Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** NY sun works is a non-profit that…

Awards issued prior to january 20, 2025, were funded under previous administrations and may not reflect the priorities and policies of the current administration.** NY sun works is a non-profit that builds hydroponic farms in new york city k-12 schools to teach science, urban agriculture, and climate education. Fundamental to supporting the students we serve is our three-year teacher professional learning program, provided by our team of educators and hydroponic farming professionals. The training enables teachers to confidently implement our curriculum and use the hydroponic systems effectively as teaching tools, in turn supporting an optimal learning experience for the students and building student interest in and engagement with urban agriculture and the related foundational sciences. This train the teacher model includes 16 2-hour sessions of one-on-one curriculum and technical farming training in years 1 & 2, weekly systems maintenance support and farming mentoring in all 3 years, as well as group professional learning sessions throughout all 3 years. Funding from the USDA's pdal program will enable US to:deliver our 3-year teacher professional development program to 50 new partner public schools, reaching 50 k-12 teachers with a comprehensive curriculum and technical hydroponic farming training and ongoing mentoring support.offer teacher stipends to the 50 teachers for participating in the professional development program, with the goal of incentivizing teachers to complete the full scope of training and providing a test case or assessing whether stipends should be incorporated into training moving forward.expand our professional learning content to develop new modules and train teachers in a) classroom management practices in a farm-classroom setting and b) adapting the curriculum and classroom to support high level special needs.