SLIME Organism of the Year

Cover Story: Saprophytes:

Decomposing

Fungi pg. 2

HISTORY OF

ARLINGTON

GARDEN pg. 13

By Elizabeth F.

PLUS:

A Never-Before-

Seen Photo

Montage pg.12

Photographed by Grace C.

6 Poems That Will

Take Your Breath

Away Pg. 4

Most people think soil is just made up of meaningless slabs of dirt. Contrary

to this belief, soil is one of the most important factors to an organism’s survival. Soil

is what gives us food and oxygen through plants and animals. Without soil, life on

Earth would not exist.

There is a serious issue with soil loss. The soil can have organic matter and

nutrients in it that are essential to

growing food. It has energy for organ-

isms, and the organisms help make

our soil rich with the nutrients. The

food made by the soil helps make en-

ergy and nutrients for us. When soil

loss happens, a way to help the soil is

to compost. Composting is a mixture

of decaying organic substances that

are used for fertilizing soil. Old fruit

and vegetable carcasses have organic

matter that can be composted. They

decompose over time and put organic matter into soil. The composted soil can be

put on top of soil that lacks the nutrients. By having good soil with the organic mat-

ter, the soil will hold more water.

Saprophytes: Decomposing Fungi

A drawing of saprophyte mushrooms by

Rebecca C.

Saprophytes are very important to soil, because without them there

would be no nutrients. The job of saprophytes, along with other organisms, is

to decompose dead leaves and animal carcasses. Without these mushrooms,

things wouldn’t decompose, so the soil would never get more nutrients. When

the saprophytes decompose the dead plant material, it goes back into the soil

as compost, greatly enriching the soil. Saprophytes often grow on the sides of

trees. When the tree falls down and dies, the mushrooms are the first to start

decomposing it.

By Ellie F, Grace C, and Rebecca C.

Poems Arlington Garden

Above me lies the big blue sky

Just under it, in the distance, the mountains

The beautiful sound of the chirping birds fills the garden and the sound of a little girl running

through the garden’s paths

Outside of it, the real world

The city filled with streets and cars

The garden, fresh

While the city is not

The flowers have just bloomed and they are bright and pretty

The leaves are a dark green and glorious

Some smooth, some rough

Some rounded, some rigid

I look around a bit

To my right, Ms. Caron waving as she walks by some flowers

Those flowers, gleaming in the light

Bright orange, yellow, and purple

I get up and crouch down

Soil

That's what I see

Lots of it

How does that make such amazing plants?

How?

Magic

-Grace C

Soil

Outdoors

In my little garden

I look at all the food beginning to come in

Tomatoes, broccoli, radishes, strawberries, herbs and more

Fresh food, not enhanced

Soil

It’s very compacted, too hard to pick up

It’s rich and there is wet soil in which the food lies in

That's what makes it taste good

That's what makes it fresh

What would we do without it?

-Grace C

Barbaric Yawp!

The soil seems to be

Simple.

Just brown powder,

At first glance.

But then,

You think.

What goes into the soil?

Here's your answer:

Dead things.

If dead things go into the soil,

Then what is this brown powder?

That is the mystery.

Only nature,

The Circle of Life,

Can perform such wonderful feats

As this.

Every day,

A leaf falls,

An animal falls prey,

Somewhere in the world.

They become one

Through soil.

The seemingly meaningless

Brown powder.

Man cannot make soil

In our science labs and such.

It's impossible.

Only Mother Nature's smallest creatures

Can create this life-giver

Known as soil.

-Rebecca C

One Wild and Precious Life

Was the world created purposely?

Or was it an accident?

What if everything around us

Was just a coincidence?

Did, in the beginning of Earth,

Bacteria evolve accidentally

Into plants? Into animals?

Into the birds whose singing I hear now?

Above me, the glowing sun shines through the swaying palm leaves.

Was it, too, created by accident?

To think that

This smell of life was never meant to be?

This leathery leaf in front of me

And the roof surrounded by trees in the distance,

Maybe wouldn't have become tangible?

The dirt, stirring gently from my steady breath,

Might not be here if the past changed somehow.

People in the future

Where there is no life,

Might wonder why the green things are gone.

