Making Your Own School Worm Farm - SEED Home · Worms have around 1,900 sense organs in every segment of their body. These give worms a sense of touch and taste, and the ability to

Waste Activity 3 - Making Your Own School Worm Farm Page 1 of 15NEWRRG - 2015

Making Your OwnSchool Worm Farm

Overview:

This unit provides a whole school or classroom project suitable for any year level to develop goodrecycling attitudes and understandings of how helpful worms can be in processing our waste. It isa simple, cheap, kid-friendly, non-smelly, vermin proof, curriculum-integrated, money savingworm farming project – the ultimate in Recycling. Opportunities are provided for research intoworm life cycles as well as their place in the food chain. Schools and students are encouraged todevelop processes within their school or classroom to make worm farming an easy sustainableactivity to adopt.

The activities in this unit are stand alone. Teachers may wish to pick bits and pieces that aresuitable for what they want their class to achieve. The activities can also be adapted to suitdifferent age levels.

Did You Know?

Worms have 5 hearts Earthworms are hermaphrodites - both male and female Earthworms don't have lungs, they breathe through their skin as long as it stays moist. Worms don't have eyes, but are sensitive to light Worms have around 1,900 sense organs in every segment of their body. These give

worms a sense of touch and taste, and the ability to detect light. Baby worms hatch from cocoons smaller than a grain of rice. Worms can breed every seven to ten days Worms can eat equivalent to their weight each day.

Source: http://worms.a1sites.com/worm_facts.html


Table of Contents:

Activity PageOverview 1Did you Know? 1Activity One: Making your own Worm Farm 3Activity Two: Making Worm Farming Sustainable 4Activity Three: Learning about Worms 5Activity Four: Worms as part of the Food Chain 6Useful Links 7AusVELS Alignment 8Appendix 1: Why Have a worm farm at school? 10Appendix 2: The Ultimate in Recycling 11Appendix 3: Venn Diagram – Similarities and Differences between wormsand another decomposer

12

Appendix 4: Compiling your food chain 13Appendix 5: Sample Food Chain 14

DisclaimerWorm castings may contain weeds, seeds and plant/animal pathogens. To ensure destruction ofweeds, seeds and disease organisms that may be present in the organic materials, users ofvermicast should look for products that have been pasteurised according to the AustralianStandard 4454 (2002).


Activity One: Making your Worm Farm:

EQUIPMENT:

There are many ways to make worm farms and many commercial systems available.The one chosen for this activity requires materials and processes that are easily accessible andmanageable for schools. This information is sourced from:http://thethousands.com.au/melbourne/make/diy-worm-farm

To make your worm farm you will need:

Worms A drill 2 Plastic tubs (not clear ones) 2 Bricks Newspapers Food scraps and paper

METHOD:

1. Place 2 bricks at the bottom of one of the tubs (The second tub sits inside the first andrests on these bricks – allowing space for air and for wee to collect)

2. Drill some holes in the bottom of your second tub. This allows the wee to trickle down forcollection. Also drill some holes in the lid (for air)

3. Place the second tub in the first tub and line the bottom with sheets of newspaper4. Tear up some newspaper into strips to half fill the tub5. Add a shovelful of soil6. Water it – moist – not damp7. Add a box of worms – these can be bought from a local hardware store or sourced from

someone who already has their own worm farm8. Feed your kitchen or lunch scraps to your worms. They love most fruit and vegetables –

scraps and peels - (they are a bit fussy about citrus though) - and they love bread, tea bags,coffee grounds and egg shells but are not too keen on meat

9. They also eat paper and cardboard, so line your classroom compost bin with shreddedpaper that has been used on both sides and tip it in to the wormery with your scraps – thisalso helps to keep your classroom compost bin cleaner and saves adding paper at a laterstage

10. Add more shredded paper on top (if you don’t include it as described in # 9)11. Add more water. Repeat steps 10 and 11 after every addition of scraps.12. Cover with a lid and leave in a shaded area so it doesn’t dry out – if kept off the ground,

this should be vermin proof as well13. You can add a simple tap to the bottom of the first tub to access the wee if you want14. Use the worm wee to fertilize your vegetables and herbs.

TAKE CARE - ALWAYS USE GLOVES WHEN HANDLING WORMS ANDTHEIR WEE OR CASTINGS AND WASH YOUR HANDS AFTERWARDS


Activity Two: Making Worm Farming Sustainable:

Worm Farming needs to be a practice within your school or classroom that everyone contributesto, and everyone finds easy. To do this there needs to be a number of things put in place:

1. Students, teachers, parents, and all school employees and volunteers need to understandboth the reasoning and the processes you develop in your school. Use the informationfrom ‘Why we have a Worm Farm at School’ in Appendix 1, and ‘The Ultimate in Recycling’in Appendix 2, to assist in this understanding.

