Eva Nyutu has spent her entire career teaching college students. But making science fun and engaging for children in Detroit became her focus this past summer.
Nyutu, an assistant professor of Biology at University of Detroit Mercy, introduced scientific concepts to children by growing plants over the course of several weeks. Various plants were grown using hydroponics, a technique that uses a water-based nutrient solution rather than soil.
The work with children was a result of a collaboration on hydroponics between UDM’s Titan Equity Nourishment Network (TENN) and Brilliant Detroit, a nonprofit that focuses on helping children become school ready.
The goal of this collaboration was to bring science to the neighborhood surrounding UDM’s McNichols Campus and increase children’s interest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).
“I think it’s very important for these students, because this hydroponic project is something that we’re able to bring for them in their classroom and it’s allowing them to affirm themselves as scientists,” Nyutu said.
Over the course of several weeks, she taught children from kindergarten to fourth grade all about plants during summer camp programming at Brilliant Detroit’s Martin Park location.
Children learned about the life cycle and different parts of plants and their importance in the ecosystem, all while growing their own using a hydroponics system. Occasionally, Nyutu was joined at Brilliant Detroit by her research students, Kyla Charlebois and Shirli Qushku, and Assistant Professor of Biology Nicole Najor.
“In a way, it’s helping them to develop skills that they’ll continue using as they continue on with elementary, middle and high school,” Nyutu said. “They might be having fun, but they’re still developing these skills, unknowingly or knowingly.”
Nyutu witnessed children learning firsthand when nutrients were added to the hydroponics system.
“We have to put nutrients into the hydroponics because it’s only using water to grow,” she said. “So, they tell me, ‘I see the nutrient – when it was blue, it turned green.’ That’s an observation they’re making.”
Using hydroponics to educate children was an idea sparked by TENN’s previous experience with the method.
TENN had been working with UDM’s Center for Augmenting Intelligence in Urban Healthcare on a hydroponics project focused on solving problems with food access. That led TENN — an Institute for Leadership and Service program that fosters student and community collaboration for a more food-sovereign Detroit — to think of other ways hydroponics could impact people.
“We got these systems, and then with the Ford Community Corps Partnership grant, thought it would be a wonderful learning tool for students,” said Chelsea Manning, TENN’s program manager. “This idea just came as a way to get Brilliant Detroit their own systems so that they could keep using it and as a tool for learning.”
With the way TENN works closely with groups surrounding UDM’s McNichols Campus, Manning said the program has become a “community facilitator” for proposing new ideas and projects that connect individuals and groups.
“We’re always trying to find ways to connect the resources we have on campus with the people we work with,” she said. “Obviously, we do great things with food, but there’s so many other things on campus that these groups can benefit from.
“Having that relationship already with Brilliant Detroit, we were able to help connect the people.”
While this initial hydroponic project with Brilliant Detroit spanned several weeks in the summer, Nyutu and Manning are working to continue it next summer.
If it can continue, “then I think it’s incredibly important to get our students on campus into the community,” Manning said. “Not only because they can share their gifts, but there’s so much learning that the students get when they go work with these kids.
“I think it’s just the best way for our community to support and learn from each other.”
For Nyutu, being able to introduce children to scientific concepts was a rewarding experience.
“Just impacting one or more children to understand science, to learn science, to think of themselves as a scientist, that makes my day very happy and fulfilling,” she said.
