Cameron Lockett Capstone

For my capstone I planned on creating a compost for the school garden. What ended up happening was me helping Ms. Aziz with creating a compost for next year’s students. My capstone process started in October. Back then I talked to Ms. Aziz about the idea of starting a school compost. The original plan involved having two different compost bins, one on the inside in ms. Aziz’s room and one near the school garden. During the school year while I was doing research on composting, Ms. Aziz told me to reach out with some of her Botany students. I reached out to some students and there were able to make the compost bin. Midway through the year I talked to Ms. Aziz about what exactly we would do with the bin, and she said that we could collect data from the school by placing plain white bins that we would be able to compostable materials in. I was able to get the bins over spring break. The next step was advertisement. I created a PSA (public service announcement) that Ms. Aziz would be able to print out or send to the students to promote our compost. Yet around April-May we hit a speed bump. Our plan was to plant around that time to correlate with our compost, but the weather had been particularly bad for planting. As we would have cold mornings which would kill some plants overnight. The weather been settling, so Ms. Aziz and I decided on another way to finish the capstone. That I could use the research I found to create more PSA’s and info graphics to promote the compost, that way it can be set up for next year’s students to use. Over the year I was able to find out the effects of having a school compost. I’m pleased to say that they’re generally positive. On one note composts are good for the environment because they take organic materials that people throw out such as banana peels, apples or apples cores, wet leaves, loose leaf paper, and other fruits and vegetables. What you can do with those organic materials is put them into a pile so they decompose together. The compost would make a natural fertilizer which would help the plants we grow in the school garden. The other reason for the creating the compost was so help get the community involved. While it is true the garden is at SLA@Beeber. The school still respects the environment and neighborhood around it. People from around the neighborhood would be allowed to contribute the compost by giving bags of organic materials to the school for us to put into our compost. Bibliography "Benefits Of Using Compost In Your Garden | Planet Natural". Planet Natural. Web. 4 Apr. 2017. https://www.planetnatural.com/composting-101/soil-science/compost-soil/ This website talks about how composting has beneficial effects on gardens. Unsurprisingly the website listed off a list of reasons for why composting is great for gardens. One of the reasons being that it helps the soil structure of the garden. Good soil structure allows for better passages which allows air and water to pass well. Another reason is that compost adds nutrients to the garden. Composts can provide iron, copper, zinc, and manganese. Which are important to the health of plants. The reason I chose this website is because I wanted to see how compost would affect the school’s garden. As this website suggests there will be plenty of positive effects. "Bennett Compost". Bennett Compost. Web. 4 Apr. 2017. https://www.bennettcompost.com/ This article is just a website Ms. Aziz showed to me in the beginning of the project. The website shows one way for one to get supplies for composting. You could sign up for a monthly service from a company. This company in particular ( Bennet Compost) offered a compost bin with scraps and food waste for only fifteen dollars a month. Personally I decided against using Bennett Compost service. As I could just get the scraps and waste from my house and the school. The website did provide me insight on what I could use however for my compost project. "Composting: Teachers Love It—And It's Saving Schools Money". TakePart. Web. 4 Apr. 2017. http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/10/09/composting-schools This article talks about schools using the practice of composting. In the article schools in the states of New York, California, Oregon, and Washington state all practiced composting from elementary to college level. The result was that some of the schools saved around six thousand dollars on trash fees from composting. Teachers also found out that bringing composting into the curriculum can be fun and engaging for the whole class. The reason I chose this article is because I wanted to see how other schools reacted to composting. While they had more economic benefits. The article also stated how they did gain environmental because they had nutrientes for some of their gardens. "Getting Started | Red Worm Composting". Redwormcomposting.com. Web. 4 Apr. 2017. https://www.redwormcomposting.com/getting-started/ This website talks about how to get composting started with Red Rigler Worms. Those are the worms Ms. Aziz requested we use for the capstone. The website stated that first you need a container. The size of the container depends on how many worms you are planning to have, Generally you can get a bin from a hardware store. Just make sure that you have a lid