Soil Charlotte Katie Cady

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Teen Bacteria

Letter from the Editor Editor: Katie Over all I loved the soil unit. I loved all the opportunities we had to get our hands (and body’s) dirty. The field trips were a lot of fun and gave us a chance to get outside and get some fresh air. I learned a lot about soil, more than I ever thought I would know.

I learned a lot about our environment and how simple changes would affect our ecosystem. I also learned how to take care of our environment.

All the opportunities to get our hands dirty were amazing. We got to stick our hands in the compost/ bat poop at the community garden. On the day we did our rotations around campus we got really dirty. First I weeded the rain gardens and got a bunch of dirt under my finder nails. Next I got to play with compost worms at the compost station. At every station my hands got dirtier and dirtier.

After working with the worms I got to go plat strawberries, make newspaper pots, and make seed bombs. The strawberry plant and making the newspaper pots were cool, but making the seed bombs was absolutely amazing. You got to mix together poppy seeds, clay, and water. It made the mushy and gooey mess, but it was fabulous.

My hands look like they got a fake tan once I tried to wash the clay off my fingers, but I loved it.

Once I was done washing my hands I made my way over to the commons to plant an herb garden. Here I did not do much. I sat in the bushes and turned on and off the water for the people. While my hand didn’t get dirty, my butt sure did. It still was a lot of fun. The rotation day was sure the best.

I really enjoyed all the field trips. Going outside was so much fun when we are usually stuck in a classroom all day. It is always good for us to get fresh air. It is also a plus that it was really sunny because I got really tan. Just in time for swimsuit season. I also really liked having the PE field trip at the same time; it allowed us to take mores pictures to add in our magazine. I would not change anything about the field trips.

Like I said before I learned a lot about soil in this unit, more than I thought I ever would. All the learning I experienced gave me a new perspective on the soil we step on. Before I called it dirt, and thought it was there to annoy me. Now I call it soil, and look at it as a selfsustaining environment. I also feel like the magazine pro-

ject is perfect for letting us show what we learned in a creative way. I really enjoyed thinking of ideas for our magazine, and being creative as possible.

I really enjoyed the soil unit. Personally I liked it better than the water unit. I would not change a thing besides the shortened lunches.

We are growing teenage girls and we need a long time for to eat. Good thing there wasn’t any boys because then you would have really been in trouble. But besides from that everything was absolutely amazing.

Teen Bacteria

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Letter from the Editor Editor: Charlotte This past week has been the soil unit. Throughout the soil unit our grade explored and learned things about soil I never knew before. During the course of the soil unit we had a lot of fun experiences as a grade and within our small groups. Some of these experiences included learning about victory gardens, felid trips, creating digital soil magazines, enjoyable gardening rotations, writing homework essays and working in groups.

Victory gardens were a subject of great inspiration for me. Hearing and learning about all the community’s that had planted, harvested, and cared for all their fruits and vegetables made me long for a victory garden in my community. Maybe someday I can start one of my own. From my past gardening experience I know that when you grow something yourself it tastes three times as good than the store bought food. I imagine how amazing it would be to have every fruit or vegetables you ever ate was grown by yourself or someone you knew. That’s the kind of system I hope for someday.

was almost like a creation that came pretty easily to us instead of a giant project we had to stress about the entire unit. It was really fun to think of amusing and entertaining pages. I really enjoyed this.

The garden rotations on Tuesday were a mixed experience for me.

For the most part the stuff we were doing was fun but I felt like we didn’t get enough time to really get fully into any of them. I had the best time potting strawberry and poppy plants and I can’t wait to start my own little garden.

Writing homework essays weren’t my favorite things in the world, just because, who likes writing essays?

But I can appreciate how they did help me get more into a concept than just a simple lecture. Although they were tiresome most of the time while writing them I learned new and amazing things I had never knew before. So I guess I didn’t mind them that much.

