Pioneering Agri-Tech Course Takes Root

Where dairy cows once grazed, a new kind of farming is germinating. Applied Technologies in Botany is a new science course made possible by and designed to realize the goals of the Signature Academic Program. Picture a greenhouse filled with crops monitored by sensors and tended by robotic arms and other controllers, which in turn are designed, installed, monitored, and tended by George School students.

The course, the brainchild of biology teacher Pascal Lanciano and robotics teacher Brian Patton, takes an interdisciplinary and applied approach that marries plant science and technology to foster real-world learning and address issues of environmental sustainability.

In recent years, Pascal had seen a drop in the time available for botany in courses like AP Biology, as newer topics like molecular biology swelled. Meanwhile Brian, whose family are avid gardeners, was seeing a rise in local food production, especially through the application of technology.

Both have a passion for growing a greener world and see a shift from today’s agribusiness model—with the unpredictability caused by climate change and unsustainability of longdistance transportation—as inevitable.

“Growing our own food locally will become a necessity,” explains Brian, with Pascal pointing to the rise in high-density agriculture, from shipping containers (freight farms) to urban warehouses. As Brian, an entrepreneur himself, puts it, the course is “a way to get our students introduced to an emerging market and an important skill.”

Enter the new academic schedule, with longer class periods that allow for increased “lab” time—time for the hands-on experimentation

SAM GORBY ’23 welcomes

the opportunity students have to shape their future courses and looks forward to using the robots and the greenhouse to collect data from botany experiments.

and research that in this case let students get their hands dirty… literally.

Students with varied interests are welcome, and encouraged, to enroll (if they have had introductions to both biology and embedded controllers). The goal is to give students “the freedom to choose an area they’re most interested in,” according to Brian.

“We’re hoping it will be collaborative, that students who have the technical expertise will work together with someone more interested in biological science to develop a working system. You can take any student’s talent and find a way to make it fit.”

Already this year, some of Brian and Pascal’s students worked on independent projects similar to what is addressed in the class. Angelina Wong ’22 worked on a robotic arm designed to control a garden space a meter in diameter, measuring soil characteristics and monitoring moisture. Derek Denoon ’23, an AP biology student with an affinity for coding, created an interface for data collection, and Andrew Rogers ’23 developed a computer-monitored and controlled hydroponics system.

One student who is excited about the new course is Sam Gorby ’23, who has already taken AP Biology with Pascal. “At home, I have a greenhouse with an aquaponic system, which automatically waters plants and controls the temperature for ideal growth. My favorite part is my thirty (give or take) goldfish, whose waste gets used as fertilizer. The water cycles through the plants and back and gets filtered before returning to the tank. Since George School is giving me the opportunity to shape our future courses, my goal is to implement a similar aquaponic system in the George School greenhouse, as well as a way for students to use the greenhouse for data collection for botany experiments. I love botany/ plant biology, so the idea of having this be my impact on George School is very exciting.”

At the end of the three-mod course, students should be able to eat what they learn. Initially, that may be fast-growing leafy greens, but as with creating compost, the teachers plan to build on first-year experiences for the future—to longerterm crops and new methods, perhaps hydroponics, aquaponics, or aeroponics.

Pascal and Brian hope the greenhouse and other campus garden spaces become a community hub, where students can grow their own vegetables and develop an appreciation for plants. They would also like it to be a focal point for experimentation—a place where, as Pascal puts it, “students can look at Mendelian genetics (crossbreeding) in action. It will introduce real variability, which is often left out of models. Things won’t go as planned, and that has high educational value, too.”

What happens in the greenhouse won’t stay in the greenhouse. The course provides students with valuable lessons not just in modern farming and technology applications, but in problemsolving and adapting to change. “Biofarming is a revolution like biotech was,” says Brian. Students learn about “something that’s been happening for thousands of years and something that hasn’t been invented yet, all in the same classroom.”