' scores. Mindful of teachers’ workloads, The Fairchild Challenge dovetails with public school curricula and is aligned with the state and national academic standards. |
The Fairchild Challenge Partners with NASA for Growing Beyond Earth
We are partnering with NASA to provide South Florida middle and high school students an opportunity to conduct authentic botanical research in the classroom. Together, we are administering plant experiments with 131 classrooms participating in The Fairchild Challenge, Fairchild’s award-winning environmental science competition that reaches over 125,000 students annually, to determine which edible plants might be suitable for growth in microgravity aboard the International Space Station’s plant growth facility.The purpose of the experiments are to expand food options and increase plant diversity by testing multiple edible plants that meet NASA’s criteria for size and edibility. Using equipment that mimics the environmental conditions aboard the International Space Station, students are testing factors that may influence plant growth, flavor, and nutrition. NASA will use students’ data to determine which plants they should begin growing in space. For a recent update, read Growing Beyond Earth: Fairchild's Innovative Partnership with NASA article from The Tropical Garden (Winter 2016). https://sites.google.com/site/growingbeyondearth/ |