FOCUS: Life abounds in the soil, from plant roots to earthworms to moles and millipedes. All these organisms play important roles in the flow of energy and matter through an ecosystem. Many soil critters act as decomposers, breaking down plant and animal materials and returning them as nutrients to the soil where other living things may use them again. The soil is a rich ecosystem teeming with life in a complex food web.
INTRODUCTION
Objective: To begin to explore and ask questions about life in the dirt.
Provide a container of worms in moist soil. Have children wet their hands before handling worms or dampen them with the water mister. Set out paper plates covered with damp paper towels. Review how to use a magnifying lens. Place a worm (rinsed in clean water, if needed) on each plate. Give small groups of children time to observe and draw, and ask what they notice about the worms.
Materials: earthworms, one for each pair of children (any kind of garden worm is fine; night-crawlers are less active but larger, so the parts are easier to view; smaller worms are often more active and thus more fun; invasive jumping worms are oddly active); water mister, paper plate and damp paper towel for each worm; magnifying lenses.
EARTHWORMS UP CLOSE
Objective: To view some special characteristics of earthworms and consider how these make them well suited to life in the soil.
When working with worms, keep them out of the sun. Do not release any worms in the forest. Return collected worms to the place where you found them. Store-bought worms can be placed in a compost pile.
Have children work in pairs or small groups.
Things to Look for with a Lens:
Body segments – notice how the body seems to be made of many rings
The worm’s digestive tract full of dirt
The front end or mouth of the worm; the tail end – can you tell which is which? Does the worm have eyes? (No, though it can sense light through its skin.)
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