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Plants in the Classroom
Succession
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Conserve: Recycling 
- Paper is
collected from classrooms every week by students.....
- Drink
bottles
(aluminum, plastic, and glass) are collected in large containers
throughout the campus as well as in each classroom, then
gathered weekly.
- Any discarded
 bound
material (old books)
are collected for our county to pick up and recycle
once a semester...
- This student led initiative
has, as of January 2011, completed its seventh consecutive
successful semester! A big thanks to the classes that have
involved themselves with such a noble service. What an
example you have set! We are now filling up an 8 cubic
yard dumpster every two weeks with recyclable paper products.
Six large roll-out carts of bottles are also being recycled
every two weeks. That's a LOT of plastic, glass, and
aluminum being saved from the landfill and being reused.
BRAVO!
Restore: Forestry
- Do you know what happens when a piece of property is allowed
to "revert back to nature?" That is, if you quit mowing
it, or keeping it paved or built on or whatever you would do to
manipulate it...... just let it go..... what would it look like
one year later? Five years later? Fifty years
later!? This process is called SUCCESSION. Rock Hill
High School has created a demonstration of this phenomenon right
in its own front yard! Students will chronicle each
semester how this property is changing; what plants and animals
appear, how adjacent property is affected, etc.
The shaded area at the
top left is where the Succession Plots will be allowed to
grow.
On September 29, 2009, the Biology 1 Honors classes conducted the
first field
study of the first plot area. The next day, September 30,
2009, most of the area was tilled.
Later, we roped off the area to establish boundaries. This
helps show people that it's not to be walked in or mowed.
Download Field Study Form
for succession plot...
Scroll through the following pictures
to see who was involved for the first two semesters...
Measuring and staking out the first succession plot A group shot after the field analysis Checking out the initial characteristics of the site Roughing it up a little... Jacob and Leslie help rope off the plot. The second analysis begins with Block 2 students. Tad tries to escape, but the rope's too high... Liz and Ginny have to do all the work. Block 3 makes their way to the plot... 3rd block, assembled in front of 9 months growth...
Measuring and staking out the first succession plot
As of January 2011, we have improved our succession plot by
replacing the stake/rope border with a larger zone that is fenced.
Reports: Fall 2009,
Spring 2010
Protect: Water
With the help of a "Champions
of the Environment" grant from DHEC in the fall of 2010, we were
able to initiate another conservation effort on the campus of RHHS.
Beside the reforestation area (succession plots above) runs a nice
creek. By fencing off a zone on either side of the 380' length
of the creek, we hope to encourage vegetation and new animal species
to flourish. This will aid in erosion reduction and improved
water purification. This "wetland" area includes fencing,
signage, and a new bridge over the creek. A BIG "Thank You"
goes to Zack Miller, a RHHS freshman who graciously took on the
installation of this endeavor as an Eagle Scout project in January
2011. With the help of some of his friends and family, the
project has advanced beautifully.
Champions of the Environment shot a commercial spot about our
project. It is airing in Columbia and Charleston. Download it
HERE.
The project called for the expansion of the succession plots
(orange) along with the fencing off of the creek bed (blue).
Another new bridge (red) will accommodate the cross-country team as
well as others.
This creek is home to various species of plants, animals, protists,
algae, etc.
With this project, we hope to increase that diversity as well as
clean the water.
Zack, with help from his dad, Mike,
drills for the first fence post.
The work goes faster when help
arrives...
Comporium Communications graciously
donated 3 large telephone poles for our new bridge.
Zack gets the new bridge started on a good footing...
Other noble endeavors we have
undertaken:
Composting
- The natural decomposition of organic matter is essential for
nutrients to be returned to the soil for plants and other
organisms to use. Bacteria are the workhorse of this
process. This vital function of nature can be harnessed
and used quite efficiently with just a little education on how
to expedite the process. The following sources are
recommended:
- Vermiculture: Other
organisms like to get in on the eating, too. Along with
the regular composting material like food scraps, red wiggler
worms
(Eisenia foetida) just love to eat paper. Yes,
paper. Newspaper and cardboard are their favorite!
Their castings, combined with the decomposed organic matter,
create the best garden soil nature can provide. Read about
them here:
Constructing our own worm bins:
At the beginning of the fall 2009 semester, students in groups of
about 5 started their own worm bins, with a plastic tub, strips of
wet newspaper, a smidgen of soil, a few food scraps, and about a
pound of red wigglers. Throughout the semester, they have been
keeping care of the worms, adding scraps of food to vary the worms'
diet. Now that the semester is almost over, we're going to do
two things:
a) harvest our worms to find out which groups have created the best
environment for the most reproduction (who has the most worms!)
b) collect our compost to use in the potting up of rooted
houseplants we began at the beginning of the semester. (see below)
On December 17th, we harvested our worms and collected the
compost material.
 
- Bokashi: Problem:
When you read enough about composting, one warning keeps popping
up...don't put any meats, cheeses, etc. into your compost bin!
Why? Because it takes a long time for these materials to
decompose. In the interim they will become putrid and
quite malodorous. Also, unwanted pests and vermin will be
attracted to it.
Solution? Dr. Teuro Higa developed a way to "ferment"
these type products, making it suitable to then compost.
Learn about good microbes/bad microbes and how you can do this
yourself. My friend at
VermiDirt Farms has the scoop (and starter cultures).
Use a standard 5 gal. bucket. A Gamma Seal lid makes
opening/closing easy while maintaining and airtight anaerobic
environment.
Plants in the Classroom
 
To add plants to more classrooms in our school, we propagated
houseplants during the fall 2009 semester.
They were grown under grow lights in the back of our class. We
used recycled vegetable cans from our cafeteria and from home, along
with the compost from our worm bins, to pot up these plants and give
to the teachers at RHHS. This helped provide some greenery
along with some fresh oxygen in the classrooms!
Our focus turned from clean air to clean food in the spring 2010
semester. Students grew their own vegetables from seed and
took home.
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a pile of vegetation scraps by 95%. Not only that, but the
presence of this species can actually drive away nuisance flies.
The life cycle is fascinating for these creatures. The
adults live only about a week and don't even have mouth parts.
They just mate, lay eggs, and die. It's the larval stage
that does the work...