*** Sent by: "Robert D. Wallace 926-7125" <WALLACR@mail.firn.edu>
*** Via Global Lab mailing list: gl-hello@terc.edu
*** Intended for: BIS Introductory Message Activity
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We have environmental science. Our first period class buried 26 items to check for decomposition
within a year's time. It is located near the school's track between a big
hole and a fence that contains horses on the other side of the fence. We
had to dig through grass and ran into ants while digging the trench.

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*** Sent by: Barbara Tinker <bartinker@igc.apc.org>
*** Via Global Lab mailing list: gl-reflections@terc.edu
*** Intended for: Members of 1994 gl-reflections mailing list
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The message from Wakulla made me wonder what would happen if
GL classes were to bury a common object during the Inventory,
Then we could compare our findings and see if we see latitude
effects, etc. Can anyone think of a good common object
to bury? A way to measure its deomposition? Any bright student
interested in heading this one up? Barbara
-------------------------------
*** Sent by: rborstsc@igc.apc.org (Rich Borst)
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Sept 29
I was thinking about something more organic. What about an apple
or a lettuce leaf.
Rich Borst
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-
Topic 141 [gl-reflections] Burying trash Response 1 of 1
bartinker Global Lab Teacher Reflection 6:26 PM Oct 2, 1994

How about pairing an apple with something that degrades less,
for comparison? Apple, paperbag, plastic bag...

Topic 142 [gl-reflections] burial 1 response
AMLWR Global Lab Teacher Reflection 8:24 PM Oct 2, 1994
(at tundra.alaska.edu)

From: LARRY W READ <AMLWR@tundra.alaska.edu>
Re: What to bury?

Let's bury the items in a long trench 24 inches deep.
The items can include:
something wooden (unpainted)
something wooden (painted)
writing paper
card board (piece from TERC's mailing box)
alum. foil
waxed paper
gum
something plastic
something glass
disposable diaper
newspaper
cigarette
candy (unwrapped)
something cotton
tin can
bread
something polyester
something wool
a red apple

Map the location of each item. Maybe make the trench 8 - 10 inches
wide
Elizabeth Chura, Manhattan, Montana
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*** Sent by: Linda Maston <lmaston@tenet.edu>
*** Via Global Lab mailing list: gl-reflections@terc.edu
*** Intended for: Members of 1994 gl-reflections mailing list
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TWENTY FOUR INCHES DEEP!!!!??????? This IS a joke, I hope. That's well
into the limestone bedrock that makes up most of this part of Texas.

Actually, isn't this just amazing?! What is so simple and obvious to one
site is totally impossible and/or unrealistic at another. Larry Read
doesn't care WHAT it is just as long as its SOON because he's about to
freeze over. As for me, there is no way in creation that I can even FIND
24 inches of soil anywhere in all of South Texas, much less bury
anything in it! I'll be doing good to get 6 inches.

Ah well, lets keep at this though.

Sincerely,
--Linda
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*** Sent by: LARRY W READ <AMLWR@tundra.alaska.edu>
*** Via Global Lab mailing list: gl-reflections@terc.edu
*** Intended for: Members of 1994 gl-reflections mailing list
---------------------------------------------------------------
Whatever we bury let's decide pretty quick! It's getting cold up here!
Had a good hard frost last week and we can get "sticking" snow (that could
"stick" until April) any time now. The organic idea is good but if it
decomposes too much how would we recover it to do measurements. Would
newspaper decompose a little more that a paper bag? Who knows?
By the was "Phantom of the Opera" is wonderful!
Larry Read
AMLWR Global Lab Teacher Reflection 10:44 PM Oct 4, 1994
(at tundra.alaska.edu)

From: LARRY W READ <AMLWR@tundra.alaska.edu>

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*** Sent by: LARRY W READ <AMLWR@tundra.alaska.edu>
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Right on , Linda. Although it looks like the weather is giving us
a short reprieve. Got all the way up to 56 today. THAT IS WARM FOR
OCTOBER. I am going to finally get around to survey my classes
tomorrow (that's today for some of you already!). Too any things to do
and not anywhere close to enough time to get the things done that
need to get done.

Made up mailing labels tonight that I am going to use to identify the
"pins" on my global lab map. Right now I have 20 "official" pins. I've
been looking at that Quiz of Barbara's and I'm really going to have to
get my kids on it. I do not remember all the places and I have been reading
all fo the mail.!.

Have a great evening and a even greater Wednesday.
Until tomorrow evening.
Larry Read

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*** Sent by: Elizabeth Chura <bozemanmt@igc.apc.org>
*** Via Global Lab mailing list: gl-reflections@terc.edu
*** Intended for: Members of 1994 gl-reflections mailing list
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Common Sense

Perhaps in areas that have
granite like soil, a mound system would
solve the problem of going below the
surface of this earth. Covering the
items with 24 inches of soil is the goal.
Perhaps going up instead of down can accomplish the
same thisngs. This allow locations that
are already frozen to start this project
in December. Or areas of rock to be able
to participate anytime. Probably this is
how S. Texas landfills are functioning.
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*** Sent by: maplelakemn@igc.apc.org (Keith Leiseth)
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Dear Elizabeth,
Good to hear from you again this year!
I am confused, however, pertaining to your burying things in
Montana soil and then expecting them to decompose.
Here in Minnesota, things decompose or wash away to Iowa before
we have time to bury them, thanks to the high humidity and
abundant rainfall and abundant snowfall and abundant hail and
abundant sleet and abundant drizzle and abundant fog and abundant
snirt (That's snow and dirt blowing in from the Dakotas.).

