permaculture
for kids
¿How to create a real bonding between children and the seedling are taking care of? How to make easy and fun for them to recognise and remember their daily tasks before the sprout needs to be transplanted?
Researchs shows that cuteness
appeals to our ‘gut instinct of caring’. Enabling children to project care onto another living being, would compels them to take care of that life in the long-term. The aim was to encourage maintenance without feeling it like a chore. That is how a friend was born: Boomsi, the smiling greenhouse.
Boomsi is transparent. That is to help you to know when it is in ideal conditions to grow, and gives you an idea of when to change it to a warmer or cooler place.
Once the plant has grow enough it is ready to be carefully transplanted: the attached booklet explains how. A new seed will be willing to grow! :)
Back in Colombia, my young neighbors and I recently experimented with a 3D-printed prototype made of translucent PLA material. Boomsi made documenting the growth of seedlings easy and fun, exceeding expectations. During testing, we used birdseeds which grew within just 3-5 days. Observing the „rain“ effect inside Boomsi was fascinating; we rarely touched it, only to peek inside.
Boomsi is an hydroponic gardening system for kids between 5 -12 y/o. An autonomous irrigation system creates a microclimate inside the piece allowing the seedling to be warm and safe. The evaporated water condenses back into the base, maintaining ideal conditions of humidity and temperature. It’s safe to be used by kids in home or classrooms, or even by adults, if they dare :)
When in tropical regions like Colombia, Boomsi can usually protect seedlings without any additional assistance. However, I’ve noticed that certain seasons can make it more difficult. Boomsi needs the right amount of heat and moisture for the seeds to grow properly. To address this, we could mix thermo-sensitive paint with the material of the object. This would serve as an indicator, changing color with changes in temperature and humidity.