for it. Next you need bedding. The bedding could be shredded newspaper or cardboard. After that you need worm food. Fruit and vegetable waste is generally fine. After that you put your composting worms in. The article is important because it gives a detailed process of how to compost with worms and how to take care of them. "Learning | Pennsylvania Horticultural Society". Phsonline.org. Web. 4 Apr. 2017. https://phsonline.org/learning/ Now this website is unique. The website is the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Online. What it provides is a multitude of information regarding gardening. It provides links to workshops on how to improve as a gardener as well. Now what I used it for was the tips it provided. Besides links the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society Online provides knowledge for almost any topic about gardening. One those topics happens to be composting. As I read about different composting techniques, as well as what people did at a composting workshop. The website provided a different view on things. It allowed me to see how I wanted my project to come through. "Life Lab » The Ultimate School Composting Resource Page". Lifelab.org. N.p., 2017. Web. 4 Apr. 2017. http://www.lifelab.org/composting/ What this website is, is an example of another school doing a compost. Well more like a composition of other schools doing composts for either their gardens or other activities. The website put together a guide showing how these schools successfully pulled off their compost systems. Besides the guide there is also a video on how to compost with worms. The reason I chose this website is because I wanted to see how other schools pulled of compost projects it’s important to see how others might have done things. As I don’t want to repeat similar mistakes. Silven, Kirsten. "The Importance Of Composting: Help Eliminate Organic Waste, Fertilize Soil | Going Green | The Earth Times". Earthtimes.org. Web. 4 Apr. 2017. http://www.earthtimes.org/going-green/importance-composting-help-eliminate-organic-waste-fertilize-soil/82/ This article talks about why composting is important. The article begins by giving a brief explanation of what composting is. It’s when organic material such as eggshells, vegetables, fruit, etc… decompose and turn into something that could be used for a beneficial way. Now composting can be put into the soil to help plants grow. As it provides nutrients that helps them grow better. Not just that one of the main reasons for composting involves getting rid of waste. Instead of just putting waste into landfills you could instead compost that waste. Composting cuts down on toxic gases being released into the atmosphere. I chose this website because I wanted my senior project to be important, Findin out that my project will help save the environment makes this worthwhile for me. "Solid Waste Management Sourcebook/1.4.3 Environmental Impacts Ofcomposting". Unep. Web. 4 Apr. 2017. http://www.unep.or.jp/ietc/ESTdir/Pub/MSW/SP/SP4/SP4_3.asp This is an article that talks about some negative effects to composting. Now generally composting is great for the environment. Yet the problems arises from mishaps that can happen during the process of composting. One such problem is the release of dangerous gases into the atmosphere. As composting deals with the use of bacteria. If piles of compost are not aired properly they bacteria can produce methane gas. Decomposition of the materials being used can also create carbon dioxide. So if I’m not careful I could accidentally release some greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. I chose this article because I needed to know if there was any negative repercussions of me doing this for my capstone project. "The Composting Process". Illinois.edu. N.p., 2017. Web. 4 Apr. 2017. https://extension.illinois.edu/compost/process.cfm This website answered some questions I had about composting. One of them being how long does the process exactly take. The website it can take up to two weeks for the process to be done. The website also talked about what the composting process is. It involves organic materials decomposing to become nutrients used for soil. In order to get a good compost you do not want dry materials. If the materials are too dry they will decompose slowly. I chose this website because it's important to know about the topic before you do something with it. In my case I’m creating a compost for the school to use. Yard, Caring. "How To Compost". Better Homes and Gardens. Web. 4 Apr. 2017. http://www.bhg.com/gardening/yard/compost/how-to-compost/ What this article talked about was the essentials on how to create a homemade compost. It gives step by step instructions on to create your own compost. The article also gives a list of materials one should use for a compost. Such as fruit scraps, dry leaves, vegetable scraps, grass clippings, and more. The article then did a segway halfway through. The transition then cut to how to create your own compost bin. You could create bins from wood, or create your own from a container. At the end of the article there is even a link for how to do a DIY compost bin with a trashcan. Now I obviously chose this article because it provides the basic information I needed to start my capstone.