Hello, scientists.

My name is Mr. Wilshire, and today we're going to be looking at the Five Rs.

Let's dive into our lesson.

The outcome for today's lesson is to describe the Five Rs and how foods decompose or rot to form useful nutrients for crops.

Here's one of the first keywords.

I'm going to say it and I'd like you to repeat it after me: Rot, decompose, compost, micro-organism, nutrients.

Fantastic repeating, everyone.

Well done.

Here are some definitions for the different keywords.

Now, don't worry, we are going to be going through these keywords as we progress with the lesson, so have a little read of some of the keywords that you can see here if you're not too sure what they mean, just to remind you before we start.

Restart the video when you're ready to continue.

So the first section of our lesson about the Five Rs is the Five Rs! Let's dive in.

Now every day, a lot of waste is created by businesses and homes and workplaces.

You can see here that there's a lot of rubbish stacked all around the bins as well.

That looks disgusting, doesn't it? That is all someone's rubbish.

So what happens to this waste when we throw it away? Have a quick discussion.

Restart the video when you're ready.

Hopefully you've all had a good discussion about what happens to your rubbish when you throw it away.

Unfortunately, a lot of it will end up in a landfill site a little bit like the one in the picture here.

These are places where waste is piled up together and buried, usually in a very big hole that's dug in the ground.

As it's dug into the ground, I wonder what problems this could cause now and in the future, and how could we reduce the amount of waste that gets sent to landfill? Pause the video and have a discussion.

Some of the problems that this could cause is that animals are able to get into these large places and then start living.

I don't think I'd like to find rabbits finding a home in cereal boxes.

So how can we reduce all of this waste that goes into the ground? Well, the Five Rs are going to give us a bit of an insight into what we can do.

The five words all begin with a letter R, and they give us some ideas to help us manage the amount of waste that we produce.

You can see there, the Five Rs are: reduce, reuse, refuse, recycle, and rot.

We are gonna have a look now at what each of these different words mean.

So the first R is reduce.

This means you need to use less of things.

Andeep here, for example, says that he "only takes paper towels that I will definitely need when I'm drying my hands." Yeah, I think I'm guilty of this as well.

I'll usually take quite a few paper towels to dry my hands off when really I might only ever need one.

If you reduce the amount of things that you're using, there's less that are going to end up in a landfill.

As well as reducing the waste we create, we can also reduce our impact on the environment by using less electricity or water.

We have three children here, look.

Laura says that she switches off her games console properly instead of leaving it on standby.

Yeah, you don't need your console to be on standby, do you? That wastes electricity.

Izzy says that she turns off the tap when she's brushing her teeth.

If you're not using the water, there's no need for the tap to be on.

So that's a good idea by Izzy there.

And Jacob says that he always turns the lights off when he leaves a room.

That's a good point.

I think there are lots of rooms in my home that are usually left lit up in the dark when they don't need to be.

Let's stop and have a think.

Which of these are examples of the first R, reduce? Let's have a look at the answers.

Well, yeah.

You can use a lunchbox as sandwiches instead of plastic bags, or you could turn off lights when you leave the room.

That's reducing the amount of waste.

The second R is reuse.

This means that you need to reuse things again instead of buying new things.

So Lucas, for example here, says that he takes his reusable water bottle with him everywhere.

That means he doesn't need to buy more plastic bottles every day.

I'm sure in your school or even at home, you have a bottle that you reuse lots of times rather than using a single-use plastic bottle.

Jun down here says that he buys his books from secondhand bookstores and then he donates his old ones so other people can enjoy them.

That's a really good idea as well.

That means that the books don't need to be printed all over again and don't just sit there in someone's home.

Let's stop and think.

Which of these objects could be reused after they've been used once, either by the same person or by someone else? Hopefully you've had a good discussion about that and which items could be reused.

Here's the answers.

There are three possible answers: A toy car could be used by anyone.

A shopping bag could be used again and again and again providing it doesn't get a hole, and a jumper can be reused by a sibling or maybe someone else who could fit inside it.

Just because it doesn't fit you anymore doesn't mean that it needs to go in the bin.

The third R is refuse.

This means that we can refuse to buy or use unnecessary things.

Laura says that she doesn't usually need a receipt for her shopping, so she says no when the cashier asks her.

Sam says, "I don't need to use a straw for my drink, so I don't take them." Of course, yeah, you don't need to have a straw in every drink you have, do you? Let's stop and think about the third R.

The third R is to.

well, which one do you think? Pause the video and continue when you are ready.

The answer here is, B: refuse to use products you don't need.

The fourth R is to recycle.

