Learning About Earthworms in Chewton

Posted on 5 June, 2013 by Connecting Country

On the 27^th May, Chewton Primary School’s students from years 2 to 6 were visited by Connecting Country Landcare Facilitator Max Schlachter to do a special class on the importance of Earthworms.

The visit was prompted by World Environment Day which happened on the 5^th June and had a theme about food waste called ‘Eat.Think.Save’. One way to reduce food waste is to turn unused food and garden waste into compost. Enter the Earthworm – king of compost and soil improver without peer.

Max and students looking for Earthworms in the revolving compost bin at Chewton primary School.

The session began with a short walk into some nearby bush to see if there were any earthworms to be found. There weren’t any. And students were quick to explain that the ground was too hard and dry for earthworms to live in. The school’s vegie garden seemed a much more likely place to find worms but there were none to be found there either. Where were all the worms? We looked in the compost bin next but still no worms … perhaps they were hidden deep amongst the waste?

Not seeing any earthworms didn’t stop the students from learning more about them back in the classroom. An earthworm quiz exposed some interesting information about the humble earthworm, including the fact that they have no less than 5 hearts in their little bodies. And if you accidently cut an earthworm in half with your shovel, will each half make a new worm? No! The half with the head might regrow a tail, but that’s about the best you can hope for.

Students finished the session by writing a story from the perspective of an earthworm. There were worms called Fred, Kevin, Bob and Butch (to name a few) and they had a variety of favourite meals including dirt-burgers, rotten pumpkin with old socks, vegan salad and compost pasta. The stories were displayed at the World Environment Day Fair in the Old Castlemaine Market Building on Sunday 2^nd June.

After learning how good earthworms are at fertilizing and improving the structure of soil, the next challenge for students at Chewton Primary School will be to grow their own population in the vegie patch!

There are some great resources on earthworms to found on the World Wide Web:

Australian Earthworms at the Australian Museum – http://australianmuseum.net.au/Australian-Earthworms

Identifying Earthworms in the paddock (Worm Wise) –http://vro.dpi.vic.gov.au/dpi/vro/vrosite.nsf/pages/soil_health_worm_wise