Working in small groups was the other favorite part of the experience. I loved working in small groups because I takes a bit of the stress of your should always knowing your partThe field trip parts of the soil unit were one my favorite. I like them ners have got your back. Also, my specific group worked really well tobecause they allowed us to not only just learn about the concepts but actu- gether. We were able incorporate just ally get hands on experience. I person- the right of fun and silliness but then ally feel like that teaches us about soil also use our times wisely and get good work done. We all worked really well when we are working in it rather than together and in the end were able to reading from a book. The field trips were also a way for us to get out of the create extra pages to our magazine inclassroom but still have it be a learning cluding game and couples sections. I had a great time! experience.

Overall I really enjoyed creating the digital soil magazine. For one, I was a way for us to be creative yet still have a sufficient amount of information within. Also, I liked how it

Overall I really enjoyed the soil unit. At the beginning of this week I believed soil was a lifeless being incapable of anything. Boy was I wrong.

Soil is much much much more than that

and all these experiences have helped me realize and learn about that. I was a fun and enlightening experience of its own.

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Te e n B a c t e r i a

Letter to the Editor Editor : Cady Over the past week the entire seventh grade has been doing the Soil Unit. In our small groups we’ve taken field trip and doing thing around our school, such as planting herb gardens. The Soil Unit taught me that soil and the organisms that live in soil are essential. Soil and plants are a food source for the millions organisms that live in soil; without soil, the food web would collapse. Soil is what grows our trees and all our plants. Without soil, our trees wouldn’t grow and our oxygen wouldn’t be okay to breath.

Soil also is what plants, such as fruits and vegetables, grow on.

Not only is soil essential to organisms, but also essential to us. Soil gives our food and oxygen; we couldn’t live without it.

a ball. You could then throw to keep think of something, I felt very relaxed after I had fin- the seed ball anywhere and grow poppies. ished walking through. If I could use one word to describe the garden it would be oasis.

Like someone said, it was like an oasis. There were busy streets all around the garden and it was in the middle of a city, yet it was so peaceful. You couldn’t hear the cars unless you were concentrating on the sound.

On the second to last day of the Soil Unit, we did five rotations. We planted a rain garden in the back of Mudd, like the seventh graders before us had, and then we learned about worms. Earthworms are an essential part to planet. It was surprising how something so small had a huge impact on us.

By far my favorite rotation was the tree walk. I learned the I learned a lot during names of several trees, learned the Soil Unit, but two things how to see of a tree wasn’t we did really stood out to me. healthy because of something One of the first field trips we that had been done to it, and took was to Arlington Garden. the conditions that had to be As part of our rotations, we good for a tree to grow. We walked through the labyrinth. planted strawberries in a differWhile we were walking, we ent rotation, and created seed were supposed to be concen- balls. You had to put seeds in a trating on something in our pot with a bit of clay. Before minds. While I quickly forgot the clay dried, you rolled it into

Te e n B a c t e r i a

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Seen Couples!

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Te e n B a c t e r i a

Photo Montage By: Cady Taraxacum, better known as

dandelions, are a flower native to Eurasia and North and South America. A dandelion flower head is composed of hundreds of smaller flowers and seed head. There are two types of dandelions, both edible in different ways. Dandelions are also great for gardens. Its taproot will bring up nutrients for some plants, and also add mineral and nitrogen to the soil. It is also known to release a gas that helps fruit ripen.

Roses are one of the most well known flowers.

There are over one hundred species of roses and grow all

over the world. The flower is usually large and colorful, the colors ranging from white to deep red. While the flower is very beautiful, the stem is often covered in rose thorns for protection.

Lilium, better known as lilies, are a flower that grows from a bulb. It has large prominent petals. Most species of lilies are native to the northern hemisphere. Lilies can also be used in food. The bulbs are edible, though some may be bitter. Certain species of Lilies are grown in China and are sold as a luxury or health food.

There are approximately 422 different species of geraniums. Geraniums can be found intemperate regions, in the mountains of the tropics, or in the eastern part of the Mediterranean region. Geraniums typically have five circular petals and can be pink, white, red or blue, though the most common color is red.

Te e n B a c t e r i a

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BABY PICTURES!

