EPA+Waste+on+Composting



Indira Kumar Sustainability Education Curriculum Review 4 March 19, 2013

The U.S Environmental Protection Agency developed a solid waste resource document entitled //The Quest for Less.//
 * // Organization //**

The EPA Waste mission is to protect human health and the environment by ensuring responsible national management of hazardous and nonhazardous waste. Their goals are to conserve resources by reducing waste, prevent future waste disposal problems by enforcing regulations and clean up areas where waste may have spilled, leaked or been improperly disposed. []
 * // Mission //**

The //Quest for Less// is designed for teachers in grades K-8 to use as one of the many tools in the development of lesson plans. Activities and concepts can be incorporated into existing curricular or teachers can create special week-long unites on the environment and solid waste or use the activities to commemorate Earth Day. The guide provides hands-on lessons and activities, enrichment ideas, journal-writing assignments, and other educational tools related to preventing and reducing waste.
 * // Educational Philosophy //**

Some educational goals of the document include: - To stimulate young people to think critically about their own actions and the results of their actions and to assess their own resource conservation and waste preservation values - To help young people understand the connections among the use of natural resources, use of products, waste disposal, and causes and effects of environmental impacts - To help students understand the concept of personal responsibility toward the environment and to inspire them to make a positive environmental impact in their home, school and community - To Make solid waste education interesting, fun, and an integral part of environmental education []

Chapter 2.3 focuses on the topic of composting and contains several classroom activities along with a fact sheet describing composting, its purpose and its benefit. The following list displays a summary of the activities, description and objectives.
 * // Learning Outcomes //**

Grades K-1 - To teach students that nature can “recycle” its own resources Grades 3-8 - To teach students hoe composting can prevent food scraps and yard trimmings from being thrown away and how different components affect composting - To teach students how composting can prevent food scraps and yard trimmings from being thrown away and to show them the usefulness of compost in gardening Grade 4-8 - To teach students that food scraps and yard trimmings can be made into compost instead of being thrown away []
 * Compost Critters ** : Students will search for and observe some of nature’s recyclers at work, learning what role each plan or animal plays in the recycling process
 * Compost Chefs ** : Students will create four compost bins that differ in their amounts of air, moisture, and nitrogen. Students will observe and record the differences these conditions cause in the composting process
 * Compost Crops: ** Students will assess the effectiveness of compost as a soil amendement by planting and comparing two garden plots- one that relies just on dirt and one that relies on their homemade compost
 * Worms at Work ** : Students will create a compost bin using worms and food scraps and monitor changes in the bin over time

Most definitely! I really liked how this package had a primary focus on composting and included many other chapters on environmental education. Hands-on activities allow students to have multi-sensory experiential involvement. The Teacher Aid started with a brief of composting, its purpose and its benefits for students to gain a fundamental understanding. Even though the package is geared towards students from grades K-8, the brief went into scientific detail of explaining composting. The hands-on activities covered a varying array of learning methods. Through observation, questioning and participation, students learned how to compost. These findings may even trickle back home where families can start their own composting initiatives.
 * // Do you think the curriculum is appropriately designed to produce the intended learning outcomes? //**

//** Does this curriculum teach the kind of literacies the EcoEd Research Group advocates? **// The EcoEd Reserch Group advocates the importance of having environmental attitudes to create a positive environmental impact. With the hands-on exercises, students learn about cause and effect of natural processes, resource conservation and life cycle analysis. With those outcomes combined with a focus in fostering critical thinking, young people will be more attuned to taking personal responsibility in improving and sustaining their surrounding environment. Smaller, individual actions such as composting can lead to a community-driven impact of reducing waste in landfills.

//** What could be layered into this curriculum so that it addresses more of the learning outcomes that the EcoEd Group advocates? **// The document included a handful of lessons for students to participate in class. Adding take-home prototypes or having more individual activities for each student to participate in would really drive each concept. Many of the lessons focused on one, large demonstration that may lack personal involvement other than observation.

Sources: [|www.epa.gov/wastes]