Fourth-grade students at South Douglas Elementary School recently completed the next step in their Compost PBL (Project-Based Learning), planting eight tomato plants in soil fertilized with compost they’ve been working on all school year.
Jenny Woods, a fourth-grade teacher at SDES, said the school won a Classroom Impact Grant from the Douglas County Education Foundation that paid for all the materials to build their compost station.
Students brought in items including fruit, vegetables, egg shells and cardboard to add to the compost bins in the fall.
“Then we had to wait,” Woods said, adding that students rotated the compost bins weekly to keep the materials combined.
Students planted their tomatoes a few weeks ago using the compost.
As part of the project, students have learned about decomposition and green and brown materials that need to be added back to the Earth, Woods said.
Woods added that classes are covering multiple subject areas as part of the project, from reading about composting, to writing information/opinion pieces about it to measuring the plants as they grow to connect math.
“We even have a little friendly competition going between periods!” Woods said. “Whose compost will grow the tallest plants?”