TRAINING TRAINERS TO TEACH HYDROPONICS
Learning Module/Notebook
Hannah Eason
Commercial Horticulture
UF/IFAS
Orlando
Team Members:
Wooten, H1
-
Commercial Horticulture, , Orlando, Florida, 32812
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 taught 27 workshops to Central Floridians since 2017 (n=1,642). To supplement practice adoption, I made a popular YouTube video entitled Hannah Wooten Hydroponic Lettuce (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQey35Tt24I) receiving over 608,000 views. Workshop demand exceeded supply, so I developed a train the trainer hydroponics workshop and learning module. The trained trainers included (n=100) teachers, Master Gardener Volunteers, and Food and Nutrition Program staff. The lessons included constructing a hydroponics kit in class plus additional materials, and Google Drive (https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1QzP3JXHsAnsjEzhvSaWDD1ptWf-NJRNl?usp=sharing) access to a PowerPoint and handout. The resources were ready for classroom deployment which resulted in the greatest successes. Regular workshop participants completing post-event evaluations (n= 642) report 100% knowledge gain about hydroponic production and 95% intend to grow their own food hydroponically using hydroponic kits built in class. 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, if 95% of the 1,642 regular class participants made hydroponics systems as indicated, that results in 1,560 new hydroponic systems (less than 1 per participant), compared to “trained trainers” resulting in 91 hydroponic systems built per trainer (91 per participant). Hydroponics is an excellent adaptable production method for urban audiences in non-traditional growing environments. Training trainers and providing ready-to-use learning modules is an efficient use of Extension Agents’ time and resources because the capacity is expanded exponentially.