Worm School for Teachers

For Teachers

This Web Site contains an Educational Unit that you can use to teach the children in your class or at home on the benefits of minimising waste. The unit includes a range of activities, ideas for lessons and practical suggestions that can be integrated into different subjects.

To take advantage of all the activities, you will need a Can-O-Worms and a supply of Compost worms.

Educational Unit

Using Composting Worms to minimise waste.

Lesson Planning:

Integration Overview
Unit Overview
Unit Tasks
Extension Activities

Integration Overview

Oral: Convince your parents to recycle food waste
Debate: That all worms should be squashed
Presentation: Speak for 1 minute (don't stop) on worms, recycling, waste, worm farms. The audience must listen without speaking
Genre Writing: Procedure; Setting up the Can-O-Worms
Recount: A day in the life of a worm
Discussion: The value of waste minimisation
Explanation: How worms reduce waste
Poem Writing: Writing worm poems
Reading: Information skills for research project
Factual Texts: 'Earthworms' by Henwood, C. 'Infomazing' by Drew, D.

Human Society and Its Environment

Invent a new slogan to reduce waste. Invite speakers to school who work in the waste management area
Write to the local newspaper about the community’s need to improve waste management
Participate in a Clean Up campaign in the community and at school
Visit a waste management system or view a video on recycling
Predict future needs of the school and community in regard to waste management needs

Creative and Practical Arts

Clay: make worms
Textures: make models out of various recycled materials
Colours: the use of brown
Environmental: spaghetti worms
Art: sketch movements of worms; design a poster for waste minimisation; design a poster advertising worms for sale.

Personal Development, Health and Physical Education (PDHPE)

Cleanliness, hygiene, care of worms
Discuss the rules for operating the Can-O-Worms
Feelings about touching worms
Interview parents, class members about how they can help minimise waste.

Maths

Record worm growth
Measure amount of waste disposed of
Weigh 1 worm, 10 worms, 100 worms
Estimate weight of 1000 worms
Guesstimate weight of 1000 worms
Trade with 1s, 10s, 100s, 1000s or worms
Graph types of waste disposed of
Weigh waste over a period of one week.

Unit Overview

Designing and Making

Students design and make a new product that will minimise waste.

Investigating

Students investigate:

Natural and made environments
Biology and ecology of worms
The workings of the Tumbleweed Can-O-Worms

Using Technology

Students will use:

pH kit
Microscope
Magnifying glass
Tumbleweed Can-O-Worms

Resources

Resources required for this unit:

Reference books
Can-O-Worms
Organic waste
Recycled materials

Content Strands

Content Strands used in this unit:

Built Environments
Information and Communication
Living Things
Physical Phenomena
Products and Services
Earth and its Surroundings

Links with other K.L.A.s

English
Creative & Practical Arts
Human Society and its Environments
P.D. / Health / P.E.
Mathematics

Evaluation

Teachers’ evaluation of this unit:

Did all the children actively participate?
Did all the activities produce more investigations?

Unit Tasks

Task 1: To Establish a Working Can-O-Worms

Task Outcomes:

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF CONTENT

Students will know and understand that:

Products are designed and made for particular markets
People try to control the conditions in the environments they build.

OF PROCESS

Students will:

Investigate reliable understandings of the natural and made environments.

SKILLS

Students will:

Devise fair tests
Identify data that supports a particular prediction.

VALUES AND ATTITUDES

Students will:

Exhibit self-direction in their own learning.

ACTIVITIES

Locate, by walking around your school, a suitable environment to keep the TUMBLEWEED Can-O-Worms
List all possible sites
Discuss the attributes for each nominated site
View video of establishing Can-O-Worms
Discuss role of each part of Can-O-Worms
Test various bedding materials to find best product (eg. manure, peat moss) to use
Discover pH level of materials (use pH kit).
Observe worm eggs/worms through microscope magnifying glass
Use reference materials to label parts of a worm
Follow instructions to place bedding and worms in TUMBLEWEED Can-O-Worms
Write procedure for establishment of worm farm.

Reference: Instruction Manual: Tumbleweed Range of Worm Farms

Task 2: Build an Information Bank about Worms

Task Outcomes:

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF CONTENT

Students will know and understand that:

All living things are different
Living things are interdependent in the ecosystem

OF PROCESS

Students will:

Undertake research individually
Identify investigations

SKILLS

Students will:

Present a report on worms
Seek information from outside sources
Observe using all senses

VALUES AND ATTITUDES

Students will:

Be curious
Appreciate the value of worms.

