What Happens When Something Dies

Lab Brief #17

🎯 Your mission

Run the experiment. Find out what really happens.

⚡ The twist

What the body does in one minute is wilder than any cartoon.

What you'll learn

Fungi, worms and tiny bacteria break down dead leaves and animals. This returns the goodness to the soil so new plants can grow. Without them, dead material would just pile up.

Key words

decomposer
A living thing that breaks down dead plants and animals.
soil
The top layer of ground made of tiny rocks, water, air and rotted plants.

Make a hypothesis first

Guess: how does the body solve this problem?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Get ready

🧰 What you need

two jars
soil
dead leaves
water

⚠️ Safety first

Wash your hands thoroughly after touching soil.
Keep the jars closed and do not smell the contents.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Think about what you just learned: say what "decomposer" and "soil" mean in your own words before you start.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Put a dead leaf in a jar with damp soil and one in a dry sealed jar. Look at both once a week for a month and draw what you see each time.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Question 1 of 2

Which of these is a decomposer?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 2

Decomposers are important because they:

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🦠 You have more bacterial cells in your body than human cells.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 2 right.

Next: Sorting Living Things into Groups All lessons

🎯

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✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: Your own body is doing this thousands of times every second.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Find one thing about your body that's different from a friend's. Wonder why.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “Tell me something you noticed about your own body today.”

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