Saving the World by Saving the Soil

Grade 3/4

Code Red! Code Red!

News just in from the President of the United States: A terrible disease has started to spread throughout the world. It is believed that this disease could hurt every living thing on Earth’s surface, leaving no human or plant life alive and leaving poor soils.

Your Mission:

You and a small group of other scientists have been called together to create an underground city that will house you and 500 other people from around the world. This city will need to survive underground for one year to make sure the disease that spread over Earth’s surface is gone. Your task is to create a report for the President, which has a number of difference parts. You will need to include:

The title of the report, your name (names if working with a partner), to whom you are addressing the report and your scientific findings, which will include:

1. What kinds of food you will need to take that will create the least amount of waste.

2. What you will do with your trash (is there any way you can use your trash as a resource?).

3. Since there will not be a large amount of room underground, you may pick one type of small living thing to bring with you that you feel will help you the most while underground and help you create new soil and grow new plants when you get back to the surface.

Your Journey:

Here are a few places you can look to for help:

The Adventures of Herman	This is a great site to use to learn about one type of living thing that may be useful to you. Search around the whole site and see what you think!
Worm World	This is another great site that may be helpful. Check out the part about worms as recyclers.

If you are still interested in finding more information on your challenge, go to Yahooligans and type in these words:

- composting

- worms

- worm bins

Thank you for your time and effort. The President of the United States looks forward to your report.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to email me.