iMotion Tutorial and example

 

I am considering this to be the third contribution to my series on Classroom Gardens. It is related to the other two posts which concern indoor hydroponic gardening only in that time-lapse video is an interesting way to demonstrate plant growth and variations of such a project would be easy to implement

This is my setup for capturing the video of plant growth. The equipment toward the back of the image is the hydroponic garden and you can also see some young plants. Positioned in front and to the right of this garden is an iPad.

Time-lapse video requires a fixed location for the camera and steady control of the focus of the camera. This device (I wish I knew the name) holds an iPad. The video I provide was taken over a couple of weeks so you need to consider how you will create an environment allowing careful positioning of the camera. As long as no one bumps the iPad, this holder does the trick. A traditional tripod serves a similar purpose when time-lapse video is taken with a camera. It is also necessary to plug the iPad into a power source as the iPad remains active during this entire process so it would have run down the battery without being plugged in.

The app used for this process was iMotion for Schools. In the video tutorial that follows I incorrectly claim iMotion for Schools is the same price as iMotion Pro. I find different prices. I paid $3.99, but the iMotion for Schools page says $5.99

iMotion for Schools Tutorial

Here is the video created with iMotion.

The video you see here has been altered. The original video contained segments of black frames generated during the night when the lights for the hydroponic garden were off. One thing I do not explain in the tutorial which was already getting a little long was the opportunity to edit the video with the app (see tools when the completed video is open). There are tools for adding and removing individual frames. I used the delete frame tool to remove the blank frames. In the video, you see phases of smooth growth and then jumps. The jumps are caused by the growth that occurred during the night when the darkness prevented the recording of these changes.

One hint - you have to do this on the fly so I slowed during the frame rate to 1 frame per second to delete frames and speeded it back up to 16 frames per second before exporting the video. I don't have an explanation for the flickering you see in the first section of the video. Because the growing lettuce fills the screen toward the end of the video and the flickering is no longer present, I assume the flickering was caused by the exposed lighting.

Classroom gardens

 

This is the first of a three-post series focused on the potential of classroom gardens. I have had a long-standing interest in school gardens as a category of maker space with potential for learning outcomes across the curriculum. This interest has been rekindled because of a recent purchase intended to get me through the Minnesota winter.

Since retirement, we have been spending the worst part of midwest winters in a warmer climate. You may have viewed some of my pictures from Kauai or the Big Island on my travel blog. Because of the pandemic, we will not be spending time on the road this winter. Maybe next year.

Looking for interesting things to do while spending lots of time indoors, Cindy game me an indoor hydroponic garden as a present (birthday, Christmas, extra money set aside for Hawaii, etc.). As I got it set up, I started to connect the experience with my long term interest in school gardens.

This is the AeroGarden Farm.

This is a pretty fancy setup with sensors, wifi connection, timers, pumps, etc. There are less expensive versions and related products from other companies. The iPad is there because I am doing a time-lapse of plant growth which I will write about in a later post.

The system uses hydroponics which is the growing of plants without soil. The two tubs at the base of the garden contain water and nutrients with a motor to circulate the solution. You add water and fertilizer every couple of weeks and prune plants to keep them within whatever space you are willing to allocate. The first group consists of several varieties of lettuce, cherry tomatoes, and several different herbs. I may have too much going on for my first attempt, but this is about learning.

My experiences with hydroponics go way back - more than 50 years back. Members of my family get tired of hearing this story, but I will offer a short version because it is new to you. When I was a freshman in high school, a classmate and I placed third in a regional science fair with an experiment growing corn hydroponically. I had found some "recipes" for hydroponic solutions that provided plants a nutrient source weak in one of the three major macronutrients of fertilizer (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium). We grew corn in four mason jars with a control group and a group deficient in one of the macronutrients. We charted growth and displayed the actual plants as part of our booth for the competitions. I had no idea of the chemistry involved, but the visual display was impressive and we were only 9th graders. I have an old black and white photo of the display but I could not find it for this post.

I have come across hydroponics on other occasions. Some of you have probably seen the hydroponics display at EPCOT. You ride past in on one of those boat rides. We have visited a couple of times and paid the fee to get the behind the scenes tour. Here is a post with some pictures from our visit in 2014. I see I was thinking about the potential for school gardens in reaction to this visit. My present experience offers a more practical approach.

So, I see opportunities for having a unit such as this in classrooms. More on school gardens in my next post.