Tower of Power – Partner with Us

A Nutritional Health & K-12 Education Curriculum using Aeroponic Gardening Technology

Current Region of Impact: Standing Rock Sioux Reservation (North & South Dakota)

Project Scope: PHASE I  (SRST Sioux County, NDSU Extension) PHASE II  (SRST Corson County, SDSU Extension)

PHASE III Expansion and replicate in other remote communities

Rationale and Purpose

Imagine that healthy and organic food options are readily available for K-12 students and their families who live in “nutritional food deserts” through a school program that grows produce in a classroom without the need for weeding, landscaping or soil, and with minimal use of water. School Gardens Project aims to grow fruits and vegetables in the classrooms all year round by use of aeroponic growing technology that can supplement school lunches with healthy options. Moreover, imagine an educational curriculum in science math and literacy accompanying Tower Garden growing experience designed to enhance student performance in Common Core Educational Benchmarks and Standards, as well as increase student retention and graduation rates in underserved schools. The result is a school program that not only improves health and well-being of a community starting with meeting nutritional needs of children and youth but simultaneously the quality of education with measurable impact on educational benchmarks. The TOP program is an initiative piloted by the Patricia Locke Foundation that encompasses Standing Rock Sioux Tribe North and South Public Schools as a first region of impact.

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (SSRT) located in Sioux County (North Dakota) and Corson County (South Dakota) school districts is one of the most neglected and underserved communities in the nation. It is also positioned as a geographic tipping point because of its close proximity to multiple reservations that have similar needs, from where a successful school gardens project can spread throughout the Indigenous populated areas.  Children in SRST suffer from malnutrition and other health conditions such as childhood obesity, juvenile diabetes and heart disease – mainly due to living in a nutritional food desert, as there are only two grocery stores available over 100-mile radius, a condition most people in USA will find a hard time to fathom.  These grocery stores offer extremely limited selection of produce and almost no organically grown options.  Locally grown produce are limited and not diverse due to long, severe winters and depleted soil quality.  Moreover, SRST is faced with tragedies such as high suicide rate in children and youth and heavy strain of unemployment. SRST is also a community whose median age is much younger (21 yrs of age) than the current national average (38 yrs of age) with progressively expanding need for children’s nutritional needs.

Life threatening nutritional deficits in children and youth do not have to be the norm. Technology, resources and networks are available to work together to solve this problem for current and future generations. TOP program utilizes an affordable, technologically sound and road-tested vertical growing technology called aeroponics.  Growing food in classrooms, though an advanced form of hydroponics called aeroponics, plants are grown in a vertical structure using an air or mist environment rather than soil. Aeroponic systems use water, liquid nutrients and a soilless growing medium to quickly and efficiently grow more nutritious, organic, vibrant, flavorful, and aromatic produce.  Aeroponic technology has been available and it can be harnessed to meet the nutritional needs of any remote community.

Background

North Dakota State University (NDSU) Sioux County Extension Office currently leads a program for family nutrition that offers education on health and healthy eating specifically tailored for school -aged children and their families. Extension officers found that while traditional gardening is one of several ongoing extension office programs, the growing season in SRST is extremely short (4 months maximum). In addition, soil quality continually deteriorates due to insufficient soil conservation practices. Subsequently, the extension agents have been pursuing options for year round produce growth that serve the needs of the community and supplement existing programs.

In light of the findings, Extension Officers entered into a collaboration with the Patricia Locke Foundation to discuss resources to support the implementation of a pilot health and nutrition initiative to launch at Sioux County schools (PHASE 1) with expansion to follow to Corson County (PHASE 2) and beyond. The TOP program has presently completed Phase 1 & 2 and is progressing towards expansion to any remote community with similar nutrition needs.

The TOP program is funded by sponsorship acquired through the Patricia Locke Foundation in collaboration with SRST serving NDSU Extension Offices Educational materials ranging from math, science and literacy programs are being continually added into the K-12 curriculum incorporating various science and literacy topics such as pollination, embryology, plant science and journaling and class presentations on plant growth, nutrition and vertical garden design elements to count a few topics of concentration.

Implementation Plan

The North Dakota State University (NDSU) Sioux County Extension Office serves the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation-North, with seven K-12 schools under its regional supervision. The Patricia Locke Foundation works closely with the NDSU Sioux County Extension Office to implement Tower Gardens in four schools in ND. The extension officers developed close relationships with these pilot schools in previous projects that smoothly transitioned to vertical gardens initiative.  Phase 1 was implemented in 12 classrooms encompassing these four schools.  Phase 2 of the program was launched in the Wakpala School System in Wakpala, SD.  This phase is also successfully initiated.

Educational curriculum materials and supplements contain detailed lesson plans, activity sheets, charts, lesson diagnostics and answer keys, all in printable and digital version. The supplemental materials to the curriculum such as additional activities and practices are compiled from community sources or created by the Foundation for easy, one location access for teachers and administrators through Patricia Locke Foundation Online Platform. This is to ensure if students will not be allowed in classroom, teachers can seamlessly continue with Tower Growing in classroom themselves and simultaneously feed the lessons to students via an interactive, online platform that compiles everything they need together in one password protected spot.

Current Schools Actively Participating in the TOP Program

Solen Public School, Solen ND (Phase 1)

Cannon Ball Public School District, Cannonball ND (Phase 1)

Selfridge Public School, Selfridge ND (Phase 1)

St Bernard Mission School, Fort Yates, ND (Phase 1)

Wakpala School, (Middle & High Schools), Wakpala, SD

(Phase 2)