Students will investigate the facility garden challenge, document initial evidence about available resources and constraints, and begin defining measurable indicators of a safe, productive garden.

Students will investigate crop needs, facility resources, stakeholder priorities, and safe garden systems to define the garden challenge as manageable engineering problems. They will use evidence to produce and revise a stakeholder-centered design brief with measurable criteria and constraints.

Students will generate three distinct scaled garden concepts, compare alternatives through weighted evidence, and select a shared solution that answers the essential question: How can we design and grow a safe, productive garden that provides fresh vegetables and spices for cooking inside our juvenile facility? Teams will then prepare a facility-safe prototype plan, budget, and quantitative testing plan for the next phase.

Students will build, test, analyze, and improve a facility-safe garden prototype using quantitative evidence and stakeholder feedback while addressing the essential question: How can we design and grow a safe, productive garden that provides fresh vegetables and spices for cooking inside our juvenile facility?

Students will refine an evidence-based defense of their tested garden design, present final products to an approved authentic audience, and reflect on engineering decisions, trade-offs, collaboration, and future improvements.