Type: Master Composter
City: Mooresville
Launch: May 5, 2005
Location: Private residence
Project: Teaching composting and wildflower planting skills
Funding: MCPlant, the students, personal donation

 

Hours: 25

 

Overview: I am a high school teacher so I had the perfect opportunity to recruit young adults that wanted to learn about composting and planting a wild flower plot. I believe that educating the young is the key to our future.

 

I provided all of the tools, supplies, seeds, roto tiller, leaves, and lunch.

Project Description
I asked my high school science students if any of them had a desire to learn about composting and wild flower plot planting. I sent a sign up sheet around and ended up with a list of about 20. I gave each of the students a sheet outlining the composting process and asked them to read and review it before coming to the Saturday course.

 

I had the students show up at my home on a Saturday morning in order to prepare the plot for the wild flowers and the site for the 2 composting bins. We roto-tilled a 70' x 50' plot, spread the seed, and then compressed the seeds into the soil. Along the way we discussed run off, and erosion. The students had tons of questions about the reason why were planting wild flowers vs. turning it into a grass area.

Along with the wild flower project, I talked about the requirements for growing successful plants and how compost provides many of the necessary nutrients. We discussed the merits of recycling and how today's trash will be the problem for tomorrow's youth.

The composting component of the Saturday course involved the students preparing the site for 2 recycling bins, mixing bags of leaves, rabbit food, and water into the bins. As we were working on the composting project, I discussed the micro and macro changes the bin would undergo and even showed them that the temperature would rise to near 140 degrees F (I have multiple bins so I had plenty of examples of the various stages of the process). We also turned one of my bins so that they could see the difference in the stages.

After the project was over, some of the students inquired about the status of the compost bins and the wild flower plot. I even had one student return to help turn the bins. Eventually this student requested a bin and supplies of his own so I helped him set up two bins in his parents back yard.

Project Implementation
In order to get the students to my home I provided maps and even drove to several of their homes in order to pick them up.

I provided hamburgers and hotdogs, chips, drinks, etc. for lunch.

 

Recommendations & Follow-up: I recommend getting name and numbers and calling the individuals the day before the project.

 

I recommend more handouts to the young people - they love freebies.