Before

After

Can you say exclusive!! Our editors have just recently unearthed this breathtaking image of world pop sensation Sally Sunflower as a toddler!!! This first image shows Sally as nothing more than a seed!

Info about sunflowers and their seeds: Sunflower plants are cultivated in Sunflower farms for their seeds. Refined Sunflower-seed oil is edible; sunflowers have 39 to 49% oil in the seed. Sunflower seed accounts for about 14% of the world production of seed oils (6.9 million metric tons in 1985-86) and about 7% of the oilcake and meal produced from oilseeds.

Sunflower oil is generally considered a premium oil because of its light color, high level of unsaturated fatty acids and lack of linoleic acid, bland flavor and high smoke points. Sunflower is the preferred and the most commonly used oil.

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Te e n B a c t e r i a

BABY PICTURES!

After

e r o f e B

Can you say exclusive!! Our editors have just recently unearthed this breathtaking image of world pop sensation Sally Sunflower as a toddler!!! This first image shows Sally as nothing more than a seed!

Info about sunflowers and their seeds: Sunflower plants are cultivated in Sunflower farms for their seeds.

Refined Sunflowerseed oil is edible; sunflowers have 39 to 49% oil in the seed.

Sunflower seed accounts for about 14% of the world production of seed oils (6.9 million metric tons in 1985-86) and about 7% of the oilcake and meal produced from oilseeds. Sunflower oil is generally consid-

ered a premium oil because of its light color, high level of unsaturated fatty acids and lack of linoleic acid, bland flavor and high smoke points.

Sunflower is the preferred and the most commonly used oil.

Te e n B a c t e r i a

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O r g a n i s m o f t h e Ye a r Our editors had a huge decision to make about who would be the organism of the year. I think we can all agree that they made the best decision by choosing bacteria. Head editor Katie states, “Bacteria are such a key part of our eco system that I can’t even think of any other organisms that come close to bacteria.”

While making this important decision they thought about these amazing traits of bacteria. For example, almost all of the food we consume today is eventually linked back the earth and soil.

There also a world crisis of soil loss and pollution.

As you can see soil is very important. Sadly soil around the world is slowly disappearing or becoming useless. We are constantly polluting and mistreating our soil. We are polluting our soil to a point where it is unusable, and we also constantly over use soil to a point where you can’t use it to your advantage any more. Farmers are using pesticides that pollute the soil, and they are over using the land so they can’t plant there anymore. This is a huge problem because like I said before without soil we would not be able to thrive as a species.

After our editors learned One reason bacteria is so that more about soil they felt like important is because it is a key the organism of the year award part of soil, and soil is one of the should go to an organism in soil. main parts of the survival of the Bacteria are able to perform an human species. Soil allows plants extremely wide range of chemical to grow and the human beings transformations, including degraneed to eat the plants. I know you dation of organic matter, suppresare probably saying what about sion, disease, and nutrient transmeat? Well the animals we eat, formations inside roots. After they eat plants. See how important learning these facts about bacteria soil is for our diet? Also the plants I assume you will agree with them. that grow from the soil supply us Bacteria help the soil in a with oxygen. Without oxygen we very wide range of ways. They would not be able to breathe, if we help with the degradation of ordon’t breathe we die. The soil also ganic matter, they help protect helps decompose animals and hudisease suppression, they help mans. Without the soil and the fight diseases, and they help prebacteria in the soil there would vent nutrient transformations inbe carcasses of rotting animals side roots. The degradation of orand humans all over unable to deganic matter means they breakcompose. down any waste that is on the top

of the soil and takes all the nutrients form the waste, then the give the nutrients to the soil and the plants around the bacteria. Without bacteria, plants and animals could not obtain the nutrients needed for them to survive.

As you can see, bacteria are essential to the Earth and our life. Bacteria and soil are what our food grows from. The animals we eat feed off of the plants that grow from soil. The plants that also grow from the soil supply us with oxygen. Bacteria help soil in so many ways. Bacteria help suppress and help fight diseases. Bacteria also helps break down waste matter that is on top of the soil.

