What a meeting! Scouts learned about earthworm anatomy and then hypothesized about worm behavior in response to changes in their environments, specifically how they might respond to different levels of light and moisture.

Although the worms preferred the moist and dark options, the Scouts discovered that the experiment was flawed because moisture spread into the “dry” dark quadrant by the process of diffusion, which is the same process that enables worms to breathe through their skin. Fascinating!

Then, we discussed pollution, conservation, and reduce-reuse-recycle before performing an experiment on different types of packaging materials to determine which are biodegradable. After observing and handling brown paper, white paper, green inflated plastic bags, cardboard, and white plastic packaging materials, each Scout came up with a hypothesis about whether each type is biodegradable and then made an educated guess about which would degrade the most in the next week.

Each group then decided on a method to encourage the breakdown of their material (tearing, shredding, adding moisture, etc) and sealed their experiment bags until next week, when they will examine the results!

We also sang “happy birthday” to Stephen, who celebrated his 15th birthday, and had some cake. Happy birthday Stephen!