My Students

My students are submitting a project for the "Teach for the Plant" challenge! Our project explores environmental sustainability, using worms to process leftover lunches into compost that will be used to plant flowers on school-grounds. The flowers will be grown using our homemade aquaponic systems!

My high school students have endless curiosity!

Wondering about all sorts of things, they are continuously asking questions. My students understand that learning takes hard-work and dedication. Furthermore, they are strong learners, focused and willing to put in the time. They understand that learning is not always fun, but passionately crave any opportunity to build models and participate in hands-on activities and experiments. Our school is located in rural Mississippi. Struggling with high poverty and limited resources, our students are deprived of opportunities to engage in project-based learning. With the help of the "Teach for the Plant" challenge, my students will be able to use worms to process leftover lunches into compost that will be used to plant California Poppy, a beautiful flowering plant, on our school-grounds. The flowers will be grown using our homemade hydroponic and aquaponic systems! The students are so excited to work on this project.

My Project

The "WormWatcher Starter Kit" is a clear, indoor composter. With the composter, the students will use worms to process over 100 pounds of food waste from their leftover school lunches. With the compost, students will plant California Poppy, a beautiful flowering plant, on our school-grounds. Prior to planting, the California Poppy will be grown using our homemade hydroponic and aquaponic systems! By using different types of food waste, the students will conduct experiments on the rate at which worms decompose different types of foods. This project will teach my students (1) about the principles of vermicomposting, (2) the principles of hydroponics and aquaponics, (3) about environmental sustainability and green farming, (4) how to gather data from an experiment and analyze the data using statistics (i.e. Linear Correlation Coefficient), and (5) how to develop an abstract and deliver an oral presentation (i.e. PowerPoint) to communicate scientific findings from an experiment.

This project will require our students to build, communicate, and problem solve.

It will improve knowledge retention, encourage questioning, and promote cause and effect thinking. Our school district is high poverty. We have very limited resources. This project is a great opportunity for my students to participate in a hands-on learning science project. They are truly excited to begin working!