Welcome to Worm Central
By Lisa Madison, A.L. Rydant, Raymond A. Jobin and Cindy Sterling

Students test the schoolyard soil (above). Vermicomposting is definitely not for the those who don't like getting their hands dirty (right)! After this project, it was decided that the worms would head home with volunteer families each summer. The worms then return to school in the fall to begin another round of vermicomposting.

"Can I pet one?" "Do I really have to touch them?!" These are just a couple of the reactions we heard during a school-wide program introducing vermicomposting (composting with worms) at Epping Elementary in Epping, NH. Led by fourth grade teacher Lisa Madison, the school adopted Feed It to the Worms: A Vermicomposting Geographic Curriculum, developed by the New Hampshire Geographic Alliance (NHGA). Within days of introducing this program, parents were reporting how excited their children were about raising worms. Lisa's classroom was henceforth known as "worm central."

Worms galore! The project took off in November 2003 when 15 pounds of redworms were delivered to the school. Armed with an integrated curriculum and a modest amount of startup money, Lisa enlisted the support of her school's principal and 15 other core teachers by clearly demonstrating how the vermi-lessons connected to state and national standards for music, the arts, math, science and social studies. It was invigorating to witness the excitement as students dug into the pile of compost and worms spread on a tarp on Lisa's classroom floor. Plastic gloves were available for the more timid teachers and students, but with time, even they had their hands in the pile.

Gardens of learning. The early soil lessons in the Feed It to the Worms curriculum dovetailed perfectly into the school's ongoing Artist-in-Residence program, where students were actively engaged with a landscape artist, sculptor and potter to construct four thematic learning gardens on campus. For example, a New Hampshire-shaped garden created by a fourth grade class presented common state flora and, after soil testing experiments coordinated with one of the vermi-lessons, the soil was amended with the vermicomposting material generated in the worm bins. Every garden contained a host of sculpted and clay-fired art related to its particular theme, as well as relevant plants, raised with the aid of classroom-generated compost. A strong unifying theme throughout the program was humankind's relationship with our Earth.

Worm music. Prior to actual construction of compost bins, classes discussed the importance of conservation, stewardship and keeping the Earth clean. Instructional transparencies of soil and climate clearly demonstrated worm ecosystems and habitat concepts. Also included in the curriculum is Linda Glaser's book Compost! Growing Gardens From Your Garbage (Millbrook Press, 1996), which set an important base for the curriculum's culminating lesson, as well as an opportunity to incorporate music into the program. Other classes added Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin (Joanna Cotler, 2003) and How to Eat Fried Worms by Thomas Rockwell (Yearling, 1953).

On Earth Day, one class made Dirt Pudding, complete with gummy worms.

A pound of worms. After preparing the compost bins with proper bedding material and learning what worms eat, students added their pound of worms. Since following lessons required an actual worm count in order to measure and plot population growth, it was necessary to know our starting population base. Counting a pound of worms, however, is quite a challenge. Some classes dutifully tallied; others used estimating and problem-solving techniques to determine how best to total their worms. Classes counted by ones, some by tens and others by 25, using addition and multiplication skills. There was lively discussion on the variety of mathematical strategies to arrive at a total. Some proposed counting the number of worms in one ounce and then multiplying by 16. This led to a discussion about the size and weight of individual worms, drawing parallels that some worms in one group might be bigger and heavier or smaller and lighter than worms in other groups.

A real, live vermi-village.

It takes a vermi-village. As the worm ecosystem progressed and soil (castings) developed, students in one fourth grade classroom constructed a worm village. The class toured their local historical society to ascertain buildings needed for their worm village. Each child made a building from a milk carton, placed bedding and worms inside and added it to their "vermi-village." Later, the buildings went home for a short time so students could maintain a vermicomposting log in which to record the condition of their worms.

Continuing evolution of the bins led to student discoveries about maintenance and trial-and-error lessons on worm health. Cooperating teachers discussed the range of learning activities experienced in their rooms and shared ideas and resources. Students were writing poems and stories about their worms; worms were being employed to reinforce measuring concepts; the children learned how to calibrate and use a scale and they also learned estimation as well as concepts related to volume and weight.

See you next season. In March, five months after the project initiation, classes began to harvest their compost for the culminating lessons. Students created various mixtures of soil and vermicompost to propagate, measure and chart plant growth. Teachers in grades 3-5 used soil-testing kits to quantify pH, nitrogen, potash and acidity levels as inputs to plant growth charts. The Ecology Club gathered soil from emerging schoolyard gardens and created other soil/compost mixtures, fashioning experiments and hypotheses to demonstrate and predict growth, plant vitality and color. These experiments helped all students create a viable soil bed from the generally poor schoolyard soils.

All of the work in the learning gardens was accomplished with the cooperation of the Artist-in-Residence program, the children and staff and our very generous and connected community. Classrooms are responsible for the care of their garden and the worm compost helps keep the soil rich with nutrients so it can serve as the base to grow seeds for next season's plantings.

Lisa's class sang "The Worm Rap" at the school-wide Earth Day assembly.

Lisa Madison is a fourth grade teacher at Epping Elementary in Epping, NH. A.L. Rydant and Raymond A. Jobin are geography and education professors, respectively, at Keene State College and co-coordinators of the New Hampshire Geographic Alliance. Cindy Sterling is president of Impact Earth, Inc., a nonprofit environmental and health consulting firm and a leading proponent of vermicomposting programs.

February 2006, Vol.36, No.5