Worming their way through class
Red, wiggly worms joined an ongoing science experiment at Butler Middle School to the delight of their young caretakers.
As of last year, the middle school raises channel catfish and rainbow trout in a small-scale fishery for the Pennsylvania Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Students are the main catfish supplier for Glade Run Lake, and they load their trout into the Connoquenessing Creek as a field trip.
Teachers Dave McCool and Bob Takacs use the program to teach ecological cycles. Fish waste is harvested as manure for a hydroponic garden in which students grow herbs and fruits to eat.
With a new supply of more than 1,000 worms, the teachers are introducing decomposers to the lesson, completing the loop. McCool introduced a fifth-grade class to the concept and a pound of fresh red wigglers Wednesday morning.“We finally have been able to connect the matter cycle into one big circle,” McCool said. “We start at the bin. We've got broken down dead stuff. The worms break it all down into great nutritious soil to grow the plant.”Students introduced the worms to plastic bins that will serve as their new homes. They'll be the prime facilitators of a composting technique known as vermicomposting, or worm composting.The bins started off filled with shredded copies of this newspaper. The paper is a suitable substitute for the leafy ground cover the worms live in normally.
Then, students introduce food scraps from their cafeteria, plant clippings from their garden and McCool's morning banana peels to feed the wigglers. The worms break it down into nutrient-rich soil and reproduce. Eventually, they hope to have enough of a worm population to feed some to the fish.Science aside, introducing worms to the setup meant a bunch of middle schoolers got to play with handfuls of worms in class.William Fielder, 10, said reaching his hands into a bucket of squirming worms “felt weird.”“I could feel them running across my hand,” Fielder said. “They were slimy.”Not everyone felt like Fielder. One student resigned himself only to filling out his group's scientific observation sheet on the worms, but wouldn't touch them.
Another student, Jaeden Malacaman, shouted “uh-oh, stinky” as he opened a bin of vermicompost.McCool said he thinks they'll win over the sticklers.“Even the squeamish kids get desensitized to it if you bring them in here enough,” McCool said. “They say 'ew,' but they don't mean it.”Alongside the worms, the program introduced more hydroponic plants this year. The students currently livestream their catfish tank on YouTube at all times, and they're going to start streaming their trout too. McCool said the school's parent-teacher organization pays for the equipment.
