ペアプロジェクト　　コンポスト（堆肥）

「ミミズは生ゴミを食べて土にもどす。」と人々は言います。
本当かどうかを確かめるために、コンポストについて実験してみることにしました。

They say, “the earthworm eats garbage and turn it to a soil.”
To see if it’s true, we are going to carry out an experimentation of compost.


11月22日（月）　ミミズ集めから実験は始まる

子どもたちのねらいは運動場と芦城公園の境、松の落ち葉がたくさん落ちているところ。
または垣根の影になって土のやわらかいところ。
土を掘ってみると、いました。いました。
「おーい、こっちに大きいのいたぞ。｣
梯川の河川敷で大きなミミズを見つけ、捕まえてとっておいたもの、
そして先生の家のコンポストの底にいたミミズと合わせて、40匹ぐらいになりました。

First, we tried to catch the earthworms.
Our target is to get 40 of those.
We don’t know where the earthworms live, so we dug a soil in a park.
However, the earthworm wasn’t there at all.
Then we thought that the earthworms are usually in the corner of playground.
There are a plants and garden with fallen leaves and soft soil are at the corner of the playground.
We found many earthworms at there.


11月24日（水）　観察の開始

ジップロックの中に、条件を変えたコンポストを準備し、
各ジップロックには、分解者としてミミズを３びきずつ入れました。

�@　土の採集場所を変える。（落ち葉等を同じ条件で入れたもの）　稚松小学校（１）チーム　

�A　有機物を加える。　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　 　稚松小学校（2）チーム

The details about experimentation.
We decided to go on the experiment with these two factors:
“Change the types of a soil” and “change the types of a food”

There are five types of soils:
soil of rice field, farm, playground,mud at the bottom of a river, and soil of a dike.

We selected eight types of food:
food for rabbit, bread and rice,root of a tree,mushroom,
moss, vegetable waste, leaf of a pine, and fallen leaf.

On November twenty fourth, we started the experiment.
We prepared each container for two cups of soil and three earthworms inside it.


12月１８日（土）　観察

	運動場の土は見てもさわっても粒があらく ザラザラした感じ。 「こんな土にもミミズは生きていた。」と 歓声。
	松の葉をえさに選んだ子は、10ｃｍ以上に なるミミズの大きさに大感激。
	芦城公園に生きていたきのこをえさに 選んだＴ君。きのこのかけらに食らいつく ミミズにびっくり。
	じっくり土を動かしながら観察すると、こんな 小さなベイビーがいました。

�@土の採取場所

�A有機物を加える

On December eighteenth, first observation.

We observed if earthworms ate some food.
In the different types of soil, it came up like this.

Even in the rough playground soil, the earthworms were alive!
However, the amount of fallen leaves and rice straw did not change.

We found a lot of holes in the fallen leaves in the container of earthworms
inside the soil of the field,
There were many small lumps of soil.

In the soil of farm, it smelled bad like the rice straw might change chemically.

The earthworms inside the mud of Kakehashi river ate only the fallen leaves.





Next, we are going to explain about an experiment of the difficult types of food.

The earthworms that use to eat mushroom stick with mushrooms!
We were surprised with it.

The earthworms that use to eat the leaves of a pine were about four inches big.

The earthworms that use to eat moss, we found baby earthworms
that is about half inch!
We were surprised how small the baby was.



１月２１日（金）　観察

�@土の採取場所

田んぼの土の中のミミズ

水をかけるとおもしろいように動く

�A有機物を加える

The observation on January twenty first

For the experiment of the different types of soil

In the soil in the rice field, one earthworm born.
It’s a white earthworm. We could see something like blood vessel.
The fallen leaves crumbled with many holes.

For the Kakehashi river’s dike soil, the root of a grass didn’t change.
We didn’t see the fallen leaves there.




For the experiment of different types of food,

The amount of food for rabbit almost didn’t change at all.
It only had some soil on the surface of it
and it has been kept the shape just like before.

The earthworms that eat bread and rice disappeared!
Maybe they run away form the open part of a container.
The bread and rice gone too.
Some soil got curled up.

２月１６日(水）　観察

枯れ葉のにおいがする。	田んぼの土 コロコロがだんだん大きくなって きた。	葉っぱのえさはほとんど食べ られてもうない。 わらしか残っていない。 梯川の底の土なのに、 団子のようになっていた。
ミミズはしめったところにたくさん いた。 あまくさい土のにおい。	枯れ葉のにおいがした。 待つが前よりやわらかくてびっくり。	ジャガイモの芽が1月より大きく なってきた。
コロコロの団子がまた大きくなって いた。	小さいコロコロがたくさん。

�@土の採取場所

�A有機物を加える

The observation on February sixteenth,

The soil of the rice field.
The number of lumped soil increased. It got bigger and bigger.

The soil of the farm.
Smelled something sweet. The color of the soil was black.
The lump got bigger. Many earthworms were at the humid place.

Mud of the Kakehashi river.
The fallen leaves were all gone. Only the rice straws were left.
Even the mud in the bottom of the river shape like a ball.


For the experiment of the different types of food,

The earthworms that eat root of a tree and grass.
There were many small lumps. The roots were all gone.

The mushrooms
It smelled like spoiled tomato.
Crumbed part were stick with the soil.

The vegetable waste only remained the peel.
The bud that began to glow on December has been doing very good.

The leaves of the pine.
there were some small lumps about one through two millimeter.
It smelled good with the soils. The leaves got softer.

コンポストの実験をして

梯川の水の中に水生生物がいるように、土の中にもミミズやダンゴロムシ、小さな虫がたくさんいた。
生き物はいろいろなところにたくさんいるんだ。
ミミズは生ゴミを食べると聞いていたけれど、実験して確かめることができた。
ミミズはやわらかいものが好き。わらより落ち葉。きのこやこけ。
ジャガイモの実はなくなっていたけれど、ミミズが育っている土は森林のいいにおいがした。
ミミズを探すこともつまんで実験することもいやだったけれど、観察しているととてもかわいくなってきた。
えさがどう変化するか観察するより、ミミズに夢中になってしまった。


ミミズのことを調べて

コロコロ団子はミミズのふんがお互いにくっつきあったものらしい。
これが畑の土には、とてもよい肥料となるらしい。
じっけんしたつちはどれもコロコロができてきた。

About the experiment of the compost.

There are many kind of lives such as earthworms and other small warms in the soil,
just like a water lives, larvae, mayflies and planarian in the Kakehashi river.
We realized that there are many lives in many places such as flowers, grass, in the water and in the soil.

We confirmed that the story the earth warms eat vegetable waste.
We also found that they like soft food rather than hard one. They started eat soft food.
They like fallen leaves, mushrooms and moss better than rice straw.
We found only peel of a potato. It has been left and dried. 

“Forest is important” That’s what we learned,
but the soil where the earthworm grow smelled like fallen leaves in the forest.

At the beginning, we felt bad feeling to find and catch the earthworms.
However, during the experiment, we felt it is cute.
We were enthusiastic taking care of it than observing how foods are changed.

It seems that the soil ball is made of poop of the earthworms.
This seems to be a good fertilizer for farm.
We found the soil ball in all type of soils.