First Place — Orange County Search for Excellence Poster
Visual Description
This hydroponics poster from the UC Master Gardeners of Orange County Hydroponics Team is arranged in landscape orientation and organized into four vertical sections.
On the far left are two stacked images. The top image shows Sally Richards, co-lead of the UC Master Gardeners Orange County Hydroponics Team, holding a Kratky hydroponics system with lettuce roots hanging down. The bottom image shows a one-page handout titled “Kratky Hydroponics: Soil-Free Growing Method.” It includes two diagrams of a container system: one with small plants above a nearly full nutrient reservoir, and a second with larger plants and a much lower solution level.
In the next section to the right is a photo of Sally Richards on the left and Alvin Lam in the center, both co-leads of the UC Master Gardeners of Orange County Hydroponics Team, answering questions after the Centennial Farm hydroponics class. Below this image are the introduction, SFE category, and author information.
The third section contains the goals and strategies of the project, with a photo below of the setup for a Centennial Farm hydroponics class.
The far-right section includes a photo of the hydroponic starter kit, with the 2024–2025 project results placed below the image.
Second Place — Butte County Search for Excellence Poster
Visual Description
The poster has three photos and three sections with information.
The first column, titled “From School Gardens to Living Laboratories,” describes what a Living Lab is and has a photo of a Master Gardener with a parent and children planting herbs.
The second column, “New Approach to New Lessons,” describes what students do and has a photo that shows the covers of the three student notebooks for plants, seeds and worms.
The third column includes information about the impact of training teachers and has a photo of a group of teachers in a leader’s training on how to use the curriculum.
Third Place — Sonoma County Search for Excellence Poster
Visual Description
This colorful and informative poster uses both words and photos to portray the field trip program in the Children’s Garden at Nokhnoma Teaching and Demonstration Garden in Santa Rosa.
The top of the poster shows four photos taken in the Children’s Garden during field trips featuring children engaged in hands-on learning activities as they rotate in small groups with Master Gardener volunteers. Clockwise from left to right: A group of four students chop food for worms with a volunteer and chaperone observing; a volunteer shows six students how to plant seeds in a little pot to grow at home; a young girl sitting on the ground with arms spread wide shows her classmates how squash plants grow by crawling across soil; the last photo shows student hands busy at play constructing a miniature Wappo village.
The text at the bottom of the poster describes the history of the garden on the left-hand side, and the right side describes key components of the Youth Education Program, including the purpose of its school field trips, how it is delivered and what it has achieved.