Fresh Grounds Of Coffee

So the picture doesn't seem redundant. I can explain. I replaced the shredded paper towels with coffee grounds for a growing medium. Apparently coffee grounds are high in nutrients. The grounds will only be used for the baby steps of the plant.

Up Up and Away

The two pictures you see above show the growth of basil in my hydroponic rig after germination 2 weeks and 2 days ago.

NCTIES!

Thursday March 4th 2010 was the day the NCTIES conference was held in Raleigh. I had the pleasure of presenting my Eco Tower in both Second Life and Real Life. I couldn't count how many avatars were at the presentation, and people were coming in and out asking questions about the project the entire time.

I had the opportunity to be interviewed by a Charlotte Observer writer for the science columns who's name is Sabine Vollmer.

The night before the meeting I met with Emelia Cornwall in Second Life. She told me of something that could fix the lighting problem. The solution is a Solatube.

A dome that captures and projects natural sunlight. For example.. A 14" diameter dome can project up to 250ft of sunlight.

Doodle For My Future

Today I met with Keystone Bouchard. An architect in SL. To my knowledge he works full time building for others in virtual worlds. He came across my build with the help of Julie. He was super interested in the build and the concept. He told me how much potential this project has, which meant a lot to me coming from him. He decided to blog about what he saw and heard on his own blog which can be found here. This little encounter inspired me to keep pushing with what I have now. This means including 2 more floors.

Also in explaining to Keystone how this idea came about I realized I never blogged about it.


One boring day in Trig I did what every student with the attention span of a...well..high school student does. I doodled. I was drawing cubes with multiple perspectives. After visualizing separate floors, I realized I haven't seen any farm towers. I then started to do the math of turning a mile into a cube. (This is the wrong math, but that was my thought process at the time.)

At that point this was only an idea. An idea which had no purpose in my head. Now with my resources through Second Life this could be possible.

Trial and Error

First off this post is a bit delayed considering the progress thats been achieved in the past couple of days.

Recently on the greenhouse I decided to add moving parts. This is much easier said then done. For me anyway. To make moving parts you have to write scripts. These scripts are very simmilar to action script or javascript or processing. The only difference I saw was the fact that if you fail and five times out of ten you will, things go haywire. For instance, say you write a code for a ball to roll forward then go up. Say you accidentally write the code to go backward then down. After you find out how you messed up the code, you then have to chase the ball and delete it as fast as you can.

I ran into this problem more than once. I have the script down now, however I can't figure out how to slow it down..I wonder.


On another note, I'm looking into the refresheverything program by Pepsi. You can earn up to 250,000 dollars in grants if you submit your idea and present a sort of business plan.

Also I hear that the USDA provides grants for extraordinary ideas. Some girl got a 10 million dollar grant to fully automate a farm. Hmmm..

Ramblings of the Mentor....

I'll let Brendon share some of what he learned about scripting in another post, but wanted to share that he has figured out, for the most part, how to set up the sprinkler systems in the greenhouse.  It was fun watching him figure it out slowly but surely with a lot of failing in the middle (isn't that the best way to get it?).  Several of us were hanging out watching and ended up setting up camp by putting out some seating. Lots of teachers + student learning = entertainment for us!  Looking for some fun, stop by the Green2sky Project at any time and help us cheer Brendon on.

Brendon also came by today to show me photos and videos he took of his recent tour of the Metrolina Greenhouses near us in NC.  It sounds like he got a great individual tour and learned a lot about the basic functions inside of a commercial greenhouse.  I was fascinated to see the processes that go into commercial farming.  The equipment alone is very impressive, but even something as simple as lights on tracks that move about the room for added light amazes me.  Next research stop is Barbee Farms.  I have full intention of visiting this one so I can see how the process works. I found out very fast that it's hard to understand what he wants to build in Second Life without seeing what it looks like in Real Life.

Brendon also got a fantastic opportunity to fly a plane this past weekend. During his flight, he traveled over top of Metrolina Greenhouses.  It was an awesome chance to get some great aerial shots of the greenhouses.  They really are amazing to see.  The size alone makes you take a second glance.  Knowing Brendon's intent to build this model as a possible solution for saving farm land is awesome when looking at those photos.

Poor Kid Works Too Hard

I wandered into Second Life today and thought I'd take another look at Brendon's progress.  Yesterday we pushed his build up into hte sky so he could leave a mess about without being in anyone's way.  So I headed to the sky (oddly, the Green2Sky project is actually...in the sky).  When I got there, I saw him sleeping in the sprinklers.  Obviously so tired he fell asleep and didn't even feel them turn on!  I thought to myself, wow this kid works hard!  Just yesterday he was saying he needed to learn how to make the sprinklers so he could get to work on irrigation.  I don't know anything about making sprinklers so I introduced him to IzzyLander Karu in Second Life, a good friend that has tremendous building skills.  Izzy told Brendon he needed to go to an island (we'll get Brendon to share that island name later) to learn about particles.  That was the last I heard until seeing what you see in the picture.  I am so impressed with Brendon's drive to learn more and how quickly he picks up the next task at hand. 
We have water!  What will be around the corner? 

