Greenhouse Sense and Control Kit

Product Code: ST-2997

Description

Designed for the exploration of biological and ecological concepts, the Greenhouse Sense and Control Kit includes everything students need to design, build, program, and study their very own greenhouse.

This kit allows ultimate customization, enabling students to study dozens of interactions between plants and environmental factors, while learning about the role programming plays in modern agriculture and plant studies. Accessories kits includes connectors, stoppers, and tubing with 3-way flow control drip-irrigation ends

Ready-to-use Activities
The Greenhouse Sense & Control Kit is supported by five digital, student activities that can be edited to fit your course needs. Each activity focuses on a key concept in biology or environmental science and includes extensions to engineering and design practices.

Student Activities:

  • Program a Sunny Day for Plants
  • Code a Cooling Breeze for a Greenhouse
  • Program Perfectly Timed Rain
  • Optimize Water Movement in a Greenhouse
  • Program a Greenhouse Sense and Control System

Powering Creativity with the //control.Node
The //control.Node serves as the Greenhouse’s control center, providing both power to the accessories and storage for students’ code. Equipped with an accelerometer, a rechargeable battery, and multiple accessory ports, the //control.Node acts as an all-in-one control device, enabling connections to any PASCO sensor or STEM Sense project.

When plugged into the //control.Node, the accessories are fully programmable, enabling students to mix and match parts, monitor conditions, automate watering, and study the effects of different conditions within the greenhouse. Students can also use the //control.Node’s rechargeable battery to run their programs autonomously over weekends, then use the data to improve their greenhouse conditions the following week.

//control.Node Features:

  • Onboard accelerometer
  • Speaker
  • Sensor Port
  • Two Power Output Channels for Stepper Motors and Power Output Board
  • Two Servo Ports for Regular Servos and Continuous Rotation Servos
  • Rechargeable Li-ion Battery
  • Bluetooth (BLE) connectivity
  • USB port for charging and connectivity
  • Executes programs with or without a wired connection

PASCO Software
The Greenhouse Sense and Control Kit is programmed using Blockly, a block-based code available in both SPARKvue and PASCO Capstone software. Blockly makes it easy for students to master the basics of programming, without having to worry about their syntax. Rather than overwhelming students with options, Blockly focuses on building coding literacy through a library of customizable, drag-and-drop coding blocks.

As they combine coding blocks, students are provided with visual feedback that let’s them know whether two coding blocks are compatible. After mastering the basics, students can go on to create their own programs, complete with custom conditions, commands, data displays, and more. With Blockly and STEM Sense, students can pursue all types of investigations – from single-day experiments to semester-long studies.

Plug-and-Play with PASCO Sensors
Blockly integrates seamlessly with all PASCO sensors and software, enabling students to program data collection parameters, code custom displays, and make data-based decisions to improve their STEM Sense project. Students can even use real-time data from PASCO sensors as a code input to create data-driven feedback loops, autonomous systems, and more.

Experiments

  • Program a Sunny Day for Plants
    • In this investigation, students use a //control.Node, a PASCO Grow Light, an EcoChamber lid and Blockly code to write a program that controls light output in order to model the sun’s daily light cycle.
  • Code a Cooling Breeze for a Greenhouse
    • Students use Blockly code, a //control.Node, and Greenhouse Sensor measurements to program a fan that controls the air temperature inside an EcoChamber greenhouse illuminated by a Grow Light.
  • Program Perfectly Timed Rain
    • Students use Blockly code, a //control.Node, and Greenhouse Sensor measurements to program an automated plant watering system of their own design.
  • Optimize Water Movement in a Greenhouse
    • Students use an EcoChamber and a //control.Node along with all Greenhouse inputs (temperature, humidity, brightness, soil moisture) and outputs (USB Fan, USB Pump, Grow Light) to investigate ways humidity can be manipulated in a Greenhouse and write a program to identify an ideal plant choice based on Greenhouse sensor measurements.
  • Program a Greenhouse Sense and Control System
    • Students use an EcoChamber and a //control.Node along with all Greenhouse inputs (temperature, humidity, brightness, soil moisture) and outputs (USB Fan, USB Pump, Grow Light) to incorporate and modify existing Blockly code from previous investigations and use at least 2 sense-and-control approaches to program an autonomous Greenhouse.

Teaching Advantage

  • Completely integrated solution, all accessible from Sparkvue or Capstone software.
  • Give students total control of all growing variables for class experimentation.

Built for Student Use

  • Programing responses to environmental conditions.
  • Investigating energy to nutrient impact on plant growth

Designed for use with

  • Sparkvue or Capstone’s blockly programming for developing computational thinking in science.
  • Other environmental monitors like our Weather sensor (PS-3209), CO₂ sensor (PS-3208), or Oxygen gas sensor (PS-3217).

What’s Included

Support Documents