This is why we chose bacteria as organism of the year.

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Te e n B a c t e r i a

Photo Montage By: Charlotte

Ms. Chabot Enjoys Nature!

April 5, 2013 Extremely famous scientist Ms. Chabot (who just released her first movie The World of Science) was seen strolling around the campus of Westridge School for Girls stopping to admire the plants and trees found there.

Te e n B a c t e r i a

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In this picture ( left) you can see Ms. Chabot with the Australian native Kangaroo Paw plant. Kangaroo Paws are brightly-colored, large, vividly colored, velvety flowers with no fragrance. Kangaroo Paws have a sturdy stem, which is a natural perch and makes them ideal flowers for birds. Fine, brightly colored hairs cover the flowers and are, sometimes, part of the stalk. A single Kangaroo Paw blooms on each stem during spring (August - October).

Kangaroo Paws make very good cut flowers and ornamentals.

Kangaroo Paws are exported widely globally and are grown commercially in the USA, Israel and Japan.

The Kangaroo Paw's shape and the position of the pollen-bearing anthers enable pollen to deposit on the head of the feeding birds. Pollen is transferred in the Kangaroo Paw from flower to flower as the birds feed.

In this picture (top; right) Ms. Chabot cradles the exquisite Oxalis flower. Oxalis plants, also known as shamrock plants, are members of the wood sorrel family and are not related to true shamrocks. They were given this name because of their clover-shaped foliage.

Oxalis leaves can be found in colors of green, purple, red or a combination of these colors.

White, yellow, pink or red flowers appear once or twice per year. Oxalis is almost exclusively grown indoors, where it is easy to care for and requires minimal maintenance to thrive.

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Teen Bacteria

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Teen Bacteria

Who Wore it Better

76%

24%

Which Poppy Wore it Better

35%

65%

Which Rose Wore it Better

45%

55%

Which Daisy Wore it

13%

87% Which Tulip

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Teen Bacteria

Poems Madness

I will not back down.

I just sit there for a while

I am mad.

No, I am a fiery ball of rage!

This earth

How dare they!

This soil Is not theirs to cover up

I, who have always walked upon the

It is for everyone

soil,

Because it is everyone

I, Who have always felt the organic

It’s all of our contributions

matter,

We have made this world

Along with the thousands of organ-

Our own

isms living in it

-Charlotte

Underneath my feet I refuse to be tricked into this!!

The Hill I take my last step up the hill

The big businesses are trying to replace The good cold earth With marble floors and Wooden decks, Skyscrapers and apartments Until there is nothing left

it is as if I have entered another world flowers of every color surround me sitting down in the shade and feeling the cool marble and my burning arms is a whole new level of happiness closing my eyes I take a deep breath in

I will not allow them to get away

and smell a sweet hint of fresh jasmine

with this!

that smell alone makes my feel

I yell and shout!

as if I have been transported to paradise

Let the whole world hear!

perfectly content and happy with the world almost as if just my presence here has created a barrier that blocks all bad thoughts and feelings from my mind so that all is left is peace and balance

around me I hear the blurred chatter of birds nearby the wind brushing through the slowly swaying leaves now, back in my room, if I close my eyes I can almost hear it the sound of contentment that is now clobbered and drowned by fear, anxiety and regret - Charlotte

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Teen Bacteria

Poems Garden Above me is an umbrella that is the color of the fading sun.

Above me the sun is losing its battle to the umbrella that is shading me.

In the distance I spy the palms that stand higher than most trees in town.

In the distance I see two birds flying in peace.

I hear the wind whistling in my ears.

The wind is making the pages flip as I wright, But I feel like it is the sound farthest away.

I smell flowers attached to the bush next to me.

I smell the dust making my noes itch.

I smell the hand sanitizer on my hands.

I smell the tangerines in my lunch box.

Under my sanitized hand I feel the coolness of tile, The tile making up a beautiful mosaic.

The tile is set into the stone table, Touching the soft petals with my eyes closed, Smelling the fragrant pollen, The orange of the flower filled my vision Letting my senses tingle with the unusual stimuli.

