chemistry

WWOOF

WWOOF is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand WWOOF rather than just read about it. In short: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF ), or World Wide Organization of Organic Farms, is a network of national organizations that facilitate homestays on organic farms. There is no central list or organization that encompasses all WWOOF hosts.

Key takeaways

WWOOF belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect WWOOF to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of WWOOF from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF ), or World Wide Organization of Organic Farms, is a network of national organizations that facilitate homestays on organic farms. There is no central list or organization that encompasses all WWOOF hosts. As there is no single international WWOOF membership, all recognized WWOOF country organizations strive to maintain similar standards, and cooperate together to promote the aims of WWOOF. WWOOF provides volunteers (often called "WWOOFers" or "woofers" ) with enough experience in organic and ecologically sound growing methods to help the organic movement. They let volunteers experience life in a rural setting or in a different nation. WWOOF volunteers generally do not receive a salary in exchange for services. The host provides food, lodging, and opportunities to learn, in exchange for assistance with farming or gardening activities for the host. The duration of the visit can range from days to years. Workdays average five to six hours, and participants interact with WWOOFers from other countries. WWOOF farms include private gardens through smallholdings, allotments, and commercial farms. Farms become WWOOF hosts by enlisting with their regional organization. In countries with no WWOOF organization, farms enlist with WWOOF Independents.

History WWOOF originally stood for "Working Weekends On Organic Farms" and began in England in 1971. Sue Coppard, a woman working as a secretary in London, wanted to provide urban dwellers with access to the countryside while supporting the organic movement. Her idea started with a trial of working weekends for four people at the biodynamic farm at Emerson College in Sussex. People soon started volunteering for longer periods than just weekends, so the name was changed to Willing Workers On Organic Farms. Eventually, the word "work" caused problems with some countries' labor laws and immigration authorities, who tended to treat WWOOFers as migrant workers and oppose foreigners competing for local jobs. (Many WWOOFers enter countries on tourist visas, which is illegal in countries such as the United States.) Both in an attempt to circumvent this and also in recognition of WWOOFing's worldwide scope, the name was changed again in 2000 to World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. Some WWOOF groups (such as Australia) choose to retain the older name, however.

Volunteering Volunteers choose which country they would like to visit and volunteer in and it is their responsibility to contact the relevant organization to arrange the dates and duration of their stay at selected farms. The duration of a volunteer's stay can range from days to months, but is typically one to two weeks. Volunteers usually work for 4–6 hours a day in return for a one day's worth of food on top of accommodation. Volunteers are expected to assist with a variety of tasks, including but not limited to; sowing seed, making compost, gardening, planting, cutting wood, weeding, harvesting, packing, milking, feeding, fencing, making mud-bricks, wine making, cheese making, and bread baking.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with WWOOF

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what WWOOF claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to WWOOF before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about WWOOF ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of WWOOF

In research: WWOOF appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses WWOOF in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: WWOOF is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Hospitality exchange services, Organic farming organizations, Organic gardening, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for WWOOF outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study WWOOF in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what WWOOF means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain WWOOF out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is WWOOF in simple terms?

Why does WWOOF matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study WWOOF?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on WWOOF.