FOOD LAB

Our Food Machine

Our hydroponic Food Machine produces more and costs less to run and it is environmental friendly. We include growing medium, a light source, and pump with the machine. All you need to do is final assembly, add germinated plugs and nutrients (also included) and add water. Start with one tier and add up to two more to each machine – each tier contains 144 plugs. It takes around two weeks to germinate your seeds, then you add the germinated plugs to the machine. In around another two to three weeks, your crop will be ready to harvest. The actual time will depend on the crop and your specific environment. With three tiers, you can grow approximately 7,500 to 11,000 individual plants in a year.

Lettuce, Spinach, Green Onions, and More

Our grow machine excels at growing leafy greens, such as lettuces, kale, chard, and annual herbs. But you can use the machine to grow almost any annual fruit or vegetable that can grow in a confined space. You can even grow annual flowers. Different plants may require different configurations of the machine, and we encourage you to experiment.

Environmentally Friendly

The SmarterSTEM Food Machine brings hydroponic growing to a new level of efficiency. Our patented technology grows volumes more crop for the dollar. Compared to conventional farming, our grow machines use 97% less water, 67% less electricity and 39% less fertilizer. Because you need almost no land, you can grow anywhere, reducing the number of miles your food has to travel to get to your table.

Food Machine Technology Curriculum

SmarterStem’s Food Machine Lab is a STEM-based course that will educate students about the technology of controlled environment agriculture. 

99 = We fit 100 acres of land into 1 acre of space
32= We use 32lbs of nutrients for every 100lbs used conventionally
97= We use 3 gallons of water for every 100 gallons used conventionally
72= We are 28% more energy efficient than other systems using LED lighting
The Food Machine Lab includes multiple workshops and lesson plans presented in a 16-week curriculum format.
Students can influence every aspect of plant growth and control outcomes based on how they interface with the growing systems. This allows for numerous experimentation and data collection opportunities as well as an infinite number of unique student experiences.

Course Goals:

Common Core Learning Standards: Math

  1. All basic mathematical practices.
  2. Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
  3. Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
  4. Construct viable arguments and critique the reasoning of others.
  5. Model with mathematics.
  6. Use appropriate tools strategically.
  7. Attend to precision.
  8. Look for and make use of structure.
  9. Look for and express regularity in repeated reasoning.

Content areas: Algebra, Geometry, and Modeling.