Making Your Own
School Worm Farm
Overview:
This unit provides a whole school or classroom project suitable for any year level to develop good
recycling attitudes and understandings of how helpful worms can be in processing our waste. It is
a simple, cheap, kid-friendly, non-smelly, vermin proof, curriculum-integrated, money saving
worm farming project – the ultimate in Recycling. Opportunities are provided for research into
worm life cycles as well as their place in the food chain. Schools and students are encouraged to
develop processes within their school or classroom to make worm farming an easy sustainable
activity to adopt.
The activities in this unit are stand alone. Teachers may wish to pick bits and pieces that are
suitable for what they want their class to achieve. The activities can also be adapted to suit
different age levels.
Did You Know?
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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.
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Waste Activity 3 - Making Your Own School Worm Farm
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Source: http://worms.a1sites.com/worm_facts.html
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Table of Contents:
Activity
Overview
Did you Know?
Activity One: Making your own Worm Farm
Activity Two: Making Worm Farming Sustainable
Activity Three: Learning about Worms
Activity Four: Worms as part of the Food Chain
Useful Links
AusVELS Alignment
Appendix 1: Why Have a worm farm at school?
Appendix 2: The Ultimate in Recycling
Appendix 3: Venn Diagram – Similarities and Differences between worms
and another decomposer
Appendix 4: Compiling your food chain
Appendix 5: Sample Food Chain
Page
1
1
3
4
5
6
7
8
10
11
12
13
14
Disclaimer
Worm castings may contain weeds, seeds and plant/animal pathogens. To ensure destruction of
weeds, seeds and disease organisms that may be present in the organic materials, users of
vermicast should look for products that have been pasteurised according to the Australian
Standard 4454 (2002).
Waste Activity 3 - Making Your Own School Worm Farm
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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 and
manageable for schools. This information is sourced from:
http://thethousands.com.au/melbourne/make/diy-worm-farm
To make your worm farm you will need:
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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 and
rests 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 for
collection. 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 newspaper
4. Tear up some newspaper into strips to half fill the tub
5. Add a shovelful of soil
6. Water it – moist – not damp
7. Add a box of worms – these can be bought from a local hardware store or sourced from
someone who already has their own worm farm
8. 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 shredded
paper that has been used on both sides and tip it in to the wormery with your scraps – this
also helps to keep your classroom compost bin cleaner and saves adding paper at a later
stage
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 well
13. You can add a simple tap to the bottom of the first tub to access the wee if you want
14. Use the worm wee to fertilize your vegetables and herbs.
TAKE CARE - ALWAYS USE GLOVES WHEN HANDLING WORMS AND
THEIR WEE OR CASTINGS AND WASH YOUR HANDS AFTERWARDS
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Activity Two: Making Worm Farming Sustainable:
Worm Farming needs to be a practice within your school or classroom that everyone contributes
to, 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 understand
both the reasoning and the processes you develop in your school. Use the information
from ‘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 be
different for every school or classroom. Use the 5 Ws & H thinking strategy to come up
with processes that will be workable in your own situation. Here is an example of some of
the questions that may arise, but it is suggested that students work out what questions are
important to them and then arrange and present their information in a logical order.
Who
Why
What
When
Where
How
Who is going to be responsible for each component?
Who should be informed about what we are doing?
Provide explanation as to why these processes are being put into place (see
Appendices 1 and 2)
What scraps can we feed our worms?
What environment do our worms need to survive?
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 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 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 their
worm farm operates.
4. Students measure the amount of scraps put into the worm each week. This can be
measured in a number of ways depending on the level of student:
a) Younger students can measure in buckets full
b) Upper Primary students can weigh the buckets in kilograms or estimate in litres
c) 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-andmaterials-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 sending
this organic material to landfill. This can be in the form of a cost-analysis activity. Students
can prepare an article or graph for the newsletter to report on their findings.
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6. Students can also then measure the amount of wee produced and keep records of this
using graphing applications. They may wish to set up a marketing scenario to sell the
worm 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 handling
worms 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 its
body. How many segments does your worm have? Do all worms
have the same number of segments? Draw a diagram of the worm
labelling each part. (You may also like to look carefully in the
wormery 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 group
choose 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 interesting
facts about worms – Remember to include details to explain each of your facts. You may
present 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 no
backbone. The following table demonstrates how the worm is classified. Beside each
classification, write a short description of this classification when referring to worms.
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Annelida
Class:
Oligochaeta
Subclass:
Haplotaxida
Order:
Megadrilacea
Suborder:
Lumbricina +
Moniligastrid
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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 The
Formation of Vegetable Mould, “It may be doubted whether there are many other animals which
have played so important a part in the history of the world, as have these lowly organised
creatures.” Darwin, of course, was referring to earthworms.
