Composting in school or at home gives students an understanding of
how soil is made.
- Secure a 4 ft. x 4 ft. area outside.
- Construct an aerated compost bin.
- Students collect "brown"
layers
- Save "green" layers from left overs at lunch
- Follow the lasagna recipe:
- The first layer should
be a loose layer of twigs that allows air to reach the center of your pile.
- "Brown"
Layers - Carbon: Straw, dried leaves, wood chips, insect pests, sawdust, torn-up paper.
- "Green" Layers - Nitrogen: Food scraps from left overs (do NOT include meat, dairy, oil); grass clippings;
weeds manure
- Layering Technique: Alternate green and brown layers starting and
ending with with a brown layer so no food ever shows. Use 2 brown layers to one green layer. Brown layers should be lower
in the center and higher on the edges so that no food is showing on the edges.
The material on the bottom will be finished first and can be harvested to use in your garden.
Learning about Soil Layers can be fun amd memorable by making my Soil Layers card. Here's how it's done.Making a Soil Profile Card
Supplies:
- 1
Soil profile card per student
- 1 inch x 3 inch piece of carpet tape per student
- Parsley flakes or other green
dried herb
- Cocoa powder
- Reddish-Yellow seasoning (paprika, pumpkin pie seasoning)
- Gram
Crackers
Procedure:
1. Peel down the tape on your profile card to just under the 0. But not as low as the 12. Sprinkle parsley flakes on
it. This will be our leaves or Humus layer.
2.
Peel down the tape to 24. Sprinkle some
dark cocoa powder. This is your topsoil.
3. The subsoil is yellowish red so take some small bottles yellowish/red
seasoning (Paprika, pumpkin seasoning) of the yellowish red jar and sprinkle that on the tape to about the 48. mark.
4. Last, is the bedrock. Take some Gram Cracker pieces and sprinkle
that on the remaining tape
