Composting Links:

University of Florida's On-Line Composting Center www.compostinfo.com

Cornell University's composting site www.cfe.cornell.edu/compost

Microbe Zoo www.commtechlab.msu.edu/sites/dlc-me/zoo

Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection's composting site www.dep.state.ct.us/wst/compost/comindex.htm

The ROT Web www.a-horizon.com/compost/compost_menu.html

For a Wider Environmental View:

Recycle City www.epa.gov/recyclecity/mainmap.htm

Affluenza www.pbs.org/affluenza

Hazardous Chemicals www.epa.gov/oppt/kids/hometour/

Composting Resources:

A manual for setting up a school-wide composting program is available in pdf format.

Composting Lessons and State Standards for Learning

Lessons about the composting process address concepts outlined in the Science Curriculum Frameworks established by The Connecticut State Department of Education (March 1998) for grades 5-8.

Content Standard 1: The Nature of Science

• Conduct scientific investigations which generally involve the collection of relevant evidence, the use of logical reasoning and creativity in devising hypotheses and explanations to make sense of the evidence
  
  
• Identify and control variables in experiments
  
  
• Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of claims, arguments or data
  
  
• Recognize that a variety of experimental designs and strategies can be developed to answer the same questions
  
  
  
• Use appropriate technology as a tool in problem solving
  
  
  
• Use scientific knowledge and way of thinking in personal decision making

Content Standard 3: Living Things and Their Environment

• Describe the roles of producers, consumers and decomposers in an ecosystem and provide specific examples of each
  
  
• Explain the need for sunlight and other abiotic factors, such as water and air, in an ecosystem
  
  
• Explain that while matter is recycled in an ecosystem, there is a one-way flow of energy in ecosystems
  
  
• Explain that the number and variety of organisms and populations are dependent on the resources and physical factors of their environment
  
  
• Explain how both organisms and ecosystems can change if the physical conditions of an ecosystem change

Content Standard 4: Units of Structure and Function

• Recognize that basic life process, such as photosynthesis and respiration, occur at the cellular level
  
  
• Understand that cells divide for growth, replacement, repair and reproduction

Content Standard 5: Relationships of Structure and Function

• Describe the major distinctions among the kingdoms of living things
  
  
• Describe how different life functions (e.g., digestion, reproduction) are carried out be different organisms

Content Standard 7: The Earth

• Explain how human activities (such as reducing the amount of forest cover, increasing the amount and variety of chemicals released into the atmosphere, and waste disposal) have altered the Earth's land, oceans and atmosphere

Content Standard 11: Structure of Matter

• Show how features such as the temperature and acidity of a solution can influence reaction rates

Content Standard 12: Energy

• Identify energy transformations that occur in various systems (e.g., biological, mechanical, geological) and recognize that heat is a by product of energy transformations
  
  
• Demonstrate that heat can be transferred by convection, conduction and radiation
  
  
• Recognize that energy exists in many forms (e.g., light, heat, chemical, electrical and mechanical) and that energy can be transformed from one form to another
  
  
• Understand that all physical changes, including changes of state, require energy

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