RAPID CITY, S.D. — Fifth graders at Meadowbrook Elementary are learning that growing food takes more than water and seeds. It also requires patience, teamwork, problem-solving and, occasionally, a mop.

Teachers Katie Swank, Kylie Blank and Lacey Brown introduced students to hydroponic gardening during the last school year after Meadowbrook Principal Becky Hogancamp encouraged the team to apply for a grant through the Rapid City Public School Foundation.

The grant, combined with matching support from the school’s PTA, allowed Meadowbrook to purchase two hydroponic growing towers. Additional support came from Nerdy Nuts.

Hydroponics allows plants to grow without soil, using water containing the minerals and nutrients the plants need. Students monitored water levels and pH while learning how the system worked alongside their teachers.

“We just learned right along with the kids,” Swank said. By the end of the year, she said student teams understood the system well enough that they were largely running it themselves.

Students were divided into teams based on their interests. Some maintained the towers and monitored pH and water levels, while others documented the project, created presentations and explained the science behind hydroponics.

Brown said the project became one of the “memory maker” experiences teachers hope students remember long after elementary school. Some students even presented what they learned to younger students, adapting complicated science concepts so second graders could understand them.

The project eventually produced lettuce that was served to Meadowbrook students during lunch. “Oh my gosh, we ate our lettuce at lunchtime today,” Swank recalled students telling her after the harvest.

Students also grew basil and flowers. The flowers were originally intended as Mother’s Day gifts, but they were not ready in time. Instead, students transplanted them into pots, decorated the containers and gave them to teachers at the end of the school year.

Not everything went according to plan. Teachers arrived one Monday to discover a large amount of water on the floor after part of a pipe became disconnected from one of the towers. The system automatically shut down when it detected the problem.

Brown said the incident became another lesson for students, teaching them “attention to precision” and the importance of checking more than just water levels and pH.

The gardening project will continue expanding this school year. Meadowbrook fifth graders plan to create an outdoor garden on the west side of the school near an existing memorial tree. Students will help select plants and maintain the area through a garden club.

Swank received additional grant support for the outdoor project, which she hopes will become something students can return to years later and remember helping create.

Teachers are also looking at ways to use future harvests, including donating produce or distributing it to families during school events. A partnership with Modern Woodmen will add financial literacy lessons, allowing students to examine the cost of growing food and consider whether produce should be sold or given away.

Brown said projects like the garden also demonstrate the importance of public education because they provide experiences some children may not otherwise receive. She recalled students making salads with what they had grown and hearing from children who had little experience with fresh produce.

“It provides kids with opportunities that sometimes they can’t get at home,” Brown said.