And if we don't save our Earth now,

"Now" could become the tragic event

Where all the green life

Ceased to be.

-Rebecca C

Yawp

People say I am too erratic and bitter

I howl my battle cry upon the highest mountain

The light of day shines upon me

I am dauntless

I sink in the warm sand, letting every grain sink in my clothes

The thrashing waves push me violently through a storm

The air picks up my body with its intricate talons, my hair floating gently

You find pieces of me prodded gently by the tide

I have become the sand

-Ellie F

“One Wild Precious Life”

Above me, a fabric nasturtium leaf engulfs me into a soothing darkness

The world is fluorescent with a blazing sun and a lukewarm breeze

On my right, an odor of a weeping iris overcomes me like a falling angel

A magic ball drives me into a trace of colors

Birds chirp and a banshee call of a small child faintly rings in my ears

Fields of purple pinecones bloom within a gated lot

The individual flowers dash themselves in deep purple with violent white streaks

The plume of tiny flowers crumble upon my shoes

The slowly disintegrating scent drowns me into a pool of soap

A grassy scent explodes when my hands tore at the blade

A static noisemaker dressed in wings and black violently zips across my face

Lightning strikes my eyes

My life is in a trance

-Ellie F

Our trip!

These pictures are from places on our campus and from our field trips. I chose these pictures

to represent our trip because they stood out to me the most, all the amazing plants and flowers that

the soil nurtures. I tried to capture the light in all of the plants. The light shows the interesting

shapes within the plant, it also highlights it and shows the beauty of them.

In the collage there are also pictures of the activities we did. In one of them, I am digging. We

planted a rain garden. We had to dig and get muddy during that activity. In the next picture we were

working with petri dishes and getting different samples to see were organisms and bacteria grow.

Pictures by: Grace C, Sophie G, and Mr. Cross

History Of Arlington Garden

At the corner of Arlington Drive and Pasadena Avenue is one of the most in-

triguing gardens in California. That garden is Arlington Garden. This beautiful

garden was a vacant Caltrans site for 40 years waiting for the construction of the

710 freeway. Eventually Pasadena’s only

dedicated garden sprung forth that showed

us how effective yet striking Mediterranean

climate garden can be.

It all began 10 years ago (in 2003),

when the city and Caltrans began talking

about how they could utilize the three-acre

site. The lot at the time housed only two

old oak trees, a jacaranda, a California

Pepper, and five different types of Palm

trees. A Councilmember named Steve

Madison asked the community what type of public development should be put on

the site. The most of the community wanted to be a rather peaceful development,

without any playfields, parking lots, or public restrooms. However, people didn’t

say what should be developed at the site. Then, a woman named Betty McKenney

proposed an idea about a Mediterranean garden. This was a good idea because we

could use less water, and most of the plants can endure through tough weather

conditions. The garden would also bring serenity and happiness to visitors. The

idea was agreed upon, but most people waited for others to make the first move.

So, Mckenny started it off.

Since then, the McKenneys have already planted about 400 trees, as well

as wide-ranging varieties of plants that do well in all conditions throughout the

year. Eventually the garden installed benches, pots, paths, along with plenty of

tables and chairs. In October 8, 2010, sophomores at Mayfield Senior School

built a Classical 7 Circuit Labyrinth that is impossible for anyone to get lost. Ar-

lington garden continues to bring serenity, happiness, and a learning experience

to all.

By Ellie F

Profile of a Westridge Tree Here is my drawing of an Oak tree in front of our school gym. I sat

outside in the middle of the grass and drew this. It was a little bit awk-

ward just sitting there. It was hard to color in the picture. Even

though this tree doesn’t have that much leaves, there were still a lot to

color. The Oak tree I drew is dead sadly. One of the people from the

Arboretum told us that it has been here for a really long time. But,

since people have put in a lawn it has ruined the tree. It has been

overwatered. I decided to draw the tree because it was huge and it

stood out to me when I went outside.

By Grace C

Dear Reader,

In this issue, we celebrate the things we did and learned about in the Soil Unit. When I

started, I thought all we will talk about soil. Actually, we did many soil-related activities that in-

cluded some gardening, poetry writing, and creating this special issue of our beloved magazine.

