Thank You

Project Feed 1010 (PF1010) was founded in 2015 in response to a need identified by educators: students need to understand and be prepared to positively impact our food system in the future. Embedded within an award-winning education program (Systems Education Experiences; SEE) at Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), PF1010 set out to accomplish this through incorporating SEE’s proven strategies to improve critical thinking and problem-solving skills into both classroom and real-world experiences.

 

Along the way, PF1010 also set out to address a need in the scientific community: little research has been conducted to understand the microbiome in an aquaponic system – a sustainable agriculture technique quickly growing in popularity due to its low dependance on natural resources and relatively high plant yield. As a result of the myriad education materials and programs developed, as well as research conducted on sustainable agriculture, the PF1010 community has made an enormous impact on the future state of our food system in the past three years.

 

 

“I’m currently in the process of switching my major from General Biology to Environmental Management and Protection. I’m not too sure where I want to take it, but I know I want to involve myself with environmental policy. I want to go somewhere where I can make a real difference.” – 2016 PF1010 Ambassador Ethan McGhee

“I’m taking a sociology course focusing on racial and ethnic health disparities and it’s focusing on the socioeconomic determinants that I touched on during my [Project Feed 1010] presentation. I’m sure I’m going to learn a lot more about this topic and apply my learning to this course!” – 2017 PF1010 Ambassador Wilson Ta

“After Project Feed 1010, I connected with other students at my school to set up a functioning aquaponics system in the greenhouse, where we successfully grew several bean varieties. My experiences troubleshooting the aquaponics systems over the summer and the following school year helped me become more confident with my own engineering skills and strengthened my ability to take initiative to solve problems. In addition, the skills I gained working in the lab to process samples prepared me for working in a lab the next summer, where I immediately recognized some of the procedures and techniques; I had already passed the learning curve, and had a strong foundation to grow from.” – 2017 PF1010 Ambassador Maddy Scott

“Project Feed 1010 gave me exposure to interdisciplinary research. Since the program, I have gone on to intern at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, combining my computer science skill set with atmospheric spectroscopy and interdisciplinary planetary science research.” – 2016 PF1010 Ambassador Laura Hu

“After Project Feed 1010, I had the opportunity to work in a lab at the VA Hospital in Seattle doing Alzheimer’s research on C.elegan models. While at the lab, I was able to present my research to other members of the lab. Thanks to the scientific posters that we made for the showcase, I felt confident in my abilities to present and explain my research in front of seasoned researchers. Project Feed 1010 gave me the essential skills I needed to be an effective scientist in both a lab and in my community.” – 2017 PF1010 Ambassador Grace Scuderi

“PF1010 definitely made me more aware of the issue of food security around the world. The project made me really glad to have chosen a globally-focused major, and made me want to focus more on the environment in relation to health when it comes to a potential career.” 2017 PF1010 Ambassador Alex Haworth

“The position I am applying for focuses on leadership development through leading farm volunteers and allows me to learn about food justice, grow fresh produce using sustainable farming practices, and complete a project to improve food access in the community. It sounds like an incredible experience, and I think that my time working with PF1010 has given me a lot of knowledge that will be useful for this position.” – 2017 Undergraduate Intern Kourtney Tams, quote regarding application for an upcoming 2018 summer fellowship

Congratulations to Brian Gillespie, our Project Feed 1010 volunteer software developer, for landing a fantastic job at CODE Technology right out of Northeastern University Seattle! This spring, he and his classmates worked with PF1010 to develop our data management site (below). When asked about the NU/PF1010 course, Brian said “…the whole start-up feel of the course is what really got me into looking at companies like [CODE]. I get a chance to work closely with small teams and dive into all kinds of new and varied technology, which is what excites me about this job.”

