By MaryMargaret Portera
MSSM Intern
Located on Trafton Ave. in Limestone is what the students and staff members of MSSM call a greenhouse. However, the setup is probably not what you would think of when you hear the word greenhouse. The house is in fact heated by electricity and fluorescent lights that run approximately 18 hours a day. However, the project is what one of the adults involved, Chef Jeff Smith, hopes will inspire students to start an actual greenhouse and eventually plant a garden.Plants are grown in this former housing unit by the process of hydroponics. What occurs in the greenhouse is a cross between growing fresh vegetables for use in the school cafeteria and as a science experiment.
Luke Shorty, math teacher at the MSSM who oversees the greenhouse project, explained that MSSM was invited to apply for a Maine Community Foundation Fast-Track Grant in the summer. The application was completed, and MSSM was granted $1,700 to start their hydroponics project. Inspiration for the project, however, came to Shorty from an experiment being done by an Island School in the Bahamas, where he took a trip and witnessed an experiment they were doing using aquaculture. Shorty decided to conduct this experiment with his students, and he decided it was the perfect time to do it when they were invited to apply for the grant.
The project started with the development of what the people involved in the project call “worm tea.” With the help of several student volunteers, bins were set up to house worms feeding on compost straight out of the school cafeteria. These bins were set up last spring in another experiment, and transferred to the greenhouse for use.
Students kept records to see what kind of compost did the best job of feeding the worms, and are now pulling the moisture from the bins to help feed the plants. Corks are kept in the bottom of the bins to collect the moisture, or “tea” from the worms.
From here, the greenhouse project turns into a real science experiment. Determined to find out the most efficient way to grow vegetables for the school, as well as be able to collect and observe patterns in the data, three different sections were set up in the greenhouse. The vegetables consist of different kinds of lettuce and herbs.
One section is being fed only commercial fertilizer. Another is fed a mixture of 50 percent commercial fertilizer and 50 percent worm tea. A third section is being fed just worm tea. The first two sections have had remarkable results and are growing beautifully. The worm tea alone has not had so much luck. Very few plants could survive on the limited diet.
The unique project is able to benefit two of the classes at MSSM. The advanced placement statistics class is using the experiment to gather and examine data. The genetics class will be using the plants grown in the greenhouse to gather fresh DNA samples. Being a math teacher, Shorty even came up with a creative way of naming the greenhouse. It’s name is Lab 14. Shorty explains this is because it is located at 43 Trafton, and 43 is the 14th prime number.
Now the greenhouse is being run and maintained with the help of Smith, Shorty, Mark Fisher, and about 20 students. Shorty said that the space will eventually be more efficiently used, to be able to grow more vegetables for the school to use. He said that Lab 14 has two purposes.
“Its first purpose is to help students understand how much work goes into the entire scientific process, and learn how to be able to conduct their own experiments. The second purpose is that growing food on campus could eventually help the community, and hopefully enough lettuce and herbs will be grown to be able to support all 150 students to supplement the cafeteria,” said Shorty.
Apart from being used for classes, the plan for these vegetables is for them to be harvested and provided to students in the cafeteria with the help of Smith. Smith is a recent addition to the school, and recognized within the school as a person who is determined to raise the health standards of the food served to students at the school. He hopes for the greenhouse to provide a helping hand in doing so.