We also learned about the importance of soil on Earth, and the risk of soil damage. I had original-

ly thought soil was just nothing, but I was wrong. Soil is what gave food and oxygen through

plants and animals. Without the soil, humans and other organisms would die out. Now, that

scared me. Finally, the thing that captivated me the most was the magic of Fibonacci’s numbers. I

learned that his numbers connect with nature in a very strange way; one example is that the

number of spirals in a coneflower is equal to 89, which is one of Fibonacci’s numbers. , our class

had six 32 minute workshops with professional botanists and gardeners. We replenished our

campus with a beautiful rain garden, and an herb garden. I also walked around campus with

some friends, and learned about some of the trees on campus. I learned about unhealthy trees vs.

healthy trees. Then, our teacher asked us to point out which trees were healthy, or unhealthy. We

wrapped up the walk by climbing up our famous “Ranney Tree”. We also had a lesson on com-

post. There, we spotted a nematode, and observed worms. There was tons of shrieking in that ses-

sion. The messiest and the final session was making seed balls. There, we made fresh clay, and

mixed it with poppy seeds. In the end, we were left with very filthy hands. Finally, I hope that you

enjoyed this special issue of SlimeTM, and felt this experience the same way I did. Thanks for read-

ing!

Sincerely,

Elizabeth F.

LETTERS FROM THE EDITORS

Dear Readers,

The past week and a half has been a very fun process in learning about soil and making

our magazines. As a class, we went on various field trips and did many activities.

We went to two gardens in our Pasadena area. We walked to both of them. We first went to

Arlington Gardens. It was much bigger than it appeared. It is three acres and there are over four

hundred trees. We did a science activity with petri dishes, an English activity were we wrote a po-

em, we learned about the Arlington Gardens and walked through a Labyrinth with Ms. Bizar, and

we did out tree poses with Ms. McCabe.

The next day, we went to another garden. We were all expecting it to be similar to Arling-

ton. Instead was an unpleasant looking field of dirt and weeds. We helped pick the weeds, and the

people there have been planning were to put the plants. I bet when it’s all done it will look great!

There have been a lot of challenges. We went to Arlington Garden; there were lots of bees

everywhere. Despite the fact they help our flowers, I had always thought of them as just another

thing to be scared of. Then, we went to the future site of the Pasadena Community Garden. That

garden had a plethora of mosquitos and itchy weeds.

We did many of the activities at school as well. We conquered a treacherous morning hike

near Descanso Gardens, and then we went into the garden. It was stunningly beautiful! I took

many pictures at the garden and I didn’t want to leave that place behind. Later that day, some

people from the Arboretum came and we did rotations. We helped plant herbs, other plants, made

a compost bin, went on a tree walk, and made seed balls. Overall the soil unit was pretty fun and

I had a great time.

-Grace C.

Dear Reader,

I’ll have you know that we all had so much fun creating the Slime™ Magazine. The

“Organism of the Year” issue is an accumulation of our work in our school’s Soil Unit. We learned so

much about soil and how it is truly the mother of all life.

On the first day, we learned of the Soil Magazine project. We learned that out issue would be

the “Organism of the Year.” We also learned about Victory Gardens, community gardens that start-

ed during World War I. Victory Gardens are making a comeback now, due to the economy crash.

On day two, we walked to Arlington Garden. We collected various soil samples to find out

what kinds of soil have different microorganisms. We also walked through a labyrinth and did tree

pose next to trees.

On day three, we read stories about how everything can turn into compost. We also created

our own Propaganda Posters about Victory Gardens.

On the fourth day, we worked on our magazines and finished our posters.

On day five, we learned about how the Fibonacci sequence is in almost all components in na-

ture. The numbers 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13… make it up.

Day six was definitely the most fun. We made worm bins (a specialized type of compost bin),

planted rain gardens and herb gardens, and took home strawberry plants, seed bombs, and newspa-

per pots. I loved planting things and getting my hands dirty.

Overall, the Soil Unit was one of the most fun school units I’ve done. I loved learning about

compost and planting native gardens. I also had so much fun creating this magazine, and I hoped

you enjoyed it!

Sincerely,

Rebecca C.