If we can't reduce, reuse, or refuse something, then it could be recycled.

When objects are recycled, this means that they could be made into new things and used again.

We can recycle paper, plastic, glass, metal and wood.

Alex says, "Do you know which bins to put your different recyclable materials in at home and at school?" Now, where I live, I know that I can put all of my garden waste and food waste into the green bin.

Anything that can't be recycled goes into the black bin.

The blue bin I use for glass, metal and tins, and the brown bin is usually for paper and cardboard, but it might be different depending on where you live.

Let's stop and think.

Which of these objects could be put into a recycling bin for plastic? The answer is B: yoghourt pots and C: a drinks bottle.

Of course, yes, a newspaper is made of paper and a jar is made of glass.

The fifth R is rot.

This means that you can create compost by leaving certain types of food and garden waste to decay.

There's an example of a compost heap there.

Over time, all of this waste will decompose and it becomes compost.

Compost is really good for growing plants.

There are lots of nutrients inside the different things that will rot down and create good soil and compost to be able to plant things in.

You are making your own plant food.

So which of these is not one of the Five Rs? Have a think.

Restart the video when you are ready.

Remember is not one of the Five Rs.

The Five Rs are reduce, reuse, refuse, recycle, and rot.

Now, here's your first task.

Sofia says that she would like to reduce the negative impact that she has on the environment.

Talk with a partner here and give an example of something that she could do for each of the Five Rs.

You could even write down some of your ideas as well.

Maybe include some diagrams. Restart the video when you're ready to continue.

Hopefully you've had a really good discussion with your partner or someone else in the classroom, or maybe you've had a good think by yourself.

So here's some examples.

Reduce: she could reduce the number of plastic bags she uses by taking her own when she does her own shopping.

Reuse: she could reuse a refillable water bottle instead of buying new ones when she's out of the house.

Refuse: she could refuse to take plastic straws in cafes.

Recycle: she could sort her rubbish into the correct bins to be recycled, and rot: she could set up a compost heap by using food and garden waste at home.

She can then create her own plant food for plants at home.

How clever.

Let's get into the second part of the lesson here, composting.

Now rotting is when dead plants and animals, which is organic matter, decompose over time.

This means that they break down from big pieces to tiny, microscopic pieces.

Here you can see some apples that have fallen from a tree onto the ground.

These are starting to rot.

You can see that because they're going brown and speckly.

I wouldn't like to eat those.

Rot is one of the Five Rs, remember.

How can rotting then be beneficial to the environment? Have a discussion with someone nearby and restart the video when you're able.

Hopefully you had a good discussion there about how rotting can be beneficial to the environment.

Well, it can help because we can put some types of food, garden waste and paper into a heap or a special bin to rot.

This is called composting.

I wonder if any of you have got a compost heap or a bin at your home or school that you put this waste into, and I wonder what you do with it as well.

Here we've got a picture of a compost heap and we have Aisha and Andeep.

Aisha says, "We can't recycle old food, so we can leave it to disappear on a compost heap." Yeah, you might have leftovers for lunch or dinner sometimes, but we certainly can't recycle things that have been cooked and they don't last very long, do they? Andeep says, "Composting just makes more mud.

I don't think it's helpful." What do you think? Pause the video here.

Have a discussion and restart when you are ready.

Hopefully the discussions you have, I've had a good think about those two statements.

Let's go into it in a little bit more depth.

When things rot, they don't disappear.

Micro-organisms that living in the food and the air around it, such as bacteria and fungi, feed on the waste and break it down.

There are also many invertebrates that help to decompose the waste, including worms and slugs, woodlice and beetles.

Remember, an invertebrate is something that doesn't have a backbone.

They eat the rotting organic matter and it breaks down as it passes through their digestive systems. Living things that break down waste are known as decomposers.

These are all very, very useful invertebrates that are there to help break things down, to eat things, and to then help make compost.

So let's stop and think.

Are these statements about composting true or are they false? Pause the video and continue when you are ready.

Let's take a look at A: all types of waste can be added to a compost heap to decompose.

Well, that's false, isn't it? I can't put a glass bottle in there to decompose.

That's not how it works.

Rotting is when old food is eaten by living things and then disappears, and that's false.

Remember, it's broken down by some of those invertebrates called decomposers.

Micro-organisms play an important role in composting.

Yeah, that's true, isn't it? That's just what I've just said.

Those different invertebrates will break the food down.

And micro-organisms are the only living things that decompose waste.

Well, that's false.

There are lots of different things and creatures that will help to break down this kind of waste.

So leaving waste to rot like this creates a product called compost.

Here we can see some compost with fresh waste on top.

