Nothing is as exciting to me as helping my students become positive agents of change. So when I participated in the South Central Target Science Exploration Workshop "Waste Not, Want Not" and became very informed about waste management issues, I shared with my students the knowledge I acquired by visiting recycling facilities, seeing science demonstrations, hearing lectures, and reviewing curriculum, including a videotape. After that, I was ready for action.
I began by showing the video to my students to celebrate Earth Day and, afterwards, we discussed their impressions about the things children were and could be doing about recycling. Since we were studying plants, we discussed their importance in our lives and the environment, integrating what I had learned with what I was teaching so that the students connected the academic concepts.
The next day, I used a Windows on Science lesson to illustrate how dry leaves become nutrients for earthworms and the soil. I showed my students two brown bags and told them that we could eat what was in the big one, but that what was in the little bag could eat what we didn't. They were very curious. After providing basic vocabulary about the fruit in the big bag, my students helped make a fruit salad (and ate it rather quickly).
It was time for recess, but the students wanted to continue. "You need a break," I said, and I needed time to set up.
When they returned, they saw two columns made from plastic soda bottles, fruit and vegetable peels, twigs, dry leaves, grass, garden soil, newspaper, water, cups, and a scale. After giving them some clues, they guessed that the little bag contained earthworms. I told them that we were going to set up an experiment to recycle kitchen and garden refuse to make compost, and they helped each other with the measuring, making sure the same amount went into each column. The only difference was that column "A" received ten earthworms and was covered with a brown paper jacket.
After predicting which column would decompose faster, they wrote notes in their journals and, as the weeks passed, used magnifying glasses to see how differently the two columns were decomposing. We discussed their observations, and they reflected on their findings in their journals. They realized that what they thought was trash was also food for earthworms and, in a never-ending cycle, the earthworm castings of the decomposing trash became a rich nutrient for plants.
My students expanded what they knew about making wise environmental choices. Yet what my students learned in class, I learned in the "Waste Not, Want Not" program... in a never-ending cycle as positive agents for change.
