NY Sun Works celebrates 20 years of climate education and hydroponic farming

This year marks a big milestone for the science education program NY Sun Works, which was founded 20 years ago as a floating urban farm in the Hudson River. The program has since evolved into hydroponic farms in classrooms in more than 300 New York public schools, and its success has caught the attention of education leaders and environmentalists around the world.

This nonprofit’s success is not surprising to those who built it. “I did expect it to grow to the extent in which it has grown,” said founder and board chair Dr. Ted Caplow. “It’s been very, very good to be invited to these schools, and they’re lining up.”

“The program works because it is accessible and has a year-long specific STEM curriculum,” Executive Director Manuela Zamora added. “It has a hands-on approach to learning and teachers tell us it invigorates their teaching.”

NY Sun Works began when Caplow created the Science Barge, a floating greenhouse that relied on renewable energy and rainwater. The Science Barge drew the attention of Zamora and Sidsel Roberts, two mothers whose children attended PS 333 in Upper West Side. They met with Caplow at the Barge in 2008 to learn how to show students how to think outside the box and went on to co-launch NY Sun Works’ Hydroponic Classrooms Initiative.

In 2010, a hydroponic farm modeled after The Barge was built on PS 333’s rooftop. One of the school’s teachers, Shakira Provasoli, used the farm as her classroom to teach science, and the students quickly enjoyed their lessons. 

“The kids are just excited to go,” Provasoli told NYN Media. “They love the sense of the ‘wildness’ that’s very different from the rest of the school. We have large plants growing, we have some tasty plants growing, we have insects, we have fish. We make sure everything that students are doing is focused on science, but also them designing experiments.”

Although NY Sun Works was a hit at PS 333, Caplow said that the Department of Education took a while to come around to the idea, and Zamora had to attend many meetings with both the department and elected officials before she obtained the necessary funding to bring the program to other public schools.

By 2018, NY Sun Works had grown from one school to 86 schools. It now works with over 300 schools across the city, with nearly 90 more school partnerships in the works. NY Sun Works’ success has been noticed by school district leaders across the country, and in 2022, U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona paid a visit to a Brooklyn school participating in the program. Zamora has spoken about NY Sun Works at the Word Environmental Education Conference in Abu Dhabi and The Harvard Graduate School of Education's Think Tank on Global Education. In July, the nonprofit obtained a grant for $100,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

NY Sun Works has ambitious plans for the future. Caplow wants to see it expand beyond its hydroponic greenhouses. “We can do a lot,” he said. “The greenhouses are our bedrock. But what else can we offer? What’s the next step? The bigger you get, you need to continue to be creative.”

In the meantime, Zamora is focused on bringing hydroponic classrooms to even more schools throughout New York state, including in Albany, Buffalo and the Hudson Valley. “Many want the program and we’re working now to expand,” she said. “There’s an urgency because of climate change. We’re growing fast and it's been very rewarding.”