The Synopsys Outreach Foundation Green + 1 Challenge
The Power of Decomposers!!
Composting for the Classroom Garden
The following is an example of a year-long 4th grade classroom project, and includes a sample timeline and links to the CA Science Standards:
The goal of this project is to increase student understanding of environmental processes involved in composting while reducing classroom and school contributions to landfill.
Suggested Materials:
| • | Vermicomposting bins |
| • | Large, commercially available in-vessel home garden composting bins |
| • | Gardening tools |
| • | Seeds and consumables |
Suggested activities for students:
| • | With teacher or parent, visit the local landfill (optional) |
| • | Research various types of composting equipment and techniques |
| • | Participate in composting training |
| • | Design and implement investigations for both composting and gardening processes |
| • | Work in groups to begin composting |
| • | Explore ways to compost into the home or community |
| • | Record and document processes and data using a variety of media |
| • | Present findings at the school science fair |
Suggested Means of Measuring Impact:
| • | For one week, students will deposit all waste generated at school in bags. |
| • | Each day the mass (weight) and volume (by water displacement or volume calculations) of the bags will be recorded. |
| • | The week's total amount will be multiplied by 36 to estimate the total material the school sends to the landfill in a typical year. |
| • | Once students learn which materials can be composted, those materials will be collected in bags for a week. |
| • | The mass and volume of the biodegradable materials will be multiplied by 36 and subtracted from the total school waste amount to calculate the percentage of material that could be removed from the landfill through school-wide composting. |
| • | Optional: (GATE) students could also calculate the savings in gas-hauling the material to the landfill, savings in fertilizer costs, and potential reduction in carbon footprint. |
Suggested Timeline for Year-long Project
September:| • | Field trip to the local landfill (optional) |
| • | Research and discussions on the array of home and community composting available |
| • | Instruction on types of composting materials |
| • | Composting begins |
| • | Regular maintenance of composters |
| • | Begin incorporation of compost into classroom gardens |
| • | Continued maintenance of composters |
| • | Continued gardening |
| • | Incorporation of findings, production artifacts (video and images), and produced food into the school's science fair (optional) |
California Science Standards:
CA Department of Education (www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/sciencestnd.pdf)
4th Grade: Life Sciences
2. All organisms need energy and matter to live and grow. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know plants are the primary source of matter and energy entering most food chains.
b. Students know producers and consumers (herbivores, carnivores, omnivores, and decomposers) are related in food chains and food webs and may compete with each other for resources in an ecosystem.
c. Students know decomposers, including many fungi, insects, and microorganisms, recycle matter from dead plants and animals. 3. Living organisms depend on one another and on their environment for survival. As a basis for understanding this concept:
a. Students know ecosystems can be characterized by their living and nonliving components.
b. Students know that in any particular environment, some kinds of plants and animals survive well, some survive less well, and some cannot survive at all.
d. Students know that most microorganisms do not cause disease and that many are beneficial. Investigation and Experimentation
6. Scientific progress is made by asking meaningful questions and conducting careful investigations. As a basis for understanding this concept and addressing the content in the other three strands, students should develop their own questions and perform investigations. Students will:
a. Differentiate observation from inference (interpretation) and know scientists' explanations come partly from what they observe and partly from how they interpret their observations.
b. Measure and estimate the weight, length, or volume of objects.
c. Formulate and justify predictions based on cause-and-effect relationships.
d. Conduct multiple trials to test a prediction and draw conclusions about the relationships between predictions and results.
e. Construct and interpret graphs from measurements.
f. Follow a set of written instructions for a scientific investigation.