Spark-Y Urban Agriculture Lab
Youth sustainable innovation space.
Spark-Y headquarters at the Casket Arts Building in Northeast Minneapolis also houses our Urban Agriculture Lab (UAL). The UAL is home to a two ton, timber-frame microgreen system, designed and built as an internship project in 2018. Youth cultivate and maintain the system for paid job experience, and the produce grown is sold to local co-ops, restaurants, and CSAs.
The UAL is a place for young people to gain on-the-job training, a testing ground for new scientific ideas and sustainable innovations, as well as a destination for students and the community to experience agriculture in an urban environment.
The Kirk. K. Marschel Urban Agriculture Lab boasts:
Bio Safety Level 1 Lab
Vertical aquaponic microgreens growing system
Field trip and hosted workshop space
Outdoor sustainable installations, such as a planters and a compost system, in the Casket Arts sculpture garden
URBAN AGRICULTURE LAB | FEATURED EXAMPLES:
Timber Frame Microgreens System
Built with a team of interns from our 2018 Annual Summer Internship, our two ton timber frame aquaponic system grows microgreens year-round and indoors for sale to CSAs, coops and local restaurants. Visitors to our Casket Arts headquarters can explore a working sustainable system while glimpsing the types of projects and hands-on learning we engage our youth with. Learn more about the timber frame build here.
Sustainable Innovations, Hands-on Activities
The Urban Ag Lab is home to a Bio Safety Level 1 lab, sustainable agriculture systems, and open creative space to grow and test ideas. New science innovations created at the UAL are integrated into take-home STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) kits, hands-on projects performed with youth, workshops, and more. From arduino microcontrollers to hydraulic arms, our kits and programs are fun, innovative, and engage youth both hands and minds.
MPS Culinary & Wellness Services’ Garden
A multi-year partnership with MPS Culinary & Wellness Services, Spark-Y designs and maintains a community garden to provide produce and agricultural education for youth, interns, and community members. Spark-Y provides internship opportunities for students at the University of Minnesota Food Systems Program to gain experience in urban garden planning, planting, community engagement, and more through this partnership. In a grant made available by the USDA, Spark-Y has provided ongoing workshops, online and in-person, that incorporate gardening as a learning experience. Video recordings to some of these workshops can be found at our Spark-Y At Home page, an online resource for sustainable education and learning from home.
What's New at the Urban Ag Lab:
from the blog:
In partnership with Minnesota Sea Grant and the North Central Regional Aquaculture Center, (NCRAC), Spark-Y Interns developed and filmed two instructional videos relating to tilapia - a popular fish used in aquaponic systems.