Casey McAndrews: Recycled Greenhouse and Home Hydroponics Farm
Casey has been working with the MVironment club for the past few years. This year she is delving into the world of hydroponics, something that has really intrigued her. Hydroponics is important to the island because it offers a way to produce fresh local produce during the winter months without the costs and pollution of transportation. She is building a greenhouse of mostly recycled materials that will house multiple types of hydroponics systems, so she can get a deeper understanding of how hydroponics work. At the end of the project, she plans to donate the greenhouse to the school garden so other students can benefit from it.
How did you choose your project? I chose my project because I had been working with the MVironment Club doing smaller hydroponics workshops with the elementary students, and realized that I was very interested in hydroponics. I wanted to build some larger systems that could easily be made by an everyday person in their home.
Who was your advisor? My in-school advisor was Dr.Munn and my out of school was Keith Wilda from Thimble Farm.
How much time did your project require? I used pretty much every other day of school working on my project, and each system took at least 5 sessions of 2-4 hours.
What are your plans for after graduation? Did your senior project influence that decision? I’m going to Hamilton College next year to study environmental science, something that was almost entirely influenced by my senior project.
What did you like about doing your senior project? I really enjoyed how my topic was so new to the world of agriculture but also so impactive, and it feels really amazing being part of a movement that will become the future of agriculture.
What challenge(s) did you face? The challenges that I faced were minor design complications, like the slope in the PVC in the NFT (nutrient film technique) system and the flow pressure back into the fish tank at the bottom of the NFT system.