You can see the brown part, which is the compost there, and all the fresh waste on top, which is obviously left over from someone's dinner.

Compost looks similar to soil, but it has many more nutrients than ordinary soil.

Compost can be added to soil to help plants grow and to be healthy.

Compost is also very, very clumpy and very thick, and it's also incredibly smelly.

This is a great way though, to release the nutrients from some food and garden waste and make them useful again.

That means that these leftover things are not wasted.

They're able to be used in a positive way.

Compost can be used in many places, including potted plants, gardens, allotments, and even farms. It can also be helped to use in your school grounds.

It can help plants grow well and they can then stay healthy, can't they? Composting helps animals as well as plants.

Here you can see some worms going through the compost.

Compost heaps provide food and shelter for these animals, other animals as well, not just worms, woodlice, and beetles as well.

Large animals like hedgehogs and frogs can also shelter in compost heaps as well as feeding on the invertebrates that live there.

Of course, that would be heaven for that kind of creature, wouldn't it? Finding all those little invertebrates and creatures inside to feast on.

Let's stop and think.

Which of these is composting useful for? Pause the video and continue when you are ready.

The answer here could be B or C: enriching soil with more nutrients or providing a habitat for small animals.

Now, here's your second task.

Izzy wants to set up a compost bin at home, but her sister thinks that it's not going to be useful because it'll just be full of dirt and rubbish.

I wonder if you agree.

Explain why as well.

Why is a compost heap going to be useful? Is it just full of dirt and rubbish? Pause the video and continue when you are ready.

Whatever you've discussed there, I'm sure will be incredibly insightful.

Let's have a think at an example answer.

Do you agree? Explain why.

"I don't agree.

All the food and garden waste is put into a compost bin and it will eventually turn into compost.

That will happen over time.

The compost is full of nutrients that are good for plants.

Compost can be added to soil to help plants grow well and stay healthy.

The compost bin will also provide a habitat for invertebrates like worms, slugs, and woodlice." All of those things that we've just discussed in the last few slides.

Let's get on to the next part of our lesson about the Five Rs, creating compost.

Ooh, I hope it's not smelly.

Izzy has been thinking about the Five Rs herself.

Here's Izzy, and she says, "I'm going to set up a compost bin at home and put in anything I can't reuse or recycle to make some compost." Hmm.

Do you think her compost bin will be successful and why? Have a discussion and restart the video when you want to.

Now, I remember from the previous sections that we can't just recycle and reuse anything.

A compost bin needs to be made up of things that can break down and be eaten by those decomposers and other invertebrates and help other wildlife as well.

So I'm not sure that putting things like glass bottles is going to help here.

The decomposers that break down the waste in a compost heap need certain conditions to survive that helps them then to successfully break down the waste.

Here you can see some more composting waste.

Hmm, there's carrots and looks like celery.

Ooh, and maybe some bits of Christmas tree there.

And I can definitely see some orange peel.

Wonder what you can see in that picture.

Now it's really important to put the right sort of waste into a compost heap.

Yeah, no glass bottles.

Anything that can come from a plant can be added to a compost heap.

These work best when there's a mixture of green and brown waste.

These types of waste are rich in different types of nutrients.

We don't just mean the different colours here.

Green waste would include weeds, grass cuttings and vegetable peels.

So lots of green things but vegetables could be all sorts of different colours as well, can't they? That's the green waste.

Brown waste will include dead leaves, small pieces of wood, paper, and cardboard.

Yes, that's right.

Although you're not gonna put glass in there, you could put some cardboard or paper in there because that will eventually break down because that paper and cardboard was made out of natural materials in the first place, wasn't it? Food waste from meat or dairy products can't be added to compost.

Here we can see some dairy products.

Hmm, yoghourts.

I do like yoghourts and cheese, and I love having milk in my cereal in the morning.

But you can't add them to the compost.

The micro-organisms that decompose these types of foods can be really harmful.

So we wouldn't want them to be in our compost.

Waste that has not come from organic sources, such as plastic and metal cannot be added to a compost heap.

I think we've established that already over this lesson, haven't we? This kind of waste cannot be broken down by decomposers.

So it would not become compost.

Yeah, that's right.

In fact, plastic bottles can take hundreds to even thousands of years to decompose depending on what they're made of.

So not a very good thing to use in a compost heap.

Let's pause and have a think.

Which of these types of waste could be added to a compost heap? Have a discussion and restart the video when you are ready.

The answers here were banana peel, fallen leaves, and an apple core.

Chicken bones isn't something that you could use and neither is a plastic cup.

They don't break down in the same way.

Compost heaps also need air and moisture.

