The status and barriers to the implementation and continuation of the school gardening projects in Germany, Nigeria and the United States of America

In drawing a conclusion for this study, care must be taken in generalizing findings since the population of students and teachers investigated were limited to certain levels in the different schools and countries. This study recognized some complexity of the factors underlying the status of school gardening instruction and activities in Germany, Nigeria and the U.S. as inadequate time for decision-making in the process of gardening, motivation of teachers and students. This was seen as the major impediments that influenced the status of gardening in the three countries. However, these factors were considered to have affected students’ mode of participation in the school gardening projects. This research finding suggests that the promotion and encouragement of students in gardening activities will promote vegetable production and increasing the numbers of practical farmers. Gardening has the potential to create opportunities for learning in an environment where children are able to experience nature first hand and to use the shared experience for communication (Bowker & Tearle, 2007). Therefore, the need for students to be encouraged to participate in gardening programs as the benefit will not only reduce the rate of obesity currently spreading among youths, but will contribute to the improve knowledge on science subjects. To build a network between community, parents and schools, a parent’s community approach should be used as the curriculum. The community approach will tighten the link between schools; community members, parents, teachers and students. This will help facilitate a better gardening projects implementation. Through a close collaboration, teachers and students will be able to identify issues affecting communities and undertake action learning in collaboration with community organizations to assess community needs and plan the implementation strategies as parents are part of the community. The sense of efficacy is a central factor in motivational and learning processes that govern educational improvement, standard and performance on complex tasks of both teachers and students. Dedication and willingness are the major stimulator and achievement of a project. Through a stimulator and provision of incentives and facilities, schools can achieve the best in project development. Teachers and principals should be aware that students are the lever for achieving the set goals in schools. Failure to understand what students need will result in achieving zero result. Therefore, it is advised that schools focus more on how to lure students to work through proper collaboration with the parents and community members. Principals and teachers should identify areas where students need to be corrected, helping them to correct the problem will enable them be committed in the schools’ programs.

Effect of environmental conditions on the N uptake route of soil microorganisms and adaption of a method to determine amino acid oxidase in soil

Soil microorganisms have evolved two possible mechanisms for their uptake of organic N: the direct route and the mobilization-immobilization-turnover (MIT) route. In the direct route, simple organic molecules are taken up via various mechanisms directly into the cell. In the MIT route, the deamination occurs outside the cell and all N is mineralized to NH4+ before assimilation. A better understanding of the mechanisms controlling the different uptake routes of soil microorganisms under different environmental conditions is crucial for understanding mineralization processes of organic material in soil. For the first experiment we incubated soil samples from the long term trial in Bad Lauchstädt with corn residues with different C to N ratios and inorganic N for 21 days at 20 °C. Under the assumption that all added amino acids were taken up or mineralized, the direct uptake route was more important in soil amended with corn residues with a wide C to N ratio. After 21 days of incubation the direct uptake of added amino acids increased in the order addition of corn residue with a: “C to N ratio of 40 & (NH4)2SO4 and no addition (control)” (69% and 68%, respectively) < “C to N ratio of 20” (73%) < “C to N ratio of 40” (95%). In all treatments the proportion of the added amino acids that were mineralized increased with time, indicating that the MIT route became more important over time. To investigate the effects of soil depth on the N uptake route of soil microorganisms (experiment II), soil samples in two soil depths (0-5 cm; 30-40 cm) were incubated with corn residues with different C to N ratios and inorganic N for 21 days at 20 °C and 60% (WHC). The addition of corn residue resulted in a marked increase of protease activity in both depths due to the induction from the added substrate. Addition of corn residue with a wide C to N ratio resulted in a significantly greater part of the direct uptake (97% and 94%) than without the addition of residues (85% and 80%) or addition of residue with a small C to N ratio (90% and 84%) or inorganic N (91% and 79% in the surface soil and subsoil, respectively), suggesting that under conditions of sufficient mineralizable N (C to N ratio of 20) or increased concentrations of NH4+, the enzyme system involved in the direct uptake is slightly repressed. Substrate additions resulted in an initially significantly higher increase of the direct uptake in the surface soil than in the subsoil. As a large proportion of the organic N input into soil is in form of proteinaceous material, the deamination of amino acids is a key reaction of the MIT route. Therefore the enzyme amino acid oxidase contribute to the extracellular N mineralization in soil. The objective of experiment III was to adapt a method to determine amino acid oxidase in soil. The detection via synthetic fluorescent Lucifer Yellow derivatives of the amino acid lysine is possible in soil. However, it was not possible to find the substrate concentration at which the reaction rate is independent of substrate concentration and therefore we were not able to develop a valid soil enzyme assay.