Today we invited Mrs. Easterly's second grade class to join us as we did an experiment involving items that decompose in a landfill. We paired up one or two second graders with two fourth graders for our lab work. Our materials included: plastic cups, plastic balls, water, shredded newspaper, popcorn, starch packing pellets and foam packing pellets. We discussed what a landfill was and how things decompose. Then each group wrote a hypothesis and tested the materials individually. First we packed the newspaper around the ball in cup and filled it with water. We observed for three minutes and recorded our observations. These same steps were done for the popcorn, starch pellets and foam packing pellets. The shredded paper remained unchanged as did the foam pellets. The popcorn got mushy and the starch pellets REALLY altered in appearance. They nearly dissolved. We concluded that the starch pellets would decompose very well in a landfill. The popcorn didn't dissolve, but it wouldn't be harmful to the environment and would eventually decompose. The newspaper and the foam pellets were the "least friendly" toward the environment.
We concluded that we should use starch pellets when shipping anything and we should ask companies to consider using them also to help the environment. Great job second and fourth graders!
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