Worms are at the bottom of the food chain. They are decomposers. Without decomposers, we
would 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 other
decomposers 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 to
identify 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 you
understand 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 able
to compile a food chain using the pictures provided in Appendix 4 on page 13. An example
of how to set up a food chain is also provided in Appendix 5 on page 14. You may wish to
use 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.
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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-forbusiness/resources-and-tools/materials-efficiency
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AusVELS Alignment:
This activity supports the cross-curriculum priority of SUSTAINABILITY, reflecting the organising
idea of SYSTEMS (01.1): The biosphere is a dynamic system providing conditions that sustain life on
Earth; (0.2): All life forms, including human life, are connected through ecosystems on which they
depend for their well being and survival; (0.3): Sustainable patterns of living rely on the
interdependence of healthy social, economic and ecological systems.
This activity can assist with learning in the following areas:
Domains & Dimensions
Activity
INTERDISCIPLINARY LEARNING
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Communication - Presenting
2.3
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Communication – Listening, Viewing and Responding
1
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Design, Creativity and Technology - Producing
1
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Information and Communications Technology - Communicating
4.1
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Thinking Processes – Processing, Reasoning and Inquiry
2 4.1
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Thinking Processes - Creativity
2 4.2
PHYSICAL PERSONAL AND SOCIAL LEARNING
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Civics and Citizenship – Civic Knowledge and Understanding
2
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Civics and Citizenship – Community Engagement
2
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Interpersonal Development – Building Social Relationships
2
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Interpersonal Development – Working in Teams
1
DISCIPLINARY LEARNING
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Science: Science Understanding – Biological Science
1 3.1 3.4 4
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Science: Science Enquiry Skills – Planning and Conducting
1 2 3.2
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Science: Science Enquiry Skills - Communicating
3.2 3.4
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English: Language - Expressing and Developing Ideas
2.3
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English: Literature – Creating Literature
2.3 3.3
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English: Literacy – Interacting with Others
2.3
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English: Literacy – Creating Texts
2.3 3.3
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Mathematics – Measurement and Geometry
2.4
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Mathematics – Statistics and Probability
2.4
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Humanities: Economics – Economic Reasoning and Interpretation
2.1 2.2 2.4
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Appendix 1:
Why Have a Worm Farm at School:
Three main reasons: Curriculum, Environment, Cost!
Curriculum: With some scrap materials and just two plastic
tubs that fit inside each other you can make a simple, but
very effective wormery. You can make a wormery for the
school, or each class can make their own wormery and
include studies of living things in Biological Science as well
as utilizing the wormery to cover many Science as a Human
Endeavour Learning and Science Inquiry Skills. Much of the
Physical, Personal and Social Learning and Interdisciplinary
Domains can also be practiced as part of the attitudes,
understandings and practices involved in having a school
worm farm.
(See section on AusVELS alignment)
Environment: Put simply, food scraps from students’ lunches, staffroom, canteen and kitchen
garden programs are fed to the worms instead of being sent to landfill. Newspapers can also be
used in the wormery along with shredded scrap paper of which there is usually a whole lot of
produced in schools. Sensitive documents can be shredded and once other paper has been used
both 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 paper
out 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 materials
around the school or home at little or no cost. Developing a school worm farm will end up saving
your school quite a bit of money due to the diminished cost of waste removal and charges for
transport of recycling paper. As well as this, you will be provided with a safe, natural fertilizer for
use on the gardens around the school. So Wormeries are really the ultimate in Recycling – see
appendix 2, page 11.
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Appendix 2:
The Ultimate in Recycling:
By having a worm farm at your school, much of your organic materials can be recycled. The wee
produced by your worms can then be used in your school garden – it is a wonderful natural
fertilizer for all your vegetables and herbs. (See Figure 1)
Used
Classroom
Paper
School Lunch
Scraps
Torn Up
Cardboard
Packaging
Figure 1: The Ultimate in Recycling
Waste Activity 3 - Making Your Own School Worm Farm
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Canteen
Scraps
Worm
Farm
Kitchen
Garden
Scraps
Shredded
Sensitive
Documents
Staffroom
Scraps
Used
Newspapers
Worm wee is
produced and used
as a natural fertilizer
and put back on the
garden.
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Appendix 3:
WORMS
SIMILARITIES
OTHER DECOMPOSER
Venn Diagram: Similarities and Differences between
worms and ...(another decomposer)
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Appendix 4:
Compiling your food chain
Use these pictures to compile your food chain. You can also use other pictures or photographs
from your area to represent either the natural cycle or the worm farming cycle. Some sample
food chains are included on the next page but you can make up your own if you wish.
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Appendix 5:
Two Sample Food Chains
Sometimes you may want to add more from the sides
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Change these (add and delete boxes and arrows) in order to represent your food chain in the best way you
can. You can use either words or pictures or a combination of both.
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