Problem Solving

Waste management is already a formidable challenge today, but is set to become even more relevant as society becomes increasingly environmentally conscious. In undertaking the task of designing a real, effective, composting system, students will engage in the process of collaborating and exchanging ideas with members of their class in order to determine how compost and recycle with the least impact on our environment.

Collaboration

From learning and presenting to other students about the science of composting waste, to researching and designing compost vessels for use in their home, to brainstorming how the challenge of managing waste effectively can be represented and taught through art and song, students will work in small groups and deliver feedback and suggestions on the work of other groups, allowing them to refine the project outcomes that they create.

Communication

In the process of learning about how to compost waste effectively, student groups will be assigned subtopics (each of the basic stages of composting, each of the four components of composting) and will conduct group research about the topic in order to prepare oral presentations with visual aids to share their findings with members of the class.

In doing so, they will be challenged to think of how to format their research to best communicate it. They will also need to review the work of other groups, identifying both strengths and areas for growth, and do so in a constructive and growth-oriented manner. They will have multiple other opportunities for exchange, peer-review, and the communication that that entails, such as when designing their compost vessels and their art projects.

Critical Thinking

Through their research on the science of composting, students will form testable hypotheses about how to most effectively compost kitchen waste. They will also analyze how the components of composting (bacteria, organic matter, moisture, and oxygen) interact with each other as a complex system. Furthermore, when the groups design their own compost vessels, they will need to examine the effectiveness of their chosen strategies and synthesize their conclusions with those of other groups.

Creativity

As each step of the project will require students to produce a concrete representation of what they have learned or what they planned to build, students will have numerous opportunities to showcase their creativity. Through the process of brainstorming, they will work together to design innovative technologies for reducing and composting kitchen waste.

Towards the end of the project, they will also find inventive ways to inform their communities of the importance of composting and its best practices through art. While they must collaborate as a group, they are given a high degree of autonomy and may choose to do this by creating digital posters, videos, songs, skits, or any other medium that they agree upon, and these will be subject to peer review.