Warm and Fuzzy

At the beginning of this project I figured it wouldn't be too hard to start my own hydroponic rig. I think I was mistaken.

What I did was hollow out a wine cork, put an already existing tomato plant in the cork, and then put the cork in the water filled wine bottle, with the roots down of course.

What I got was a stick covered in fuzz. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but this does keep me progressing. Instead of waiting on this plant to see if it grew any I can start new.

Failure isn't always a bad thing.

Metrolina Greenhouse

Today I went to the Metrolina Greenhouses. I heard they were the most advanced and most productive greenhouses in America. Quite honestly I didn't think that before today.

As soon as you drive into, yes INTO the greenhouse, you feel like you're somewhere you're not supposed to be. It has a very "Area 51" feeling to it just as you drive in. After making my way to the front desk I was set up to tour with Chris Scott. Chris was like me in a sense we both like anything to do with technology. After driving around on the electric buggy we made a few stops to admire the automations installed in the building. For instance, the irrigation systems travel from one end to another on pulleys. This reduces the cost of piping and raises the effectiveness.

This is just one example. Other examples include AI for the roofing as well as the heating/cooling systems.

Everyone at the greenhouse was more than helpful. I even got to eat lunch with the supervisors while talking about my project. Another example of hospitality of the greenhouse is the fact I was able to take a visit to the owner's personal greenhouse. They told me this occaison is rare so I made sure to take as many pictures I could. While looking at the tomatoes in the owner's personal greenhouse, the attendee of the tomatoes told me to pick one off the vine to try it.

This was the most delicious tomato I have ever tasted. Nectar and ambrosia is the word I believe.

After sinking my teeth into the amazing tomato. I was told behind the door there's an experimental hydroponic rig. Of course I asked if I could see it and when I did my jaw never came off the floor. Lettuce and cucumbers grown what looked like almost magically.

Needless to say this vist was more than helpful and was hecka fun. This opened my eyes to new possibilities and even some flaws I didn't think of before.

Picking up the Platform

I must say i've been so impressed with how quickly Brendon is picking up building in Second Life. In just 2 days he built what you see in the picture which is great for anyone getting started. As he goes, he asks questions and we find the answers. Several people on EDTECH Retreat are taking notice of his build and starting to offer help as well. He has lots of people from which to learn. Can't wait to see the final product!

Visit With The Teachers

Today I met with two very resourceful teachers in the Ag. Department. I met with Ms. Deal and Mr. Vernon.

I met with them not only to find out how a greenhouse can be made, but how to grow specific crops as well as how the market could be affected with such outrageous numbers.

After doing the math I found out that the average tomato farm, with the use of conventional methods, produces about 25,500 pounds an acre. However, with the use of hydroponics, the average production rate per acre is 400,000 lbs.

As you can imagine this would greatly increase your supply.

Mr. Vernon and Ms. Deal gave me a few numbers which I will be calling very soon to get more information.

High Rise Greenhouse

This project presents the proposal of vertical farming at the average farmer's budget and capabilities. This is essentially a greenhouse, but with multiple floors. With dimensions of 208'x208'x208' the building takes up an acre of land and is smaller than a Wal-Mart Superstore.

Throughout this project, I will be referring to tomatoes only because its a fruit I know how to handle. The efficiency of the greenhouse will be boosted with the help of aeroponics, which is a way to grow crops and plants without soil. The only constant is a spray of fine mist. This decreases the cost of water and soil as well as boosts the growth rate by 1200%

This entire idea is for my senior exit project, but I can see it going further than that. Julie LaChance who is my mentor and Mo who has been helping me immensely will both be blogging with me so we can all document the progress of this project. My mother will be joining the blog as well to document her experience and ideas through this project

Project Overview

Welcome to the Green2Sky project.  Brendon came to me a few days ago asking me to be a mentor for his graduation project, a requirement for graduation in the state of North Carolina.  His initial thoughts were to build a vertical greenhouse in Second Life.  With my heart being in virtual worlds and their use in education, I was so excited to have this opportunity.  Currently, I am the technology facilitator in Brendon's school and also co-own (with Mo Hax) EDTECH Retreat, an island in Second Life for educators to relax and let the learning follow.  Due to the fact that we have the island available, we are allowing Brendon to work on his build there and welcoming anyone to stop in at any time to see his progress.
Brendon and I are meeting daily at this point to discuss details of his project.  Our meetings so far have been about the main focus including how detailed he needs/wants to be and what areas he needs to research. Brendon had an opportunity yesterday to meet Mo Hax in person who will be helping quite extensively with this project.  We are also using many social networking tools, including this blog, to pull all facets of this project together and share our progress with the world.  We encourage anyone to share comments, post resources and cheer Brendon on as he continues his work.  We want input from the public as much as possible and look forward to hearing your responses.