Astoria Energy Tech High School students and their families joined the New York Power Authority (NYPA) on November 15 to celebrate the school’s new hydroponic lab that will grow herbs and vegetables year-round in a soil-less garden and be supplemented by a sustainability and food justice curriculum.
NYPA held a ribbon-cutting ceremony in the ninth grade Living Environment classroom with New York Sun Works and elected officials, followed by a tasting of classroom-grown fresh basil with tomato and mozzarella with the Energy Tech High School community.
The new green lab, which is a hydroponic system with seeding stations, a tower garden, hanging vines, and a composting station, will grow herbs and kale and will ultimately be made available to AP environmental science classes and a Green Team after-school program.
Led by NYPA’s Environmental Justice team, the collaboration builds on a nationally respected Pathways in Technology Early College High Schools (P-TECH) program, which offers paid internships to help high school students learn workplace skills and gain the education needed to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers.
Read the complete article at www.qns.com.