Some 10,000 "red wigglers" are helping students at Hailey Elementary School learn about science and philanthropy.
Scientifically, the red wigglers are known as Eisenia fetida. In reality, they're earthworms, but not just any old earthworm. Red wigglers are a species adapted to living in rotting vegetation rather than soil. The worms produce compost or a liquid, both of which are excellent for plant health and growth.
Hailey Elementary's second- and third-graders in the Dual Immersion Program, in which students learn in both English and Spanish, have developed a symbiotic relationship with the red wigglers—the students feed them and the worms produce nitrogen-rich "worm tea" that is sold to raise money to feed hungry children in earthquake-ravaged Haiti.
"The more they eat, the more they do worm tea," said third-grader Brayan Medina. "We put it to the plants so they can grow bigger."
The school's worm-tea project was started last fall after teachers Lisa Thilmont and Iliana Sandoval learned about red wigglers and worm tea at an educators' conference in Boise. Teachers Juan Salamanca and Sarah Bristow decided to join the project, and the four teachers with the assistance of the school purchased two "Can-o-Worm" composting bins.
The bins are multi-chambered. Food waste, such as banana and orange peels, apple cores or eggshells, are placed in a top chamber. The worms, living in a chamber below, can crawl into the top chamber for a meal.
A chamber below the living quarters collects what is politely referred to as worm "castings," which in reality are just plain worm excrement. Liquid from the castings drains into a bottom chamber, where it can be collected from a spigot and bottled as worm tea.
Thilmont said the worms are productive little creatures, producing six times their body weight per day in castings.
The tea is sold at the school front desk for whatever a buyer wants to pay, and the proceeds are donated to the Feed the Children charity for relief efforts in Haiti.
Teachers and students seem to be having a lot of fun with the project and have even developed a Web site, www.thewormteaproject.com.
A theme of the Web site is "get wormy." Worm tea is described as "wormderful" for houseplants and videos show students measuring worm growth or collecting worm tea.
Even the worms have a voice on the Web site. A quote attributable to the red wigglers states: "We worms are far from wicked as we squirm about in the dirt. In fact, we are really, really good."
Thilmont described the worm project as "hands-on investigative learning" that teaches the students biology, mathematics, ecology, culture, economics and even art.
The worm tea is bottled in plastic containers the children collect and recycle. Each container is unique with a label hand-drawn and colored by the students.
Beyond the scholastic achievements of the project, Thilmont said the children are learning to be better citizens of the planet.
"They're learning how to reuse their environment—the waste, they are recycling it," she said. "It creates a community of learners who are becoming more responsible citizens because they know that what they do has a rippling effect in the community."
Terry Smith: tsmith@mtexpress.com
Pitching a story
The Idaho Mountain Express became interested in the worm project at Hailey Elementary School after receiving an e-mail a few weeks ago from student Ambar Nava. Here's what Ambar wrote: "My class and I are doing this project about worms. We got some worms from online and we put them in a bin with the food and trash you guys throw away and somehow it turns into juice. And that juice makes your plants grow just like magic. And our class gets to touch real life worms. We have little worms out in the hallway, and I just wanted you guys to know about it cause it sounded so cool. I'm in the second grade. I go to Hailey Elementary School. I am 8 years old. Love, Ambar."
Second- and third-graders at Hailey Elementary School show off their worm friends. From left are Daisy Martinez, Natalie Santacruz, Zoe Simon, Ambar Nava and Carter Strope. Photo by Willy Cook
