Student Research Reports
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Why doesn't grass grow on our playground?
Organization(s):Main Street Intermediate School
Country:United States of America
Student(s):Annabelle Ortner
Grade Level:Middle School (grades 6-8, ages 11-14)
GLOBE Educator(s):Marcy Burns
Contributors:
Report Type(s):International Virtual Science Symposium Report
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Date Submitted:04/03/2017
Main Street Intermediate School is located in the uptown district of Norwalk, Ohio. For more than a decade a large part of the playground is bare. Grass will not grow. This creates a problem of limited space for students to play and dirt and mud gets tracked into the school building. It also looks very bad. This project will help solve the mystery. Soil samples were taken in the area where grass grows and in the area where grass does not grow. The soil texture and nutrients were compared for each area. After looking carefully at the data, I concluded that the soil has good nutrients and organic material to help grass grow. The problem seems to be that the soil does not hold water and drains very fast so the grass does not get enough moisture to grow. Additional work needs to be done to figure out what can be done to help the soil on the playground hold water longer to support a health crop of grass.