Nematodes: Helping Your Soil!

We nematodes are very impor-tant in the cycle of nutrients in soil. Soil is a vital aspect of the life of organisms, including humans. Fertile soil helps hu-mans grow crops to produce their food, which sustains life on earth. Not to mention that soil also produces our world’s forests and acts as a foundation for big buildings that humans work in. Soil also acts as a preserver of the his-tory of the planet because many histori-cal objects, such as fossils, have been found in it. Water is another important aspect off life, and soil helps regulate water flow and can also act as a filter for it. We help to kill of the all of the bad stuff that can harm the soil and get into your food, so without us, your food could make you sick :(. Some of our species are parasites themselves, but those of us that are parasites are a special type of them and they actually help to get rid of other harmful things that can be found in the soil such as bacteria, house fly maggots, fire ants, yellow fever mosquitoes, and termites.

Nowadays, soil erosion and loss of organic matter is becoming a big problem. When soil erodes, the topsoil is literally being blown away. This takes away the raw materials that hu-mans rely on for their forests, food, and wildlife, as well as many other impor-tant components of life on earth. Or-ganic matter is the most important component in soil because it is the fer-tile part that is full of nutrients. When the topsoil is modified, it stunts the nu-trient cycle that we nematodes work so

hard on trying to sustain. This causes the amount of organic matter to decline, and you end up with less nutrient soil. Nematodes naturally help to solve this problem because when we excrete, we are producing nutrients that helps the organic mat-ter level go up, raising the nutrient level in the soil as well. Humans can also help solve this problem by using manure on their farms, raising the level of organic matter and nu-trients even more.

We would now like to share some confidential information with you. Did you know that during World War II, forty percent of the country’s food was produced from community gardens? Community gardens are becoming more and more popular now because more people are becoming aware of the issues of pesticides and how un-healthy it is for humans to have their food shipped from other coun-tries. The average meal travels 1,500 miles before it gets to your plate, which is about the distance from California to Texas. That’s a long way for a meal to travel! When

combining community gardens with the help from us nematodes, you will be able to live a long and healthy life, without having to worry about pesti-cides and parasites in your food! Without nematodes, life on earth would be very different than it is cur-rently. First of all, there would be fewer forests and less greenery on earth, which would make the planet feel dirty. Also, it would be way more difficult for humans to farm be-cause the soil would not be very fer-tile, so the soil would not have much nutrients. We would now like to close our argument with the wise words of Terry Wheeler: “If you get into a dry summer, the lack of the ability to pull water up hurts the crop. Nematodes keep the root system from fully func-tioning.”

Fun Facts About Nematodes! • Nematodes are the most multicellular animals on earth. • There are over 20,000 different species of nematodes. • Adult nematodes are comprised of approximately 1,000 somatic cells. • Because of their size, nematodes tend to be more common in coarser-

textured soils. • Adult nematodes are comprised of approximately 1,000 somatic cells. • Usually nematodes are invisible to all but a few specialists because most

are microscopic and transparent • Certain parasitic nematodes are helpful, including those that attack in-

sects and are used to manage some harmful insects

Soil Poems: Vanilla You know how, sometimes, When you look up at the sky, And it’s gray and gloomy, But you still have to squint your eyes because It is still too bright? Over my head, the gray of the sky blinds me. In the distance, Far past the speed limit sign, I see the green outlines of palm trees and Bushes. The birds are singing, Chirping, And behind the noise, I hear kids chattering, And I see their shadows pass behind the rocks As they walk down the dirt paths. As the brisk air brushes my face and hands, The purple flowers give off a light vanilla scent. The blue-gray plants look a bit like a cactus, They feel sour And sticky. Directly to my right, My gaze follows the pathway, getting smaller and smaller As it goes into the distance. The rock that I am sitting on slithers out from under me And I flop on to the gravel. It feels like it should be early morning, But I have already eaten lunch. My mind is hungry for experiences. -Ella Prebel

The Garden of Serenity Above me the sky is blue. Soft grey clouds floating along it. The harsh grass tickles my toes. The dim light of the city grasp my eyes. Blaring cars honk. The wind roars, and the birds anx-iously chatter. Still dripping from the last nights’ rain, Fresh flowers fill my nose. Newly mown lawn tickles my senses. The leaves shudder in the wind. The petal is smooth and delicate, It breaks off twisting in my finger-tips. The water trickles down the smooth ceramic wall. It falls into the abyss, Then quickly bubbles back up, Greeting me as an old friend. Up and down, I start to swing. The cool air splashes my face, And the harsh sun catches my eyes. Serenity overcomes me until I sadly realize, I’m not a child anymore. -Sarah Bacio

Letters from the Editors: Over the past week, I had the privilege to learn about soil. On day one of the soil unit, we

visited to Arlington Gardens. We talked about how the gardens used to be an empty area of land and how they were transformed with beautiful plants and trees to become the gardens that we all know now. While we were at the Arlington Gardens, we took notes on our sur-roundings and turned our notes into poems. We also took samples of soil and other sub-stances and rubbed them on agar to see what types of bacteria and fungi would grow in the dishes. My favorite part of the gardens was walking through the labyrinth because it really allowed me to let go of all of my stress and relax for a few minutes. Over the next few days of the soil unit, we started to dig deep into the components of

soil and why soil is so important to our planet. I learned that soil is made up of three different horizons that are each different and serve a different purpose. We then broke up into our small groups and started coming up with ideas for our propaganda posters. I was very happy with my group because we had a variety of skill sets within the people in the group and we worked together very well. I am very proud of my group because we were very productive and used the time that we were given very wisely.

