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Break It Down: 5th Graders are Crazy about Composting By Lauren Maples Fifth grade students at Clayton Elementary have been learning about environmental stewardship and how to give back to the land by turning their food waste into nutrient-rich soil. Teacher Marti Adair’s science classes have been studying about composts and are now leading a school-wide composting program. The students are maintaining tri-level worm bins (vermi-composting) in her science classes. Every Thursday each grade level contributes their cafeteria scraps to the bins. The fifth graders advocate for the program by making posters and presenting what they have learned about composting to all the other classes in the school. During Clayton’s biweekly news broadcast, students give composting tips and poundage updates. Just  four days into the program, they had already diverted 200 pounds of food scraps from the landfill! The compost will be used in the class gardens, including the fifth  graders’ spring vegetable and butterfly-attracting gardens.   Thrilled with the success of the program, Mrs. Adair says, “The kids love putting  their contributions into our ‘Mean, green, composting machines!’”  She adds, “The learning is far-reaching. Parents have stopped me in the hall or emailed me about how their kids want to start a compost program at home.  It's giving with an environmental twist.” << more success stories