At the end of April, students from Penn Manor High School's nutrition and food sciences and plant science classes joined forces to complete a hands-on learning project. The students worked together to harvest produce that was grown in the greenhouse on campus and used the vegetables to prepare a meal to share together.

Mary Wurzbach's plant science class started the project during the spring semester by planting a variety of herbs and vegetables. Instead of the traditional planting method, the students used hydroponics, which employs a water-based solution of nutrients as opposed to soil during the growing process.

Mindy Rottmund's nutrition and food science class visited the greenhouse to learn about various hydroponic growing methods. Wurzbach offered an educational presentation and discussed the pros and cons of farmland growing and hydroponics. After the presentation, the group of students harvested the vegetables and returned to Rottmund's classroom to spend the next two days of classes preparing the food.

The yield from the greenhouse included lettuce and herbs such as basil, which the students used to prepare a basil garlic aioli spread. Rottmund brought in chicken, peppers and onions to saute for the meal, and the lettuce was used to make lettuce wraps. The students from the plant science class learned about various cooking techniques as they assisted in Rottmund's classroom.

"My students knew nothing about hydroponics for the most part, and it was a nice way to lead into my fruit and veggie unit," Rottmund said. "It was also nice to introduce the plant science students to my classroom. Both groups of kids were exposed to each other's curriculum; it was a win-win situation."

Rottmund had the idea for a partnership between the two classes several years ago and wrote a grant for the project. For the first year of the collaboration, students used produce from the greenhouse to make paninis and salads. Although Rottmund will retire this year, she hopes that the Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) department and the Agriculture department continue the partnership for years to come.

In addition to the partnership with the Agriculture department, Rottmund has previously collaborated with other classes to combine FCS learning material with other subjects. Rottmund has teamed up with history classes for a Colonial cooking unit, partnered with the Foreign Language department for a global food course and worked with students in the life skills class to make meals for children.

"The students are always very receptive to the projects," Rottmund said. "We've been really pleased with the learning process in both areas."