My school intends to embark on organic composting next year. As luck would have it, I came across a poster that invited parents to bring their children for a composting workshop. Of course, I signed up for it.

It was great to sit through the workshop with my two kids because I could readily acquire insights on how I would need to conduct similar workshops for my students at school in the future. I made a mental note to know which episode of Peppa Pig was leveraged as a teaser.

Sitting through the workshop also allowed me readily to brainstorm how I should incorporate the project into our science curriculum. For instance, third graders could be involved because they would learn about materials in Science. Hence, learning that plastics, metals and glass materials aren’t suitable for composting wont be too onerous on the part of the Science teacher.

Composting also enables the teacher to naturally sprinkle “microorganisms” into the lexicon for third graders since they learn that bacteria 🦠 are living things.

I particularly appreciated the hands-on activity in which my children were given packets of squeezed limes and orange peels and tasked to cut them into smaller pieces. This is to increase the amount of exposed
surface area for the microorganisms to act on. Fifth graders learn about exposed surfaces area area while learning about the water cycle, so this is a very natural extension of their learning.

I was surprised to learn that coconut husk is used in composting. I instantly wondered which is a better raw material — coconut husk or sawdust? Perhaps you can answer me.

Another takeaway that I got from this workshop is that black soldiers flies are best for converting fresh food leftovers to compost. However, I need to put in place netting so that the flies don’t escape the enclosed area and “terrorize” the students. Also, black soldier flies tend not to live very long, so it is okay if they fly out of their “working area”.

Bonus: my son brought home some freshly-made compost to be used as soil to kickstart his apple orchard project. He went up to my principal the other day to ask if apple trees could be grown in school!

Thank you, Tzu Chi Humanitarian Youth Centre, for organising this workshop. My children and I benefitted immensely.