Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

30 minutes

Part A: Compost Bin Biodiversity - A Wildlife Safari

30 minutes

Part B: Who’s Inside Our Compost Bin?

30 minutes

Part C: Are Our Compost Buckets Being Contaminated?

60 minutes

Part D: Compost Bucket Communication Project

Part A: Compost Bin Biodiversity - A Wildlife Safari

Step 1

If your school has a compost bin, visit and investigate it with your students, using the following instructions to guide you:

Get about a third of the class each time to gather around the compost bin
If the bin has a lid, many tiny vinegar flies may escape as the lid is lifted
Stir the surface to uncover hiding creatures and see them scatter
Ask students to provide the names of animals they are familiar with
Look on the walls of the bin and on the surface of the green waste for tiny moving animals the size of a pin head
Look at the layers of decomposition. Ask students to describe the layers.

Step 2

Once complete, take students back to class and invite them to describe their experience. This could be done in writing or through class discussion.

Step 3

Once complete, introduce the term 'green waste' and invite students to suggest what they think this means. Lead students to the idea that green waste is kitchen and garden waste that can be composted or decomposed by micro-organisms.

Part B: Who’s Inside Our Compost Bin?

Collect samples of compost in an enclosed container. You might do this when you take students to explore the school compost bin. You will need something like an ice cream container with a lid and a small shovelling implement. Identify how students in groups or as a class will view the creatures.

Consider using the following process depending on your students:

Review or instruct how the magnifying equipment will be used.
Demonstrate how the animals will be viewed.

Part C: Are Our Compost Buckets Being Contaminated?

Step 1

Discuss with students what should and shouldn’t go into a compost bin.

These items will compost without causing problems:

Fruit and vegetable scraps
Small amount of vegetable oils
Garden waste (except some weeds that could spread)
Coffee grounds and tea bags
Ripped up newspaper
Egg shells, finger nails, cut hair.

These items will cause problems in a compost bin:

Meat products
Animal fats
Glossy paper
(Large amounts of bread could be an issue attracting vermin)
And most other kinds of waste including plastic and plastic packaging, metal, glass etc.

Confirm with students that they are to only look into the compost collecting buckets and take photos and not to handle the compost material in the bucket. They will survey what they can see on the surface.

Discuss the data record sheet provided or create a data record sheet that matches your school’s green waste collection system.

Step 2

Students should work collaboratively to survey the compost buckets. They fill in the data sheet recording the material contaminating the bucket and estimating the number of items than can see for each material.

Back in class students combine their data and list the issues the school has with compost contamination.

Part D: Compost Bucket Communication Project

Students decide which communication methods will best help reduce contamination issues for the compost buckets. They use the concept of advertisements and think of different ways advertisements can be used within the school community. Examples of communication projects include:

Posters placed in appropriate locations
Labels on the buckets
A short skit at a school assembly
Advertisements in newsletters and email news.

Take It Further

Use this learning experience to investigate or consolidate students’ understandings of classification. Focus on the animal structures. Use the following website to help you: CSIRO - What Bug Is That? and BugFinder - Insect Search and Identification Tool.
Construct a food web from the organisms found in a compost bin. Find more creatures that live in compost bins including what lives in the bins at home. It may not be obvious which organisms are carnivores. The common carnivores in a compost bin are rove beetles (look these up on Google Images) spiders, and if you are lucky enough, geckoes. Students can observe where the other animals are feeding. Most will be eating decaying material, but the vinegar fly maggots will prefer rotting fruit.

Teacher reflection

What did you learn about your teaching today?
What worked well?
What didn't work so well?
What would you share?
Where to next?
How are you going to get there?

National Recycling Week - Let's Look at Organic Waste

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