2. Students will need to find out and record how they will look after their worms. This will bedifferent for every school or classroom. Use the 5 Ws & H thinking strategy to come upwith processes that will be workable in your own situation. Here is an example of some ofthe questions that may arise, but it is suggested that students work out what questions areimportant to them and then arrange and present their information in a logical order.

Who Who is going to be responsible for each component?Who should be informed about what we are doing?

Why Provide explanation as to why these processes are being put into place (seeAppendices 1 and 2)

What What scraps can we feed our worms?What environment do our worms need to survive?

When When will we collect the compost buckets and feed the worms?When do we need to add water?When can we access the shredder?

Where Where will we keep the wormery?Where will we put the compost buckets?Where can we collect the newspapers?Where will we keep the shredder?

How How will we look after the worms over the weekends and holidays?How will we inform other people in our school?How will we know this is working?

3. Students either write a set of instructions or prepare a ‘How to Care for our Worms’poster, or create a poster that explains the process to the wider school about how theirworm farm operates.

4. Students measure the amount of scraps put into the worm each week. This can bemeasured in a number of ways depending on the level of student:

a) Younger students can measure in buckets fullb) Upper Primary students can weigh the buckets in kilograms or estimate in litresc) Secondary students may like to estimate in litres and convert to kilograms – the

food waste conversion is 1 litre = 0.343 kg (or roughly 3 litres to a kg)d) A conversion calculator is provided on the Sustainability Victoria website:

http://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/services-and-advice/business/energy-and-materials-efficiency-for-business/resources-and-tools/materials-efficiency

5. Some students may also like to work out the savings made in dollar terms of not sendingthis organic material to landfill. This can be in the form of a cost-analysis activity. Studentscan prepare an article or graph for the newsletter to report on their findings.


6. Students can also then measure the amount of wee produced and keep records of thisusing graphing applications. They may wish to set up a marketing scenario to sell theworm wee, or work out the best ratios to use on gardens.

Activity Three: Learning about Worms:

PLEASE NOTE: It is advisable that students wear gloves when handlingworms or their castings and wash their hands when they have finished.

1. Describe an earthworm. Use a magnifying glass to study a worm.Try to identify its mouth and the receptors on the segments of itsbody. How many segments does your worm have? Do all wormshave the same number of segments? Draw a diagram of the wormlabelling each part. (You may also like to look carefully in thewormery to see if you can find any worm eggs).

2. In groups, make up 3 questions about worms. Share these with the class. Now each groupchoose one of the questions to research and present the answer to the class.

3. Use the ‘Useful Links’ given on page 7 or find others of your own to find out 10 interestingfacts about worms – Remember to include details to explain each of your facts. You maypresent these as a quiz, or find another creative way to display what you have found.

4. (For Upper Levels) Worm Classification. Worms are invertebrates, that is, they have nobackbone. The following table demonstrates how the worm is classified. Beside eachclassification, write a short description of this classification when referring to worms.

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Annelida

Class: Oligochaeta

Subclass: Haplotaxida

Order: Megadrilacea

Suborder: Lumbricina +

Moniligastrid


Activity Four: Worms as Part of the Food Chain:

Worms form a very important part of the food chain. In fact, Charles Darwin (1881) wrote in TheFormation of Vegetable Mould, “It may be doubted whether there are many other animals whichhave played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organisedcreatures.” Darwin, of course, was referring to earthworms.

Worms are at the bottom of the food chain. They are decomposers. Without decomposers, wewould basically be living in a vast garbage dump full of decaying plants and animals.

1. Worms are in the decomposer level of the food chain. Research and make a list of otherdecomposers that live in your area. Take some photographs of those you are able to find.

2. Choose one other ‘decomposer’ and use the Venn Diagram in appendix 3 on page 12 toidentify what the similarities and differences are between this decomposer and worms.

3. What eats worms? Now make a list of all the local predators of worms. This will help youunderstand how you will need to protect your worms in your worm farm.

4. With your knowledge of what worms eat, and what eats worms, you should now be ableto compile a food chain using the pictures provided in Appendix 4 on page 13. An exampleof how to set up a food chain is also provided in Appendix 5 on page 14. You may wish touse your photographs from your local area to demonstrate this food chain.

5. Imagine if there were no ‘decomposers’. Describe what you think the earth would be like.


Useful Links:

MAKING WORM FARMS

http://thethousands.com.au/melbourne/make/diy-worm-farm

FACTS ABOUT WORMS

http://www.earthlydelight.co.nz/info-fascinating.htm

http://ecowatch.com/2014/03/08/10-facts-about-earthworms/

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/worms/facts/

http://www.biologyjunction.com/earthworm%20facts.htm

http://kids.nationalgeographic.com/animals/earthworm/

http://animals.nationalgeographic.com.au/animals/invertebrates/earthworm/

http://www.todayifoundout.com/index.php/2011/05/10-facts-about-worms/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1tWYmoKNFw

http://worms.a1sites.com/worm_facts.html

FOOD CHAINS

https://sites.google.com/site/earthworm2222013/food-chain-and-trophic-levels

http://sciencelearn.org.nz/Science-Stories/Earthworms/Earthworms-role-in-the-ecosystem

CONVERSION CALCULATOR

http://www.sustainability.vic.gov.au/services-and-advice/business/energy-and-materials-efficiency-for-business/resources-and-tools/materials-efficiency


AusVELS Alignment:

This activity supports the cross-curriculum priority of SUSTAINABILITY, reflecting the organisingidea of SYSTEMS (01.1): The biosphere is a dynamic system providing conditions that sustain life onEarth; (0.2): All life forms, including human life, are connected through ecosystems on which theydepend for their well being and survival; (0.3): Sustainable patterns of living rely on theinterdependence of healthy social, economic and ecological systems.

