Science - Room 4 - Mount Biggs

Term 3

Last term, Room 4 science focused on the importance of global warming and climate change. This led into examining endangered species and finally to learning about native plants around our school. We also looked at actively doing something to combat the amount of plant material ending in rubbish landfills (ending as a greenhouse [methane] gas in our atmosphere). We designed their own take home worm farms.

Students are asked to still observe and write up (in class) what’s happening with their worm farms. If for some reason your child’s worm farm isn’t happening I still have tiger worms available.

2 -Term Enviro Action Day with room 4

Replanting native seedlings grown by our school to replace flaxes removed from native areas. This is another part of our environmental programme to improve our school.
What can we do to help?

One way to reduce methane gas given off by organic waste inland fills is to not put it there in the first place. We have decided to do our bit by creating our own worm farms. The organic waste is a food source for the worms who then produce fertiliser we can use to keep our native plants healthy. The photo shows two examples of the different designs the children have come up with to house their worms.

19 June2015 Conclusions
  • Decomposing onions consistently emitted methane from the start.
  • Blueberry started emitting methane gas later on but was also a strong emitter.
  • Lettuce and bleach were not methane emitters.
  • After 4 days the balloons deflated having lost their methane.
Picture
10 June 2015 After 1 week
  • Bottle 1: blueberries - methane gas
  • Bottle 2: onions - methane gas
  • Bottle 3: lettuce - no methane gas
  • Bottle 4: bleach - no methane gas
  • Bottle 5: control - no methane gas








Picture
5 June 2015 Experiment
  • Bottle 1: ½ teaspoon of bleach and water
  • Bottle 2: lettuce and water
  • Bottle 3: ½ onion and water
  • Bottle 4: blueberries and water
  • Bottle 5: water - control
One third of the waste in landfills is organic (i.e. plant materials, food etc.). This breaks down and releases methane gas – a greenhouse gas that is part of the reason the earth is getting hotter and changing the climate. At the moment, we are running an experiment to see which vegetable or fruit (onion, lettuce, or blueberries) releases the most methane (collected in the balloons attached to the bottles). We are checking the balloons each day and recording any changes we observe including the temperature.