For our organism of the year, my group was assigned the nematodes. At first, I thought that nematodes were a bit gross because I looked them up of Google images, and to be honest, I was very freaked out by them. Then I learned that they are microscopic, so they can’t hurt me, and they actually do a lot of work to help the planet. For example, nematodes are in charge of killing off a lot of the substances that can harm the soil, which harms life on earth. I am proud to be known as a nematode for the soil unit now that I know what good we nematodes do for the planet J

I did come across a few challenges during this unit. On the first day of the soil unit when we were digging around the trees with Lee, I had a bit of difficulty getting the shovel into the ground. But once I really got in to it, I ended up having a lot of fun. It was also a bit difficult to read and understand the food web that we looked at on Monday. It was also a challenging to write the organism of the year speech because my group didn’t know much about our organism beforehand, so we had to spend a lot of time researching our organism before we could even start on our speech. On Wednesday when we were trying to find the Fibonacci sequence in the nature around campus, it was hard to find things that fit the num-bers in the sequence or that formed a spiral. Nonetheless, I am proud of myself for the pic-tures that I took because a few of them actually look like a professional shot them.

Overall, I really enjoyed the soil unit and I have learned a lot. After learning about how important soil is to our planet and life on earth, I am encouraged to try harder to sustain all of the living things that many organisms call home. I will also try to spread awareness about trees and how important they are to humans; I will inform people about where they plant their trees really matters.

-Ella Prebel

For the first day of the soil unit, I was absent. Apparently we went on a field trip and rubbed different substances on agar. What we did with those substances was let them sit for a few days, and then later examined them. I thought that examining them was really fun. The only thing that I didn’t like was the small. Some of the bacteria and fungi gross though. It was really interesting to see all the different types of bacteria and fungi were in common substances. On Monday we started to learn about how soil works and why it is important. We also started to work on our propaganda poster. I think that my team did an extremely good job on our poster. Before we started to work on our poster, we learned about the pros and cons of planning a garden. We also learned about how propaganda posters should look and what they should say to encourage the reader. On Tuesday, we were given an organism in our groups. My group received nema-todes. Right away we started to work on our project. I gathered notes, while Ella started the paper, and Emma drew our magazine cover. Later that day, we drew our propaganda poster and started to color it in. I really thought that learning about different organisms and making our propaganda poster was fun, creative, and interesting. On Wednesday, Ms. Lukens taught us about the Fibonacci sequence. I found that lesson very interesting and really cool. After that we found examples of the sequence in nature. That was what really helped me understand how the sequence works. That day, we also finished our propaganda poster, which ended up looking really good. On Thursday, we went around and did different workshops. All of these work-shops helped me realize how horribly we are treating our trees. It also taught me what types of native plants would save water. Overall, I thought that the soil unit was fun, in-structive, and creative. -Sarah Bacio

More Letters from the Editors: Throughout this soil unit, many things were learned and established. From my personal point of view, I learned about how many organisms there are on the surface of our earth, and how they interact with each other. This is what I did in the soil unit.

On the first day of the soil unit, we didn’t do much. We focused on trees, and how appar-ently, they’re all dying. The trees we concentrated on were the ones near carline, on the sideways hill. They were being quite literally being choked by grass. So we dug giant trenches around the trees that were going to be filled with mulch. It was actually pretty fun stabbing a shovel into the soil.

In my little digging group, everyone would hold onto the shovel and one person would jump up and down on top of it to dig it into the ground. Then there was a lot of lifting and digging through dirt with bare hands, which I’m proud to say I never did.

Also, later in the day, we took a mini field trip to the gardens near the school. We took soil samples to test for bacteria, wrote a poem about our observations, and walked through a labyrinth. I also remembered how to draw a labyrinth. It was a short but nice day. Very calming.

This was the second day; Victory gardens and propaganda posters. Also, a very tiny food web that was almost impossible to see, unless you were squinting right up against it. But I was sit-ting in the back doodling, so I wasn’t very concerned about that.

After a lecture on the miniature food web, we went to victory gardens, which are gardens where they plant to provide food for themselves and grow a sense of community. (See the pun there?) It was actually pretty cool, how they plant these massive community gardens in the middle of totally urban areas, like San Francisco. Then, after we watched a short clip and filled out a work-sheet, we got into our Organism of the Year groups and brainstormed on how to make propaganda posters for victory gardens. Of course, my group was almost finished with the poster when other people were just starting. It’s actually pretty good, and I’m not just saying that to pad my ego and make myself look like a prude.

In our last class, I was very pleasantly surprised. Zoë and I were actually pretty efficient in how we solved several puzzles. And I’m not trying to insult Zoë. I’m pretty crappy at riddles. I’ve only actually solved, like, one.

Anyways, on the next day we took a very high-speed power walk through Descanso gardens. How they expected us to multitask while walking up hill at 20 miles per hour, I have no idea.

But after that torturous hike, we got to settle down and finish our propaganda posters and Organism of the Year speech. Also, we learned about how too much farming can completely strip the earth of all the nutrients the soil needs. Eesh.

The speech we finished easily. Now we just had to color in the poster. It was quite fun, but it took a really long time to finish. I can never get the skin colors right. And the group fighting next to us was quite distracting.

On the last day, we unearthed our soil samples and counted how many different bacteria types there were on varying samples. That was really gross. Balloons that were left on the ground are really odd looking after a day or two in a Petri dish. I don’t recommend picking them up. In all, it’s been a lovely soil unit. See you on the other side!

-Emma Blank

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All I Can By Emma B. Is this how it’s supposed to be? Nature and man, Perfect harmony. Is this why you came by? All I’ve done is dreamt to- One day- Be able to fly. Is this all you can do? After all the help I gave It’s your instinct to be Like this, so- Is this all you want to see? If that’s so Leave. This is all I want to be. This nature is good enough for me. The twisting clouds The disdaining earth The great strength of the beetle This is good enough for me.