Gearing Up for Smart Home: Green + Wired

Volunteer master gardeners plant the first of 40 EarthBoxes from The Growing Connection at the Museum of Science and Industry’s boxes at Smart Home: Green + Wired

What’s Green, sponsored by Wired, and most assuredly Smart? The Growing Connection’s garden at the new Smart Home: Green + Wired exhbit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, of course! Showcasing innovations that are as friendly to the earth as they are to the home’s potential residents, the three-story modular home is chock full of ideas for green living, using reusable resources, energy-efficient technology and sustainable development. Architect Michelle Kaufman is a thought leader in the burgeoning industry of sustainable, modular architecture. Beginning with the exhibit's grand opening this week, visitors will be able to tour the structure, as well as the surrounding grounds, tended by master gardeners from University of Illinois Extension.

Not only will the greens, veggies, and herbs from the TGC garden contribute to the sensory experience of the Smart Home, the harvest will be donated to a ABJ Community Services, a nearby food bank in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

The Growing Connection is honored to be a part of the exhibit, which celebrates sustainable living that, though we’re hoping will be prevalent in the near future, is most definitely available today. Come down to the museum and check out our garden on the Smart Home's grounds, and stay tuned for more events during the course of the exhibit through the summer and fall.

Open Source will not save education

Interesting comment from ZD Net, and some things we've definitely found to be true and taken into consideration thus far.

"The problem isn’t supply. It’s demand. Teachers won’t or can’t invest the time needed to integrate new technology into their work. So 20 years have been essentially wasted.

I have watched this waste first-hand, as both a parent and reporter, and Zemsky is right. By the time a computer technology is in place, and teachers are given training on using it, it’s obsolete."

"Computing has also been a powerful tool in the developing world, where time is often in greater supply. Every village which is connected to the Web becomes part of a global village, and can learn at the world’s pace."

WILCO - Poster Donations

Our friends in WILCO have been kind enough to designate The Growing Connection as the recipient of the proceeds of poster sales for their recent show at the Greek Theater in Berkeley, California. You can still purchase copies of the poster by clicking here.

backyard this summer

i've finished my planting at home... would like to know from others (teachers, leaders, home users, students, etc) what they are growing + photos if possible...
thanks
bob p.

The Growing Connection in New York City

We have been working for the past few months with Philson Warner from the Cornell Cooperative Extension to grow corn for an exhibit at WIRED NextFest. In addition to The Growing Connection's booth, we have been contracted by General Motors to grow corn to be used in an alternative fuels exhibit showcasing Ethanol/E85 powered vehicles.

IIASA - Land Use Change

IIASA - Land Use Change

Land-use and land-cover change are significant to a range of themes and issues central to the study of global environmental change. Alterations in the earth’s surface hold major implications for the global radiation balance and energy fluxes, contribute to changes in biogeochemical cycles, alter hydrological cycles, and influence ecological balances and complexity. Through these environmental impacts at local, regional and global levels, land-use and land-cover changes driven by human activity have the potential to significantly affect food security and the sustainability of the world agricultural and forest product supply systems.

Independent of long-term global cumulative dimensions, changes in land use and land cover will have profound regional environmental implications, such as alterations in surface runoff dynamics, lowering of groundwater tables, impacts on rates and types of land degradation, and reduced biodiversity. It is therefore widely recognized that an understanding of changes in land and water use over a time span of the next 30–50 years is central to the debate of sustainability.

Greenmarket at 30, Searching for Itself - New York Times

Interesting story from The New York Times about the Greenmarket program and shortage of vendors. We hope to help fix that.

Greenmarket at 30, Searching for Itself - New York Times