For our Silver Award project we wanted to teach kids about what compost is and why it's important. We chose this topic because 40% of all food produced in or imported to the United States goes to waste. A lot of that food could be used in compost to grow new plants, greatly reducing the amount of food that would have ended up in the landfill.
This project was challenging for us from start to finish. Contacting a school was the first step we had to take, which was difficult because most schools have some kind of compost project in place or aren't interested in starting one. Finding a school that would work with us actually took longer than any other part of this project. We then spent a lot of time researching compost so that we could make an accurate lesson for our school, Smith Elementary.
Researching was very necessary for us because explaining compost in a way that kids would understand and find interesting required a lot of knowledge about the topic. We left behind a short book describing what compost is, how it works and a glossary for words they might now know. In addition, we made a sorting game that teaches kids what things they should compost, recycle or throw away. Our book and game can help kids at Smith to understand and retain information about composting.
After completing our project, we had much more knowledge about composting, public speaking, and time management.