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UNIT 2: DECOMPOSITION & COMPOST

Scraps to Soil Gold: Nature's Way of Nutrient Recycling

Lesson 3: Decomposition: Nature’s Recycling


Learning Goal:
To explore decomposition and understand how it works above the soil, highlighting its importance in recycling nutrients and energy within nature’s food chains and webs.


Essential Questions:

  • What happens to living things in nature when they reach the end of their life cycle?

  • How is decomposition important for recycling nutrients and energy within food chains and webs?

  • What is the role of producers, consumers, and decomposers in a food web?

Learning Outcomes:
This unit provides students with a foundational understanding of decomposition and its crucial role in recycling nutrients within ecosystems.

  • Explain how decomposition is important for recycling nutrients and energy within food chains and food webs.

  • Describe how producers, consumers, and decomposers each contribute to the balance of a food web.

  • Draw a simple food chain showing at least three different organisms and how they are connected through nutrient transfer.

  • Explain how removing a species from a food web would affect the other organisms within the ecosystem, using a specific example.

Key Vocabulary:
Decomposition, nutrients, food web, producers, consumers, decomposers, trophic levels, predator, ecosystem, food chain, conservation


Standards:

  • NGSS: 3-LS2-1, 5-LS2-1, 5-PS3-1, 5-ESS3-1, 3-5-ETS1-1, 3-5-ETS1-2

  • CCSS: SL.3.1, SL.4.1, SL.5.1, SL.3.2, SL.4.2, SL.5.2, SL.3.4, SL.4.4, SL.5.4


Lesson 4: Trash to Treasure: The Story of Composting

Learning Goal:
To explore how nature breaks down some materials but not others by examining where our trash, including food waste, goes and how composting food waste instead of sending it to landfills helps the soil and planet by recycling nutrients and energy in nature's food chains and webs.


Essential Questions:

  • What happens to trash when we throw things away?

  • What are the benefits of composting?

  • How can we improve waste management in our homes, schools, and communities?

Learning Outcomes:
This unit builds on the previous lesson on decomposition, helping students understand how composting can benefit soil health and support nutrient recycling in ecosystems.

  • Explain what composting is and how it benefits soil and living organisms.

  • List different categories of waste and explain their impact on the environment.

  • Describe the differences between degradable and biodegradable waste.

  • Explain where waste can end up and the impacts of waste management on ecosystems.

  • Identify ways to improve waste management practices and promote composting efforts.

Key Vocabulary:
Food waste, composting, compost, biodegradable, non-biodegradable, leachate, landfill gas, food insecurity, nitrogen, phosphorus, carbon, ratio


Standards:

  • NGSS: 3-ESS3-3, 3-LS4-3, 4-ESS3-1, 4-LS1-1, 5-ESS3-1, 5-LS2-1

  • CCSS: SL.3.2, SL.4.2, SL.5.2, SL.3.4, SL.4.4, SL.5.4

UNIT 2: DECOMPOSITION & COMPOST
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