In August while visiting our son in Missoula, we nearly lost our
motor home in a flash grass fire and witnessed the smoke from
forest fires and were told by a ranger that Montana is so dry
that a spark landing on a blade of grass or a leaf when the sun
is shining on it had a 96% chance of starting a fire. Now how do
you expect things to decompose without any moisture? Is that
called dry rot?

Looking forward to a great year with you!
Keith Leiseth, Science Teacher
Patty Leiseth, Technology Coordinator
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*** Sent by: "Barbara Tinker" <Barbara_Tinker@qm.terc.edu>
*** Via Global Lab mailing list: gl-reflections@terc.edu
*** Intended for: Members of 1994 gl-reflections mailing list
---------------------------------------------------------------

Linda Maston's response reminded me that telecommunications
can be such a VIVID way to learn science! No one now will ever
forget that top soil varies radically with geographic area, that it is in
-short supply in Texas, and easily washed away in Minnesota.

But we better get this Burial Party underway before our Alaskan
colleagues have to chip their way through the groundcover. Why
not bury whatever possible of Elizabeth Chura's items-a great list
-, including the red apple, at 6 inches, and another set, where possible at
12 inches and 24. Maybe individual students would like to be
responsible for the extra layers, made in adjacent trenches. Mark
them well! If you can take Linda Maston's idea, if possible, lay a
mesh over the objects, We can pool ideas for ways to make more
of this topic in the classroom. I KNOW Shirley Griffin is studying
compost and can help out. Lynn Margolis is the local expert on
microbes, and could help too.

Mind you, this is for the curious only! Elizabeth's list is long, so just
do what you can, IF you can.
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*** Sent by: Maryknoll High School <mknollhs@igc.apc.org>
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*** Intended for: Members of 1994 gl-reflections mailing list
---------------------------------------------------------------
Larry,
Can you imagine that we here in Honolulu feel like its the middle of summer.
For many weeks our temperatures were in the 90s and even as high as 95,
all record-breaking temperatures. Today, it was more reasonable at 85.

Rich's idea of burying an apple or a lettuce leaf may be good.. perhaps
we all have access to these. Now we can be more specific: red aples?
green apples? golden apples? what size? by mass? by volume? After all
the rate of decomposition may be affected by size or by the mere nature
of the material.

If we measure the soil temperature at the depth the objects are buried
then perhaps we can factor that in too. How about the pH? and moisture
content? Am I getting carried away?
I'll propose the project to my class tomorrow and find out what they
think.

Linda has a point too. How deep then, reasonably, should we bury the
objects? I am not sure how deep we can dig up the "yard" in school..
the landscapers might object to even digging!

Aloha!
Consuelo Rogers
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*** Sent by: Linda Maston <lmaston@tenet.edu>
*** Via Global Lab mailing list: gl-reflections@terc.edu
*** Intended for: Members of 1994 gl-reflections mailing list
---------------------------------------------------------------

I just got home from the Gulf Coast Association of Geological Sciences
conference up in Austin, about 125 miles from my door to the hotel's
door. While I was driving, Elizabeth's soil depth keep "surfacing", so
on my way home I decide to take advantage of the roadcuts that the Highway Department so graciously and generously provides geologists
(well, OK, so maybe its not their prime mission, but it SHOULD be!) I
made 15 stops at various roadcuts through our wonderful Cretaceous
limestone. The average depth of "soil" worked out to be 4.25 inches.
The deepest I encountered was close enough to 8 inches to call it that

Then I got to thinking about the history of this part of Texas, which is
referred to as the Hill Country and the Edwards Plateau. It was
actually one of the last areas settled because of lack of water. What
REALLY opened the area up to settlement was the invention of hard-rock
drilling. The water was there, but it couldn't be reached. Remember
now, although San Antonio is a very old town (it is essentially the same
age as Concord, Massachusetts), that is a very small part of the present
city. It currently takes me 25 miles from my school at the southern end
before I leave town at the northern end.

From there I got to remembering that this part of Texas does not, for any
practical purposes have any agriculture. It is all ranching. And again,
that made sense when I started measuring the depth of soils around the
area. There's really nothing to plant anything in!

So that got me thinking about what we DO to work around that. And the
answer became clear when I remembered all the construction going on in my
neighborhood. ALL yards are artificial. That is, the topsoil is brought
in from who-knows-where. But it sure isn't local! And that is a standard
procedure EVERYWHERE around here. Then I recalled why my neighbor
decided against putting in a swimming pool. Its because basically,
around here putting in a pool is a quarrying operation.

And while its true that we are the lucky recipients of alot of the nations
low-level toxic wastes, its partially because of the fact that it IS a
quarry operation. But remember, limestone is pretty soft to cut, so its
not like quarrying through nothing but igneous rocks that are in other
parts of the state. West Texas receives alot of the waste as well. Part
of that reason is because there's simply not enough people out there to
complain loudly enough to make a difference. (can you imagine what it
must be like when your grocery shopping requires a 2 day trip!? Probably
Larry Read can.) Plus, to be honest, that is nearly 800 miles from here. So
it may sound as if its in my backyard, but I do have a rather BIG
backyard!

At any rate, its interesting to read about all the differences in climate
and soil. And as I like to remind my biologist friends when they get to
harassing me about collecting my rocks and sands, if it weren't for MY
rocks, there wouldn't be any of THEIR biology! (smile)

Most sincerely
Linda Maston

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