Last year Nicole Auker, a parent volunteer at Ethel McKnight Elementary School in East Windsor NJ contacted me to do a composting project with her school. She was very welcoming and appreciative of my work and ideas. We sat together and brainstormed ideas as to how we could incorporate the composting project to teach kids ranging from grades pre-k to 5th grade.
We decided to have a 25 minute composting session per class and made a curriculum. In this session we first gave them a little lesson about the benefits and uses of composting--depth of the lesson depended on their grade level. Next, we did a composting experiment with them. We divided the classes into two groups: groups A and B. Both groups were planting some sort of plant--either basil, parsley, or cilantro. Group A filled their cups up with compost and normal soil. Group B filled their cups with only soil. Then, a month later the class saw the results of their plants.
We decided to do this so that the kids have a hands-on activity with composting and see the results themselves. Also, I wanted to try this because it was a different approach from the usual.
All in all, I loved this event because I learned a lot about all different kinds of learning styles of kids and it taught me a lot about how a lot of people are in fact impressed with composting.
