TRAINING TRAINERS TO TEACH HYDROPONICS
4-H and Youth Programming
Hannah Eason
Commercial Horticulture
UF/IFAS
Orlando
Abstract
Florida ranks second in the United States for vegetable production, and the second largest industry in Florida is agriculture. Florida’s climate is ideal for specialty crop production and is desirable for urban development. Labor and land are costly inputs for agricultural production. Despite abundant rains, water resources are managed for growing populations forcing efficient use across industries. Hydroponic food production has the potential to produce similar yields as traditional agriculture using significantly less water, land, and labor. Equipping urban audiences with knowledge and tools to successfully grow food hydroponically provides new options for feeding the growing urban population in non-traditional growing environments. I developed Set it and Forget it Hydroponics and I Ate My Homework: Hydroponics in Schools workshops to train trainers to bring simple, affordable, and successful hydroponic methods into the classroom. I taught train-the-trainer hydroponics workshops to Master Gardener Volunteers, Food and Nutrition Program staff, and teachers since 2019 (n = 100). I created a learning module shared via Google Drive with supplemental Methods and Materials handouts, critical thinking activities, and a popular YouTube video entitled Hannah Wooten Hydroponic Lettuce (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQey35Tt24I) receiving over 608,000 views. The lessons included constructing a hydroponics kit in class plus additional materials, and Google Drive access to a PowerPoint and handouts. The resources were ready for classroom deployment which resulted in the greatest successes. Annual Qualtrics evaluations of the “trained trainers” in hydroponics (n=21) indicate 76% incorporated hydroponics into lessons resulting in at least 1,924 hydroponic systems built and used for teaching in urban classrooms. Comparing the outcomes, teaching a regular class participant yields approximately one hydroponic kit per participant, while trained trainers result in 91 hydroponic kits built per participant. Hydroponic gardening proves to be an excellent adaptable production method, especially for urban audiences in non-traditional growing environments like classrooms. Training trainers is an efficient use of Extension Agent time and resources because the capacity is expanded exponentially to community leaders who already maintain expertise, authority, and access to many learners that otherwise may not interact with Extension. Providing well-developed learning modules for trained trainers assists with adoption of new methods.
Authors: Hannah Wooten
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Hannah Wooten Commercial Horticulture, UF/IFAS, Florida, 32812