This is because the living things that decompose the waste need air and moisture to survive.

Compost heaps should be turned over a few times a year to add in the air.

'Cause as you add in lots of different things, it's going to trap things inside, isn't it? So it's a good idea to turn it over.

Most of the moisture will come from the food waste, but you can add a little bit more to it if it's looking rather dry.

Let's pause again and think.

Which of these do compost heaps need to be successful? Pause the video, have a discussion and restart when you are ready.

Yes, it's moisture, air and the right mix and types of waste.

Salt is not a good idea to put in there 'cause it's going to harm some of the animals.

And the right amount of sunlight isn't true because, well, it needs to be very dark.

It takes a long time for decomposers, such as micro-organisms, to break down the waste and turn it into the compost.

Here we can see an established compost heap.

Depending on what kind of waste is rotting, it can take anywhere from six months to two years for it to become proper compost.

You might see in some allotments and gardens, they have several different types of compost bins, and each one will be for a different year.

Izzy has a very small yard at home, so she doesn't really have room for a large compost bin.

So she decides to make a mini compost heap in a bottle.

So what is she going to need to put in it? Have a discussion, pause the video, and restart when you are ready.

Izzy cuts around the top of the bottle, leaving a hinge so that she can add some waste.

Now she makes small holes in the bottom of the bottle.

Oh, so that's so the excess water can drain out of it.

Then Izzy adds layers of garden soil, vegetable peels, dead leaves and paper.

This is Izzy's compost bottle.

That's a really good amount of compost.

She adds a little water with a spray bottle as well.

Not too much.

You don't want to flood it.

She places her compost bottle outside and waits for the waste that she's added to decompose and then become compost.

I wonder what she might need here to do over time to keep her compost bottle working.

Jun says, "Make sure you add a little water every now and again to keep it moist." Good idea, Jun.

Sam says, "You can add more waste over time as the first lot decays." Of course, yeah.

It's gonna break down in the bottle, isn't it? And Alex says, "You'll have to put some micro-organisms in too so they can decompose the waste." I wonder if you agree with some of these suggestions as well.

Pause the video, have a discussion.

Izzy should add some water to her compost because it might become a bit dry.

She can also add some more waste as her first lot decomposes.

She'll not need to to add micro-organisms. They're already all around us; living in the waste that she adds and the air around her bottle.

So let's pause and rethink.

Which of these statements about composting are incorrect? Let's look through some answers.

Ah, A and D: A compost heap needs to be large.

Well, they could be any size, we've seen that with Izzy's bottle, and D: a compost heap needs waste from animals.

Not exactly, no.

It definitely needs moisture.

It definitely needs air and it needs waste from plants.

So here is our final task for the lesson.

Write a recipe for compost.

Imagine that it's going to go into a recipe book that you can introduce to other people.

I wouldn't encourage them to eat it though.

You need to include some ingredients, you need to have a method, and some step-by-step instructions of making and maintaining your compost heap.

Pause the video, have a go creating them and restart when you are ready.

Good luck.

Hopefully you've had a good chance to explore the different things that you'd need to make some really good compost.

So here's an example recipe for compost.

The ingredients are: potato peels, apple cores, banana skins, shredded newspaper, some dead leaves, small twigs, water and air.

Some of the things there might have been a bit different in your lists, but as long as they're things that can break down, they're okay.

"I wonder if it's similar to yours," says Sam.

Now step one here, here's the method: Find a place to make your compost, such as a bin or even a bottle.

Add in some potato peels, apple cores, banana skins.

These are all types of green waste.

Sprinkle over your shredded newspaper, dead leaves, and small twigs.

Then step four: spray your waste with water using a spray bottle.

But don't add too much water because it needs to be moist, not soaked.

Five: give the whole heap a really good stir with a garden fork.

Six: leave to decompose for around six months to a year.

That's a really long time to wait.

You'd better be patient.

Seven: Check on your compost regularly.

You may need to add some more waste or moisture.

And eight, enjoy adding your wonderful, nutritious compost to your soil.

So here's a summary for our lesson.

Rot is one of the Five Rs: Refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle and rot.

Compost can be made by allowing certain types of waste to rot over time in the presence of air and moisture.

Rotting happens because decomposers, such as micro-organisms and small invertebrates, break down the waste.

The compost that we get from this can be used to help plants grow and be healthy.

Well, I hope that this lesson has inspired you to be a little bit more careful about what you reuse and what you recycle.

Maybe you've had an idea to create a compost heap of your own to start rotting things and adding it to the plants and the gardens around you.

Whatever it is, I really hope that you are successful.

Thanks for listening.

I've been Mr. Wilshire.