ACTIVITIES

Investigate: worms as living creatures
Develop research/information skills using non-fiction resources
Worm activities: Kids for Landcare
Develop a Worm Map.

Environment - Life Cycle - Reproduction
Food Source - Biology - Interdependence

Discuss meaning of terms
Observe worms' reaction to heat, smell, light, touch (the senses).
Develop experiments to measure reactions.
Record information
Observe worms over a long period
Keep a diary to record changes
Graph length, food eaten, mass
Monitor mass of food eaten
Report findings to class
Present research project to class.

Reference: Kids for Landcare: Wormwatch pp. 18-23, pp. 60-64.

Task 3: To Adopt Procedures which Minimise Waste

Task Outcomes:

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF CONTENT

Students will know and understand that:

Activities of people can change their environment
The consequences for/against waste minimisation.

OF PROCESS

Students will:

Make detailed observations
Examine and evaluate waste systems
Explain how waste can be minimised.

SKILLS

Students will:

Devise ways to minimise the waste in schools.

VALUES AND ATTITUDES

Students will:

Demonstrate a commitment to waste minimization.

ACTIVITIES

Brainstorm the idea of waste
Categorise waste items
Students devise their categories: eg. plastic-paper & household-school-community
Focus on school waste
Trace where waste goes
Develop a flow chart of waste products
Interview a cleaner, gardener, and / or council workers for their opinions on minimising waste
Discuss: How can we reduce our waste products?
Discuss group waste products, what can be recycled?
Discuss the term recycling
Measure the culmination of one waste product over a week; How much? How often? Record findings.
Devise ways to collect, store, and recycle. What can we do with it?
Graph types of waste
Monitor waste over a period of a month. Has it decreased? Why/why not? Propose theory.

Reference: Waste Matters - Gould League of Victoria (1993)

Task 4: To Design and Make a New Product that will Minimise Waste

Task Outcomes:

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF CONTENT

Students will know and understand that:

There are environmental consequences of production and consumption
Systems are designed for specific purposes.

OF PROCESS

Students will:

Produce a brief and plan choices
Justify materials and equipment used.

SKILLS

Students will:

Develop a design
Produce a model
Use appropriate equipment and tools.

VALUES AND ATTITUDES

Students will:

Demonstrate confidence in themselves to attack problems
Demonstrate confidence to seek help.

ACTIVITIES

Evaluate the effectiveness of current disposal units, (eg. recycling bin, compost bin)
Outline advantages/disadvantages of each system
Discuss: What else could be recycled?
Follow design process for Creative Problem Solving:

Define Task - what waste product have you chosen?
Explore Ideas - what will it be made of?
Develop Ideas - draw, design, model
Selection Solutions - refine model
Using resources - test various materials
Evaluate outcome - problems associated? Positive aspects? Is it possible to make it at production level?
Present product to class or assembly
Invite an expert to give a professional opinion on construction, ideas and material
Find out more about recycled plastics and products.

Reference: Waste Matters - Gould League of Victoria (1993)

Extension Activities

Elect monitors to find students who are Environment Friends. Give awards in assembly
Tally and record the number of earthworms brought to school by students
Link up with other schools to discover how they use their worms
Visit a City Farm / Council operated composting and recycling centre and go on the Worm Walk
Make a list of other animals that are hermaphrodites
Find out more about soil and soil conservation
Discover worms' natural predators
Have a worm race
Construct a Worm and Ladder game
Join the CSIRO Double HELIX Science Club
Organise guest speakers: Keep Australia Beautiful
Arrange an excursion to a Worm Farm (see list of worm growers in Can-O-Worms instruction manual).

References:

Appelhof, M. 1982. Worms Eat My Garbage. Flower Press, Michigan.
Armstrong P. / Laffin J. 1993. Waste Matters. Gould League of Victoria.
Board of Studies, 1991. N.S.W. Science and Technology Syllabus, K-6.
C.S.I.R.O. 1978. Earthworms for Gardeners and Fishermen. CSIRO East Melbourne.
Douglas, D.E. / Gaddie. 1977. Earthworms for Ecology and Profit. Vol II Bookworm, California.
Lambert, D. 1983. Earthworm Breeding for Profit. Weston & Co. Kiama.
S.A. Dept. of Education, 1991. Environment.
S.A. Dept. of Education, 1992. Kids for Landcare, Wormwatch.
Sosnowski, J. 1982. Earthworms. The Big Fat Worm Farm, Valla.