• Northeastern University: 20 graduate computer science students gained real-world experience working with an organization to develop a website(PF1010’s data management website)
• Seattle Youth Employment Program: This initiative supported 6 Seattle-based high school students as PF1010 ambassadors for 150 hours in the summer of 2017.
• FareStart: Publicly launched PF1010 at a community dinner event through a collaboration between FareStart and This is Odd Urban Aquaponic Farm
• AquaSprouts: 35 aquaponic kits were donated to PF1010, which supported students and teachers in need of resources to teach systems thinking and sustainable agriculture
• Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center: Aquariums, filters, and more were donated as materials for students and teachers to create DIY aquaponic systems.
• The Aquaponic Source: All PF1010 participants received 10% off all items purchased.
• NASA Ames: Scientists provided expertise, laboratory services, and bioinformatic techniques to sequence and identify aquaponic microbes fromPF1010 samples.
• Microsoft: Through the Microsoft Giving Campaign, PF1010 trained 21 Microsoft employees to be community ambassadors through a 3-hour workshop on the Microsoft campus. One PF1010 ambassador also earned a job, while still in high school, within Microsoft’s hydroponic research group.
• Seattle Culinary Academy: Spoke to attendees at SCA’s Earth to Dinner Event about sustainable agriculture and food security.

• 7 professional conference presentations
  • National Science Teachers Association (x2), Washington Science TeachersAssociation, National Collaborative for Food, Energy, and Water Education Conference, and in Fall 2018 – National Association for EnvironmentalEducators Conference and National Association for Biology Teachers Conference.
  • Over 500 teachers educated
  • Over 50 science professionals educated
• 2 curriculum modules developed (Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture)
• 18 training videos created and published on YouTube
• 3 Project Feed 1010 Ambassador Program cohorts from 2016-2018
  • 42 high school students and 1 undergraduate intern
  • 2 Ambassador showcase events
• Donations for classrooms and citizen science projects
  • 30 aquariums to be
    used in DIY aquaponic systems
  • 13 AquaSprouts kits
  • 52 Back to the Roots systems
  • 36 Project Feed 1010 citizen science kits
• 22 ISB employees participated in a multifactorial aquaponic research project to pilot test our citizen science resources and training program

• Bill and Melinda Gates Teen Action Fair: 5 PF1010 high school ambassadors encouraged their peers to take action and find solutions to global food security
• Museum of History and Industry’s Edible City Science Fair
• HiveBio Community Lab: Trained 15 homeschool students and parents to be citizen scientists and take part inPF1010’s aquaponic research
• University of Washington: Sustainable UW and Earth Day Festivals
• Environmental and Adventure School: Educated over 100 students in sustainable agriculture and aquaponics in a workshop at the Healthy Choices Fair in 2016 and 2017
• Aljoya Thornton Place Retirement Community: Educated nearly 30 individuals in systems-thinking and sustainable agriculture.
• Enumclaw, WA STEM Festival
• Many high school tours of ISB PF1010 facilities

• Aquaponic microbial community dynamics are now better understood as a result of genetic sequencing of communities and bioinformatics. We are currently in the process of publishing this information in a peer-reviewed, scientific journal.
• Water chemistry and plant growth data from over 200 aquaponic citizen scientists publicly available.

• Medium: Project Feed 1010: The Quest by Maria Dolan
• GOODFOOD: This Program Is Teaching High Schoolers To Feed The Planet by Naomi Tomky
• Northeastern University: Coast-to-coast collaboration targets food security by Jason Kornwitz
• Northeastern University: Project Feed 1010 partnership gives graduate students ‘start-up’ experience through advanced software development course

• Project Feed 1010 website
  • Nearly 30,00 unique visitors
  • Nearly 67,000 page views
  • Used in over 100 countries
• Project Feed 1010 Facebook page
  • Over 310 active users
• Project Feed 1010 data management hub
  • Over 200 citizen scientists contributing aquaponic data
• Project Feed 1010 curriculum (Modeling Sustainable Food Systems) through SEE

• Supported teachers as they raised money to incorporate aquaponics and PF1010 in their classrooms:
  • A teacher in Texas received a grant through her district for $5,000
  • 4 DonorsChoose projects have been fully funded to support classroom projects
• Nearly $15,000 was raised through CrowdRise during PF1010’s 2016 crowdfunding campaign.
• The Daley-Watson Family invited their partners from Perkins Coie to a very successful fundraising event for PF1010.
• The National Science Foundation (NSF) has supported many of PF1010’s educational efforts (NSF MCB-1616955, MCB-1518261, DBI-1565166, MCB-1330912).