S.H.A.R.P. Lesson Plans for Hydroponics

These lesson plans are geared toward students doing scientific experiments with hydroponics, but they can easily be adapted to simply growing plants hydroponically without experimentation.

Lesson One: Learn About Hydroponics

Recommended for ages 10 and up. This lesson gives a brief overview of what hydroponics is, some history of hydroponics, and why it is useful in science and agriculture. You may find this interesting even if you are not doing a scientific experiment.

Lesson Two: Design an Experiment

Recommended for ages 10 and up. This lesson gives an overview of designing a scientific experiment with hydroponics. Skip this one if you are not doing a scientific experiment.

Lesson Three: Mix the Nutrient Solution

Recommended for ages 14 and up. A good knowledge of chemistry, as well as access to a chemistry lab, is recommended to attempt this. This is the most complicated of the five lessons. It gives complete directions for making a nutrient solution for growing plants hydroponically. If you can handle this, it may be useful even if you are not doing a scientific experiment.

Alternatives: If you are not able or do not want to mix your own nutrient solution with chemicals, you can buy products such as Miracle-Gro from your local gardening supply store that you can use to make a nutrient solution. Another method favored by organic gardeners is a "compost tea," which you can make by letting water run in with composting organic material and then siphoning off the water.

Lesson Four: Set Up the Experiment

Recommended for ages 10 and up. This lesson gives directions for setting up a wick system for growing plants hydroponically. It also gives an overview of good growing conditions for plants and gives directions for germinating seeds and planting them in a hydroponic apparatus with Perlite. This is useful even if you are not doing a scientific experiment.

Lesson Five: Let it Grow and See What Happens

Recommended for ages 10 and up. This lesson gives instructions for maintaining a hydroponic system and dealing with problems that may occur. It also gives directions for making observations, organizing data, and drawing conclusions in a scientific experiment. Some of this is useful even if you are not doing a scientific experiment.

All five lessons include focus questions at the end as an overview of their important points. They are also accompanied by short quizzes on the material they cover.

To print out any of the lesson plans or accompanying quizzes, simply click the link in the navigation bar that says "click for printable version." You may use and distribute the lesson plans and quizzes freely, but they must be labeled as the property of S.H.A.R.P. If you distribute the lesson plans or quizzes, you may not change them in any way without the permission of S.H.A.R.P. If you have questions, comments, or suggestions regarding the content of the lesson plans or quizzes, if you are confused by any parts, or if you find any factual errors, please post a question to the message board or send some e-mail to the members of S.H.A.R.P.

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