End of the year- have a great summer!

I hope everyone can get some sunshine and outdoor time.

Importance of Compost Piling by Sophia

                                                           

Have you ever wondered what the importance and benefits of composting is? Composting is basically just making a pile or heap of green waste and stirring it until it is broken down. Green waste is simply wetted down organic matter, such as leaves and food waste. Green waste normally breaks down after a course of weeks but can also take as long as months to break down. Compost is a key ingredient to organic farming.

There are many cool and unique ways to compost food waste. After it breaks down it is recycled and used as fertilizer and soil amendment. Compost waste is rich in nutrients which it is so good to use for plant growth.

You can use one of many ways to create a compost at the comfort of your own home. There are many composting benefits, like introducing beneficial organisms to soil, it’s good for the environment, and it reduces landfill waste. You can compost materials like animal manure, table scraps, paper, and even wood chips. There are multitudes of organisms, fungus and bacteria involved in the process of composting.

In composting, you will want green materials like lawn and landscape trimmings to reduces the amount of nitrogen. More green materials like fruit and vegetable peels would work great. Tea bags and coffee grounds are brown but are just as potent as green materials when it comes to nitrogen. For carbon, you’d want brown materials such as twigs, hay, and dry leaves.

You’ll definitely want to keep water around the compost pile to keep it moist. A compost pile needs oxygen to keep the bacteria and fungus in the compost pile alive. You can add worms in the pile, and bugs will find their way there.

When starting a compost pile, you want a certain amount of soil and scraps in your pile, this gives enough insulation and food for the organisms to live. For kitchen biology, we created two compost piles consisting of the same amount of vegetable and soil, and watered with the same amount of water but one was vermicomposting. The process was slow at first but towards the end, sped up and eventually showed progress. It was a great experience.

Nanotechnology by Richard

Summary:

            Nanotechnology is technology that is less than 100 nanometers wide. It can help with lots of different types of stuff. It helps with medicine, solar cells, batteries, food, fuel cells, and  better air quality. If it is breathed in it can damage your lung tissue and can cause chronic breathing problems. If it gets into your bloodstream it can kill you.

What I found most interesting about the topic:

What I found most interesting about the topic is that it can help bring the taste in food out more.

Three interesting facts that I learned:

1. It can help with better air quality because it can transform the vapors that come out of cars and factories into harmless gases.

2. If it gets into your bloodstream it can kill you.

3.  It is used to bring the taste in food out more.

Question:

Why do you think nanotechnology is harmful to us?

Soil by Mikayla

Soil is the “natural medium of growth and land”. Soil is very important to our world whether we realize it or not. It helps grow the things we need and has been used forever.

There are three types of soil; clay, sand and silt. Clay is the smallest soil particle there is. Sand is the largest particle, and silt is right in the middle. In each types of these soils there are different layers. The first layer is topsoil, which is the upper part. The second layer is subsoil, which is right below topsoil and has clay that is more compact. The very last layer is bedrock, this is the hard rock beneath the surface

            I find it very interesting that certain crops grow in the certain types of soil. For example in light textured soil, things such as vegetables and corn can grow. But in loamy soil almost everything can grow good in it. I also find it amazing that the more structured the soi is, the better plants grow in it. For example structured soil allows more water intake, so plants do better with this soil. The last thing that I find most interesting is that if you want to fix soil so it has better qualities, you just need to leave it alone - it will fix itself. I would have thought that you would need to do a ton of things to it.

            My question to everyone is how can you help improve the soil?

The Nutrient Cycles By Arissa

          The nutrient cycles are a crucial part in all ecosystems, they are responsible for the reuse of water, energy, and food. All life relies on three main cycles, the carbon cycle, nitrogen cycle, and water cycle.

          Starting with the carbon cycle, carbon has the most important part to play in all of the ecosystems. Throughout the course of the carbon cycle plants extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, then perform photosynthesis, animals consume the plants and replace the carbon dioxide through breathing. This process is also responsible for providing energy for factories, trains, planes, and cars in the form of fossil fuel. This is a constant cycle, to bring us back to the beginning, after the death of an animal, fungi and bacteria break down the organic matter and allow the growth of plants.

Much like carbon, nitrogen is equally important to all ecosystems. Although nitrogen is present in our atmosphere it’s supply is limited. Nitrogen-fixing bacteria are made to transform nitrogen into ammonia. These bacteria bring the converted nitrogen into the water and soil for the plants. Plants then acquire the nitrogen in the form of ammonia.

The water cycle is what life relies on, it consists of three main parts, evaporation (transpiration), condensation, and precipitation.  Evaporation is the extraction of water from bodies of water heated up by the sun, creating water vapor or clouds. Transpiration is process in which plants soak up water through their roots then the water evaporates as plants release water through small pores. Condensation is the collection of water in the air, after condensation comes precipitation. Precipitation comes in the form of rain, sleet, snow, and hail which falls to the ground bringing us back to the beginning.

These three cycles are what is keeping us alive, they are crucial to all ecosystems and environments. Food, water, and energy are all a part of these cycles.

Cite Sources: "The Water Cycle (article) | Ecology." Khan Academy. Khan Academy, 2017. Web. 13 Apr. 2017. <https://www.khanacademy.org/science/biology/ecology/biogeochemical-cycles/a/the-water-cycle>.

Jamie, Taylor, and Jen Moreau. "Nutrient Cycles: Recycling in Ecosystems, The Carbon and Nitrogen Cycles." ScienceAid. Science Aid, 2017. Web. 13 Apr. 2017. <https://scienceaid.net/biology/ecology/nutrient.html>.

Composting by Lydia

Composting is when organic material gets decomposed and then is used as a method of recycling or a way for people to help people increase their soil fertility. There are many different methods of compositing. You can have pile composting, open bin composting, or closed bin composting. These are just some of the many ways of composting. This is method that a lot of people enjoy because there is little to no cost and the boost in your gardens fertilization is mind blowing.

-       How many different kinds of compost total do you think there are?

Something that I find interesting about my topic is that all different kinds of organic food can change everything about it and become dirt.

1.    Composting saves money and is helping the world stay in better shape.

2.    It improves everything about the soil and the way plants grow in it.

3.    The nutrients in the soil can almost double when we use these composite materials.