- Promote environmental awareness
- Diverse learning through planting
- Practical application of the Internet of Things
Background
In recent years, modern hydroponics technology has emerged in the world. The Hong Kong government pointed out in the agricultural policy consultation document that hydroponic production is efficient and clean, and suitable for everyone to develop. Coupled with environmental protection and healthy vegetarianism, many people regard hydroponics as a new trend in local agriculture. The hydroponic agricultural products are fresh and sterile. The current STEM hydroponics is equipped with mobile phone programs and smart sensors, which use electronic equipment to adjust the light, temperature, and mineral concentration, thereby shortening the production time. Compared with traditional hydroponics, smart hydroponics reduces water consumption, shortens production time, and facilitates self-sufficiency at home.
Our technology is combined with the concept of “green and environmental protection, cherish the earth” sustainable farming, hoping to let the next generation understand modern farming models, methods and trends, and increase students’ interest in planting and develop new ideas for planting.
Education program
In response to the market’s need for STEM technology education, MuseLabs launched an IoT management solution for STEM hydroponic planting, installed wireless sensors, and managed crop production online. We aim to provide diversified teaching materials and software to promote STEM education. In the process of planting, students experienced the four major components of “STEM”:
- Use sensors and artificial intelligence to understand “Technology.”
- Observe how do nutrition control affect plant growth to understand “Science.”
- Crop production and labour control know “Mathematics.”
- Learn “Engineering” through network platform design experiments
IoT technology LORAWAN – Thousands or even tens of thousands of node capacity connect easily
LoRaWan is a wireless communication technology designed to create low-power wide-area networks (LPWAN) required for machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT) applications. The information can be sent to any base station connected to the cloud platform at low cost, low power consumption, safety, and long-distance.
Intelligent indoor hydroponics management system with another powerful back office Data to help grow the future
There are four other functions in the back-end:
- Multi-identity login interface: hierarchical access
- Data visualization chart: Data will be displayed in various chart, such as column chart, bar chart, line chart, pie chart.
- Instant data transmission: transfer messages in real-time via LoRaWan, Json, MQTT communication protocols
- Complete data export
Promote environmental awareness with STEM hydroponics
The advantage of modern hydroponics is that it does not use soil, so it does not cause soil erosion problems. It uses a closed circulating water system to save 90% of water compared with traditional soil cultivation. Secondly, hydroponics is a farming model that can be controlled by humans. Crops grow in a closed and clean environment, eliminating pests, thereby reducing the use of pesticides. Since the nutrient solution for crop growth can be controlled artificially, there is no need to use other fertilizers, which reduces the pollution of chemical fertilizers and does not cause pathogen pollution due to the use of animal manure. Therefore, it is more environmentally friendly than traditional soil farming, thus realizing aseptic production with low water consumption.
Multi-learning through planting practice to learn engineering knowledge
The intelligent hydroponic planter has built-in LED planting lights, smart environmental sensors and control systems, and a circulating water flow system to simulate the natural environment. In the process of planting, students use sensors and artificial intelligence to understand technological concepts. According to plant growth needs, different conditions such as luminosity, humidity, water volume, temperature, and nutrient concentration are set in the background to understand the scientific knowledge of how each element controls and affects plant growth. Users can remotely monitor and track crop conditions through the mobile phone application, including harvest period and nutritional level. All data will be recorded and stored in the background for viewing.
STEM education is currently advocated in the education sector, but STEM courses are generally limited to programming and manufacturing robots. The intelligent hydroponic planter possesses engineering and life science knowledge, stimulating students’ interest even more. Students can use micro: Bit, Arduino to write programming or Apps on the connected network platform to develop induction systems to change the device’s parameters and design more innovative hydroponic cultivation systems to promote the benefits of hydroponics.
Conclusion
Make students have an in-depth understanding of technology and innovation, and cultivate students’ interest in technology innovation through planting to build a scientific spirit and scientific thinking. In the process, the students learned about the development of hydroponic farming in Hong Kong and how to grow hydroponic vegetables. Also, they will experience the four major components of STEM, including using sensors and artificial intelligence to understand scientific and technological concepts, understanding how each element controls the scientific knowledge that affects plant growth, managing crop production digitally, and practising engineering knowledge through IoT design experiments.
In response to the market’s demand for new technological education, stimulating students’ interest in science and cultivating their observation skills is an important part of today’s education. We are committed to making students interested in technology and nurturing the next generation to become technology talents. In addition to the existing teaching materials, we will also produce the most suitable teaching materials for educational institutions according to specific curriculum design to meet everyone’s needs.
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