This activity can assist with learning in the following areas:

Domains & Dimensions Activity

INTERDISCIPLINARY LEARNING

Communication - Presenting 2.3

Communication – Listening, Viewing and Responding 1

Design, Creativity and Technology - Producing 1

Information and Communications Technology - Communicating 4.1

Thinking Processes – Processing, Reasoning and Inquiry 2 4.1

Thinking Processes - Creativity 2 4.2

PHYSICAL PERSONAL AND SOCIAL LEARNING

Civics and Citizenship – Civic Knowledge and Understanding 2

Civics and Citizenship – Community Engagement 2

Interpersonal Development – Building Social Relationships 2

Interpersonal Development – Working in Teams 1

DISCIPLINARY LEARNING

Science: Science Understanding – Biological Science 1 3.1 3.4 4

Science: Science Enquiry Skills – Planning and Conducting 1 2 3.2

Science: Science Enquiry Skills - Communicating 3.2 3.4

English: Language - Expressing and Developing Ideas 2.3


English: Literature – Creating Literature 2.3 3.3

English: Literacy – Interacting with Others 2.3

English: Literacy – Creating Texts 2.3 3.3

Mathematics – Measurement and Geometry 2.4

Mathematics – Statistics and Probability 2.4

Humanities: Economics – Economic Reasoning and Interpretation 2.1 2.2 2.4


Appendix 1:

Why Have a Worm Farm at School:

Three main reasons: Curriculum, Environment, Cost!

Curriculum: With some scrap materials and just two plastictubs that fit inside each other you can make a simple, butvery effective wormery. You can make a wormery for theschool, or each class can make their own wormery andinclude studies of living things in Biological Science as wellas utilizing the wormery to cover many Science as a HumanEndeavour Learning and Science Inquiry Skills. Much of thePhysical, Personal and Social Learning and InterdisciplinaryDomains can also be practiced as part of the attitudes,understandings and practices involved in having a schoolworm farm.(See section on AusVELS alignment)

Environment: Put simply, food scraps from students’ lunches, staffroom, canteen and kitchengarden programs are fed to the worms instead of being sent to landfill. Newspapers can also beused in the wormery along with shredded scrap paper of which there is usually a whole lot ofproduced in schools. Sensitive documents can be shredded and once other paper has been usedboth sides, it too can be shredded. Worms love it and it also makes great lining for compost bins –meaning the compost bins are a lot easier to keep clean as well. This of course keeps all this paperout of the waste stream as well and you don’t need to pay for recycling – the worms do it for free!These wormeries don’t require much space and vermin can’t get in.

Cost: Most of the materials needed for your wormery can be sourced from scrap materialsaround the school or home at little or no cost. Developing a school worm farm will end up savingyour school quite a bit of money due to the diminished cost of waste removal and charges fortransport of recycling paper. As well as this, you will be provided with a safe, natural fertilizer foruse on the gardens around the school. So Wormeries are really the ultimate in Recycling – seeappendix 2, page 11.


Appendix 2:

The Ultimate in Recycling:

By having a worm farm at your school, much of your organic materials can be recycled. The weeproduced by your worms can then be used in your school garden – it is a wonderful naturalfertilizer for all your vegetables and herbs. (See Figure 1)

Figure 1: The Ultimate in Recycling

UsedClassroom

Paper

School LunchScraps

Torn UpCardboardPackaging

KitchenGardenScraps

UsedNewspapers

StaffroomScraps

ShreddedSensitive

Documents

CanteenScraps

WormFarm

Worm wee isproduced and used

as a natural fertilizerand put back on the

garden.


Appendix 3:

Venn Diagram: Similarities and Differences betweenworms and ...(another decomposer)

OTH

ER D

ECO

MPO

SER

WO

RMS

SIM

ILA

RITI

ES


Appendix 4:Compiling your food chainUse these pictures to compile your food chain. You can also use other pictures or photographsfrom your area to represent either the natural cycle or the worm farming cycle. Some samplefood chains are included on the next page but you can make up your own if you wish.


Appendix 5:Two Sample Food ChainsSometimes you may want to add more from the sides


Change these (add and delete boxes and arrows) in order to represent your food chain in the best way youcan. You can use either words or pictures or a combination of both.