The interactive exhibit at The Children’s Museum emphasizes ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ principles.

Submitted

The Children’s Museum is proud to present the Kids Can Compost program, an interactive and constantly growing exhibit emphasizing the Reduce, Reuse, Recycle principles in a new and exciting way!

By building and maintaining an aerobic compost bin this summer, The Children’s Museum is providing a lesson about sustainable waste reduction as well as teaching biology, chemistry, and environmental science in a hands-on format.

Visitors can attend demonstrations every Tuesday and Thursday at 10:30 a.m. and 2 p.m. Demonstrations will include taking temperatures to measuring moisture content and how to balance your compost to get the best possible result.

As the compost bins are filled with food scraps and waste from The Children’s Museum’s raised garden beds, Butterfly House, and Wildlife Sanctuary, they will break down over time and eventually become rich soil to be returned to the gardens next spring. As the circle of composting continues, vegetables are grown in these gardens which are then used to feed the many animals that live in the Wildlife Sanctuary.

Looking forward, The Children’s Museum will create an indoor vermicomposting, or worm composting, station. Within this station, worms will be used to break down organic matter from the Museum, visitors, and the on-site preschool at the Museum. This will provide visitors with an up-close look at a different way of composting, as well as demonstrate an example of a composting system that can be contained within the home and is appropriate for those who would like to compost but are unsure about committing to a large-scale system, such as the aerobic bins.

The Children’s Museum will also be developing a hands-on educational program involving vermicomposting where classes will be implemented in elementary school classrooms, culminating in creating a vermicomposting unit that can be left in the classroom, allowing students and teachers to continue the project after the initial outreach program has ended.

This program is made possible by grants funded by the Vernon D. and Florence E. Roosa Family Foundation Memorial Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving, Legrand and Recycle CT.

About The Children’s Museum

The Children’s Museum and its Roaring Brook Nature Center are the region’s premiere destinations for exploration and education. The Museum and Nature Center features hands-on exhibits, over 200 live animals, out-of-this-world digital planetarium shows, and numerous programs for young children and families. The Children’s Museum and Preschool are located at 950 Trout Brook Dr. in West Hartford and Roaring Brook Nature Center is located at 70 Gracey Rd. in Canton. More information is available at www.TheChildrensMuseumCT.org.