School Uses EPS Seed Trays to Teach ICT EPS Packaging Group member, Styropack UK has donated 100 EPS seed trays to Westbrook Hay, an independent school in Hertfordshire with pupils between 2 and 13 years old. The trays are being used for an ICT project for boys in year 8 who are 13 years old. The aim of the project is to grow plants to sell to parents at a plant sale in May 2007.
In March 2007 the boys planted the seeds of popular flowers in the EPS seed trays and installed them in a greenhouse. Sensors that measure the soil moisture and temperature were placed in the seed trays. The information collected by the sensors was sent to the school weather station every 15 minutes and displayed on the school website. The pupils can even monitor the growing conditions of the seedlings on their PC at home. In summer term 2007 the boys will set up spreadsheets to model their ‘income’ ‘cost’ and ‘potential profit’. They will produce publicity material to advertise their plant sale including leaflets and posters and they will produce a web page for each plant type for the customers to browse before they buy. The commercial aim is to make a profit after paying some of the capital costs and all of the running costs in the first year. Profit will go towards buying equipment for the project next year or to the school’s charity — the Asian Clean Water Appeal. “We are very pleased to support this imaginative ICT project and we have made sure that the school knows how to re-use the old seed trays and that EPS is 100% recyclable!” says Richard Lee, Sales Director, Styropack UK. |
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“The boys have learned how polystyrene has all the right properties to make the trays strong, light easy to handle to keep the roots well insulated,” says Robin Kenyon, Head of ICT.
