Keep America Beautiful Webinars

Keep America Beautiful is conducting educational webinars with topics covering issues of interest for our affiliates and partners.

Vermicomposting in Schools

Vermicomposting is a process that relies on earthworms and microorganisms to help stabilize active organic materials and convert them to a valuable soil amendment and source of plant nutrients. Earthworms will consume most organic materials, including food preparation residuals and leftovers, scrap paper, animal manure, agricultural crop residues, organic byproducts from industries, and yard trimmings. This webinar, presented by Rhonda L. Sherman, Extension Specialist, Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering, North Carolina State University, and organized by Keep America Beautiful and the US Composting Council, provides information and resources about vermicomposting organic materials in your school or classroom.

Having a worm bin in your classroom can provide several exciting, hands-on learning experiences. In this session, you'll learn how to make an inexpensive worm bin and use it as a teaching tool for math, language arts, science, history, art, and more. Some schools even have larger bins to feed their lunchroom waste to worms!

*The material in the Vermicomposting in Schools webinar is copyright protected and cannot be reproduced for any reason without express written consent from Rhonda L. Sherman.

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NOTE: Large file (61.0MB)

Composting: What It Is ... Why It Matters

In this webinar, produced in partnership with the US Composting Council and CURC, the College & University Recycling Coalition, two experts in the field of compost will provide an overview of "what it is and why it matters."

David Crohn, Ph.D. Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of California-Riverside, provided an overview of the variety of agronomic benefits derived from using compost. He described the physical, chemical and biological benefits of the products that you either are -- or will be -- producing, so that you know what your compost has to offer to prospective users. Al Rattie, the US Composting Council Market Development & STA Program Manager, followed with a presentation explaining the various uses for your compost and the most common market segments that are using compost now. He also briefly described the USCC's STA Program.

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NOTE: Large file (50.3MB)

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Composting 101: What, Why and How

In this webinar, we will introduce the art and science of composting, including:

• Why compost? What are the benefits and challenges?
• What can be composted?  What can't be?  How do you get the stuff you want composted to the compost pile?
• How does composing work?  What is the biology of a compost pile?  How do you manage the pile? What equipment does it take?
• This will include a survey of composting methods, from the very small to the huge.

Moderator: Kelley Dennings, Director, Recycling Programs & Services, Keep America Beautiful. Panelists: Cary Oshins, Director of Education and Outreach, United States Composting Council; Dr. Robert Rynk, Associate Professor, Department of Agricultural Engineering Technology, SUNY-Cobleskill.

Download webinar
(Universal MP4 format)
Right-click (PC) or Ctrl+Click (MAC) to download for best viewing.
NOTE: Large file (50.3MB)

Download presentation slides (MB PDF)

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