Hedgework at PS20 is a landscape installation within the school’s learning gardens that integrates environmental sensing with a community of native plants. It is a collaboration among teachers, administrators, and parents in which students engage in hands-on learning through planting, studying plant life cycles and pollinator activity, and composting. The project will enhance the existing school gardens and the PS 20 Green Arts Program, making the invisible visible through sculpture, digital media, and hyper-local environmental data – fostering a sense of environmental stewardship and helping students and the community understand nature’s nuances more deeply in order to advocate on its behalf.
The system will collect data from environmental sensors and networked cameras to tell the story of the environment in real-time, presenting it via an AI chat interface, a streaming audio app that “sonifies” the data, and an online data dashboard. The project team is working with the school’s International Baccalaureate Coordinator to integrate the system into arts, music, science, and digital literacy classes, addressing sustainability, biodiversity, and climate change. The environmental data, together with new ways to house and observe plants and the presence of insects, will help support a pollinator habitat, ensuring that plants and flowers in the garden thrive, help other local gardens and parks flourish, and continue to give the community access to natural, unrefined honey. Students, teachers, parents and the broader community will have new ways to collaborate with and not just exist alongside nature.
Mast 1 – Bird and Pollinator Bed Cameras:
Mast installed with two cameras to monitor bee activity, the growth of native pollinator attractors, and to observe and identify bird species at a bird feeder.
Mast 2 – Environmental Sensing Platform:
Mast installed with sensors to measure air temperature, air humidity, soil surface temperature, soil volumetric water content, soil EC, leaf temperature, leaf wetness, rainfall hourly, PAR sensor, light intensity, CO2, barometric pressure, wind direction, wind speed, air quality – PM2.5, PM10.
Mast 3 – Birdhouses:
Mast installed with three birdhouses.
Hedgework @ PS 20 is a collaboration between Wes Heiss (Civic Space LLC), Antonina Simeti (Timbre Consultants), Mark Shepard (Center for Architecture and Situated Technologies (CAST)), and Marek Walczak (Civic Space LLC) with contributions from Timothy Noble (software/hardware development) and Johanna Kindvall (graphic design). Thanks to the PS 20 PTA, Amanda Bonavita (chair of the PS 20 Green Arts Committee), and Mr. Jonathan Blumberg (gardening instructor).
The project has been made possible by a grant from the NYC Public Schools (NYCPS) Office of Energy & Sustainability. Special thanks to Voltaic Systems for their generous support with the solar power system.