Remember last spring when our students buried pairs of cotton tighty-whities around our property at Rolling Hills School to test our soil health? We finally dug them up, and we have good news and bad news.

The Good News:

The pair buried near our compost bin completely vanished, leaving only the elastic waistband! That means our soil is thriving, healthy, and packed with hungry microbes and decomposers that ate the cotton in record time.

The Bad News:

The pair buried on the dry field was stolen. If you spot a gopher running around in oversized white underpants, please tell them we’d like our scientific equipment back.

Textbooks are great, but digging up shredded underwear makes concepts like decomposition and soil biomes real, hands-on, and unforgettable for our kids.

A huge thank you to Mrs. TC for her willingness to think outside the box to bring learning to life, and to our young scientists for a fun experiment!