Over in the bushes it stands broad shouldered and still.

It stands with such pride and grace.

It stands with such confidence in its structure.

You would never guess that it was a pillar.

All this comes with the garden.

All of this comes with the spring.

What came with us?

What will leave with us?

- Katie Creation The first beings on earth were formed the same way.

But how they were form is arguable.

Were they made by god and created out of clay Or were they created by science?

However they were made, People can agree on one thing.

The time we serve on this earth is valuable, And when it is over we return from where we came from.

If we are given life from the dirt then we will be returned to the dirt.

If we are given life from the water then we will be returned to the water.

If we are given life from the sun then we will be returned to the sun.

When we die we will enter the dirt to create new life.

The fungi and bacteria will take chemicals from us and give it to

the plants.

This allows the plant to live and thrive.

The plants will drop leaves which will give chemicals to new plants, Causing a never ending cycle.

Before we die we strive to make a mental mark on the world while making a small physical mark.

We should leave this earth without a physical trace of us left behind.

That is why our time on earth‌‌ Pulis et umbra sumus. (we are but dust and shadow) -Horace, Odes -Katie

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Teen Bacteria

Poems Barbaric Yawp!

The soil on the ground feels cold on my hands.

After all I have learned, I imagine it alive underneath my hand.

I enjoy the thought that everything Comes from the earth.

We are only borrowing from the Earth And what we think is ours really isn’t.

- Cady Precious Life Above me and all around me is a wreath of wisteria, The purple flowers are twisting and wrapping its way around the metal.

The sound of wind blows through the leaves, Making them rustle.

And everyone is talking around me, But they sound so far away.

In the sunlight, a leaf is a treasure, Orange and yellow, Sparkling with glints of gold from the sun.

The smell is so peaceful and sweet, And the garden is so serene Wouldn’t it be terrible if it was all gone?

- Cady

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Teen Bacteria

Song Green Plants By: Katie To the tune of starships by: Niki Minaj Let’s Grow!

Let’s go to the soil!

Let’s go get planting!

Daisy, what they going to grow?

Have a plow, plow.

Found the dead weeds.

Nice plows like this are hard to come by.

The weeds, let’s go get weeding.

In the garden? Yes I’m in that zone.

Am I weeding? Leave a good plot.

I’mma blow of my money on flowers and dirt.

I’m in the garden, garden.

I love to plant.

So give me more, more till I can’t plant.

Get in the garden, garden, like it’s your last chance.

If you want gloves, gloves, there are over there.

Green plants were meant grow.

Leaves up, and touch the sky.

Can’t stop growing.

Let’s do this one more time.

Oh, oh, oh.

Green plants were meant to grow.

Leaves up, and touch the sky.

Let’s do this one last time.

Just grow!

Higher than a sun flower.

Higher than a sun flower.

Higher than a sun flower.

Bump in my wheelbarrow, I dig it.

And I ain’t spraying my pesticides, I dig it.

Plant what you want.

Plant what you like.

Plant all you like there’s no end in sight.

Water, water little plant.

Now everybody let me her you say, Plant, plant, plant.

They spend all your time because they, Grow, grow, grow.

And if you’re a plant, you a Grow, grow, grow.

My name is soil, but you can call me dir-rt.

Get in the garden, garden, like it’s your last chance.

If you want gloves, gloves, there are over there.

Green plants were meant grow.

Leaves up, and touch the sky.

Can’t stop growing.

Let’s do this one more time.

Oh, oh, oh.

Green plants were meant to grow.

Leaves up, and touch the sky.

Let’s do this one last time.

Just grow!

Higher than a sun flower.

Higher than a sun flower.

Higher than a sun flower.

Green plants were meant grow.

Leaves up, and touch the sky.

Can’t stop growing.

Let’s do this one more time.

Oh, oh, oh.

Green plants were meant to grow.

Leaves up, and touch the sky.

Let’s do this one last time.

Just grow!

Higher than a sun flower.

Higher than a sun flower.

Higher than a sun flower.