Levey Day School’s Judaics and Hebrew Teacher Diana Kovinsky attended a summer educa-tional seminar In Israel in 2014. One of the highlights was visiting a hydroponics project (pho-tos included in the powerpoint.)

In 2015 the 3rd grade students were studying about Israel, and Diana decided to do her own comprehensive hydroponics project on the elementary level. It included:

Showing a power point presentation she created about the reasons for growing hydroponically and the project in Israel. The discussion included Hebrew words, learning about the land and issues of growing in Israel, and scientific concepts. The class then built a hydroponics system with Morah Diana in an aquarium. For several months they conducted observations and watched plants grow hydroponically, in addition to tweaking the system when necessary.

Additionally, each student was guided to create their own hydroponic system, which they cre-ated at home and brought into class to share. Each was different, and incorporated the knowl-edge they had gained plus engineering skills. The program was very successful and motivating, plus integrated topics seamlessly. Several other schools heard about it through her blog and word of mouth and wanted to replicate it. This school year, 2016-17, Diana plans to replicate the project with 2nd and 3rd graders, using what she learned while doing it in the previous year.