How CropKing Is Advancing CEA in the Classroom
December 9, 2024 Education has been an essential part of CropKing’s mission since it was first established in 1982. In addition to their hydroponic and greenhouse offerings, CropKing hosts in-person workshops and is continuously developing educational as well as training materials for their customers. Over the last year, the company has focused on developing engaging curriculum and lesson plans for K-12 students. The goal? To make controlled environment agriculture (CEA) more accessible so students can successfully pursue jobs in the green industry.
“Green jobs are growing like crazy,” said Jason Jurey, education director at CropKing. “It’s one of the fastest growing sectors in America and there’s not enough people to fill the jobs. If you say ‘CEA,’ kids have no idea what you’re talking about. As our society evolves, things like sustainable growing practices, access to fresh and nutritious food and the availability of skilled growers becomes even more important.”
From Teacher to Ag Educator
CropKing’s NFT tables help teachers bring hydroponic education into the classroom in an affordable way. | Photo: CropKing
When he was an Advanced Placement (AP) environmental science teacher for Wadsworth High School near Cleveland, Jurey was determined to increase engagement in the classroom and show his students the wide range of careers available in environmental science. When his colleague recommended incorporating CropKing’s Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) Desktop System into his lesson plans, he thought the small, hydroponic units were a perfect fit for his classroom and budget.
“I really didn’t have space or money to do something big,” he said. “So, these little desktop units for around $200 a piece were perfect.”
Jurey shared his classroom activities on social media, and it didn’t take long for CropKing’s CEO Paul Brentlinger to take notice. He quickly reached out to Jurey about developing coursework, teacher resources, and educational videos to bring hydroponic education into classrooms. Once the two started working together, it became clear that Jurey and Brentlinger shared a common goal.
“What I wanted to do for myself is bring teachers into the CEA world and show them there are these really amazing things you can do on a shoestring budget,” said Jurey. “You don’t necessarily have to invest $10,000 into units to really get engagement and great value for kids.”
In August 2024, Jurey officially signed on as CropKing’s education director and stepped away from his formal teaching career.
The CropKing Education Collaboration
While he no longer teaches in a classroom, the knowledge Jurey acquired as an educator has served him well in his new role. For instance, he understands that time is of the essence in a classroom setting. So, while having a hydroponic unit offers copious learning opportunities for students, it’s hard to make progress when there isn’t a set curriculum or support in place.
“In the teaching profession, there’s not a lot of time to build things out, especially in the middle of a school year,” said Jurey. “With the materials I’ve developed, we’ve taken a lot of the guesswork and heavy lifting out of the equation so that teachers interested in classroom hydroponics have the tools they need to successfully do so.”
Shortly after he signed on with the company, Jurey started writing CropKing-branded curriculums and lesson plans for middle school and high school students.
“When students complete our K-12 activities, they are able to have a conversation and speak intelligently about hydroponics, growing indoors and the importance of our food system, but it doesn’t necessarily prepare you for the workforce,” said Jurey. “That’s where that Career and Technical Education (CTE) credential is going to come in. What we hope to do with that is take [our curriculums] to the next level.”
Cue: the next phase of CropKing’s ag education initiatives.
Reaching Higher Education
It’s worth noting that both Brentlinger and Jurey are based in Ohio, which has a booming CEA market, according to the most recent USDA Ag Census.
In fact, the Buckeye state reached a major milestone in CEA education when Chieri Kubota, Ph.D., signed on with The Ohio State University (OSU) in 2017. Five years later, the university spent hundreds of millions of dollars to build a state-of-the-art facility to teach CEA at a collegiate level. They soon realized, however, that incoming students needed to have a basic understanding of CEA concepts to enroll in these courses.
“We’re excited to partner with OSU on a grant-funded project to develop hydroponic CTE certification options.” said Brentlinger. “After their new facility opened, OSU realized that they need students to fill up their program, which means we need people coming out of high school that understand what we’re doing and have a desire to come into CEA.”
Recognizing the need for more advanced, in-depth CEA education, CropKing’s next curriculum will be tailored to post-secondary students and have CTE certification.
“I would say this is almost like an onboarding that a company would do for a few months,” said Jurey. “Students will have the opportunity to work through what some of the challenges are going to be in plant nutrition, harvesting and packaging, pest and disease management, etc. It would be the same kind of stuff you learn your first few months on the job, but now you’re learning it before your employer has to pay you to learn it.”
Jurey plans to have Ohio teachers use his curriculums by the 2026-2027 school year. | Photo: CropKing
Setting the Future of CEA Up for Success
Jurey plans to have his curriculums completed in early 2025. If all goes according to plan, the programs will be used in several Ohio schools by the 2026-2027 school year.
“Having a curriculum puts us in a wonderful position to push ourselves into the educational space,” said Jurey. “We are excited to see hydroponic education and sustainable farming practices adopted into classrooms across the state and throughout the country.”
If you’re a teacher who’s hesitant to introduce CEA in your classroom, Jurey recommends exposing your students to it anyway.
“It never hurts to float it in front of kids – maybe one of them will make a connection and want to pursue it in the future,” said Jurey. “Think about introducing elementary and middle schoolers to hydroponics, and what that means 40 years from now, when these 7-year-olds become 47-year-olds and are making the decisions around what happens in our industry.”