Composting Project - From Waste to Nutrients

Main Goal:
To enable 5th grade students to understand the composting cycle and its importance for
sustainability, creating a functional composting system and applying knowledge of science,
mathematics, art and technology. From this, students will be able to observe how the
transformation of organic waste can benefit the environment and the community.

Skills Developed:
• BNCC:
(EF05CI05) Build collective proposals for more conscious consumption and create
technological solutions for the proper disposal and reuse or recycling of materials consumed
at school and/or in everyday life.
(EF04MA20) Measure and estimate lengths (including perimeters), masses and capacities,
using the most common standardized units of measurement, and using instruments.

• Common Core:
Science and Engineering Practices: Develop practical skills in scientific investigation and
engineering to carry out composting.
Mathematics: Use of mathematical concepts in the construction of simple calculations for the
amount of waste to be composted, measurement of areas for composting, and analysis of
results.

• Colégio Sant'Anna - Values:

Responsibility and Global Citizenship: Encourage responsible behavior in relation to the
environment, with a focus on environmental education.
Empathy and Solidarity: Work as a team and share solutions to promote a more sustainable
world.

• UNESCO 2025:
Education for Sustainable Development
Global Citizenship
Environmental Responsibility and Sustainable Practices

Methodology:
PBL (project-based learning) with a focus on STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering,
Arts and Maths). The project involves hands-on and collaborative activities to teach students
about the composting process and its relevance to sustainability.

Duration:
5 lessons - 50 minutes each

Lesson #1
Introducing the topic
In this lesson, students will be able to understand the concept of composting and its
importance for the environment.
Warm up: Start the class by showing students the picture of a landfill. Explain what it is and
elicit from them what they believe will happen if the waste is there for too long. (It will start to
smell, it will attract mice and other animals, it will decompose). (5’)

Introduction: Ask them what they believe is responsible for the decomposition and tell them
we are going to watch a short video explaining how the decomposition process works. They
will take notes on:
What are decomposers?
What do decomposers do?
Write questions on the board and play video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uB61rfeeAsM (10’)

Hands-on Activity: Tell students they will be able to see decomposition happening in real life
through an experiment. Show them an empty plastic bottle and some recipients with organic
material (soil, leaves, paper scraps, vegetable scraps).
Tell students that, in order to make compost, we must create layers of green waste (rich in
nitrogen) and brown waste (rich in carbon). Invite some students to help me make a
prototype. (10’)

Then, let students work in groups and make their own compost. (ask students to bring the
necessary items in advance).
When they are done, tell students to use a permanent marker to identify the volume of the
compost in the bottle. (This data will be used further on).
Cover the bottle with paper and use a rubber band to seal it. (20’)
Remind students of what decomposers need in order to do their job (water, sun, nutrients).
Tell them the compost should be moist, but not too wet; receive sunlight but not too much;
and it needs to be stirred once a week. Ask them where they believe might be the best place
in school to keep their bottles of compost. One representative of each group will take the
bottles there.

Wrapping Up: Ask students how they think compost can benefit the environment based on
what they learned in this lesson. (5’)

Lesson #2
Planning the School Compost

Warm-up: Ask students to access padlet.com and answer the question: “What kind of waste
is produced at school?” (paper, food wrapping, food scraps, fruit scraps). They will have 5
minutes to do so. (10’)
Project the page and let students discuss in pairs what they believe is “green waste”, “brown
waste” or “inorganic waste”. (5’)

Hands-on: Assign each group a different task:

1. Go to the school canteen and ask the nutritionist how much organic waste was
collected each day in the past week, the most common kind of waste and how it is
addressed nowadays. (Teacher should let them know in advance that they’ll be
interviewed by students) - take notes on notebook
 2. Research the best structure for our compost bin (check:
https://home.howstuffworks.com/composting.htm) - tablet/ computer for research/
draw the structure on a separate sheet of paper
3. Design a simple banner teaching people what can be composted and what cannot be
composted (check: https://home.howstuffworks.com/composting.htm)
4. Design a simple banner teaching people what is green waste and what is brown
waste - give examples! (check:
https://www.gardenhealth.com/advice/how-to-guides-2/how-to-compost) (20’)

Sharing: Each group shares their findings and production with the group. (10’)

Lesson #3
Planning the School Compost - Mass

Warm-up: Show students’ drawing on the best structure for our compost bin. Tell them that
we are going to use the 3-bin system.

We are going to decide how big our bins should be based on the amount of waste produced
at the school canteen (as told by the nutritionist).

Students work in pairs. Pair-up a weaker student with a stronger student.

Write the data on the board: (numbers just as example)

Amount of waste produced daily: 10 kg - 12 kg - 13 kg - 10 kg - 5kg
Average waste per day: (10kg)

Ask students to calculate the average waste per day. Check if students can remember how
to find the average number.

Tell students that we are going to put all the waste from one school week (5 days) in one bin.
How can they find out how much waste will be in each bin? (average waste per day x 5)
(50kg)

Remind students that food scraps are “green waste” and the same amount of “brown waste”
is needed. Therefore, how should they find the total capacity required? (multiply it by 2)
(100kg) (15’)

Practice: Assign students similar word problems. (15’)

Monitor students as they practice. Assist students having trouble understanding the concept.
If needed, pair them up.

*Fast finishers: Have them devise a word problem to other fast finishers.

Checking: Check their answers on the board, as a group. Depending on how independent
students are, ask some students to come to the board and explain their rationale. (This can
also be part of a formative assessment tool) (10’)
Wrapping-up: Ask pairs to draw the school composting system as they imagine it will be like.
List with the whole group all the items we will need to make our composting system.

Lesson #4
Implementing the Composting System

After having gathered all the necessary items (composting bin, organic material, tools) take
students to the place where the system will be implemented.
Students should explain to me, step by step, what we should do (as they have already done
it and learned about it).
Each student will be invited to take part in the activity. (45’)

Once we are back in class, discuss with students the benefits of composting for the school
and for the environment. (5’)

This step will serve as a formative assessment tool, in which I will check:
- how confident students feel about the steps of the process
- if they can identify what can be composted or not
- if they can identify green waste from organic waste
- if they can remember the ideal conditions for the system (sunlight, moist)
- if they are able to work as a group with minimal intervention from the teacher
- if they truly understand the importance of composting

Lesson #5
Checking (and using) our compost

Analyzing: Take back to class the bottles of compost they made in the first lesson.
Students should take notes on:
● Color:
● Texture:
● Smell:
● Temperature:
● Volume: (the volume should be reduced by 50 to 75% - depending on the bimester, it
is a good opportunity to work on percentages) (15’)
Hands-on:
We are going to have 2 pots with soil. In one of them, we are going to mix the compost and
plant seeds. In the other one, we will only plant the seeds. Take both pots to an appropriate
place in school. Students will take turns watering them daily and monitoring its growth, as
part of our class routine. (20’)

Wrapping-up:
In groups, students write a post on Google Classroom saying what they have learned with
this experiment. Alternatively, we can record a video of them explaining what they’ve learnt
and post it on the school’s Instagram page. (15’)