Commercial Point Sludge Lagoon Issue: Connecting Science Class to Real Life

A local Pickaway County farmer wants to create a 3-acre, clay-lined, sludge lagoon on his property within a mile of several housing developments and two schools.  Neighbors met at the local middle school last night to voice their concerns about this project.

This relates to our seventh grade science curriculum in several ways:

• Nitrogen Cycle - farmers use the waste of humans and animals to enrich their farmland by spraying the composted waste onto their crops to increase yields.
• Food Web - the waste in the sludge lagoon is decomposing with the help of bacteria; however, some of the waste will still be locked up into an unusable form for longer than it should by being concentrated in one area.
• Matter - How would you classify the substance of human sludge, animal waste, and partially digested foods?  Would this be a pure or unpure substance?  If it's unpure, what kind of mixture would this be - heterogeneous or homogeneous?
• Periodic Table - The gases that would be released through the decomposition of the matter include elements that will be studied through the periodic table.  The gases include, for example, hydrogen sulfide (H2S), methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2), and ammonia (NH3).
• Water Cycle and Watersheds: How would a leaking sludge lagoon affect the water table in this community?  Which watershed would a flooding sewage lagoon affect in Central Ohio?

What are the pros and cons of creating a sewage lagoon? Read the following articles to form your own opinion!

• Beware of On-Farm Manure Storage Hazards 
• Pollution from Giant Livestock Farms Threaten Health
• Cesspools of Shame: How Factory Farm Lagoons and Sprayfields Threaten Environmental and Public Health
• The Nitrogen Cycle
• Interactive Nitrogen Cycle - Virtual Farm
• Catch 22 - The Plight of the Farmer who Accepts Sludge

Asteroid and Meteorites - Oh, My!

This week we started discussing the atmosphere - which gases make up the atmosphere, the layers that protect us, and also greenhouse gases.  Students were really drawn into the two current events that related to the atmosphere, which are embedded above.  First, the students had heard about the asteroid passing near Earth today, so we watched the video clip earlier this week to answer any burning questions.  Then, this morning students heard about the meteorites falling in Russia.  Relating what we are studying to real life occurrences will hopefully increase interest in our current content area and help students realize how important our atmosphere really is to human life.

Atmosphere Rap

Students have been studying the components and layers of the atmosphere during the last two weeks.  This background knowledge will help them understand the importance of the ozone layer and greenhouse gases.  It will also provide students with a base of knowledge for when we start discussing weather in depth as the troposphere is the layer of the atmosphere where all the weather occurs.

Below you will find the Atmosphere Rap, which is a fun rap that helps students remember what happens in the layers of the atmosphere.