Soil in the environment
Here is a riddle for you: You can find me all over Earth. I am usually dark brown. Plants grow in me. What am I?
If your answer is dirt, you are right! Scientists call dirt soil. This unit, we shall be looking into what soil is made of, why it is important, and all things dirt related!
With Earth Day coming up, I wanted to do a fun Earth Day Experiment where we could observe some of nature up close. And I thought what better creature than earthworms. They really do so much for our soil, they are every gardeners friend, and they are really small (which helps when bringing in creatures to our classroom).
When I told our students that we were going to do a DIY Earthworm Habitat they were more excited than I expected. We had been working on a few activity pages on worms, and as we continued discussing them, the students seemed to have more questions about our soil friendly critters. So what better way to learn more about them than with some true hands on observations. For our Education Week showcase, we will be inviting parents in to see not only our worm home, but also all the inquiry based questions and answers we've been able to come to as a class.
What do Earthworms do? Earthworms are the Earth's friend, they eat the soil (or compost material) and as it goes through them and out the other end they add extra nutrients to the soil. This is why a lot of people put worms in their compost bins (if you do you need to be careful about adding to much acidic items like tomatoes, oranges, and onions as they can burn the worms), the worms make the soil very nutrient which helps your plants grow. The worms also aerate the soil by digging tunnels, this brings plants the oxygen they need to grow.
What we will observe with this experiment? In this experiment you will view the worms mixing the soil and sand. They do this two ways, by digesting it and by travelling through it. You will also get to see how the worms travel through the soil by creating tunnels, which help to aerate the soil. Just make sure to keep your worms fed and the soil damp.
We will also answer many different questions the students have such as: Are worms nocturnal? Do they see light? Do they see colours? Do worms make sound? How do they communicate?
If your answer is dirt, you are right! Scientists call dirt soil. This unit, we shall be looking into what soil is made of, why it is important, and all things dirt related!
With Earth Day coming up, I wanted to do a fun Earth Day Experiment where we could observe some of nature up close. And I thought what better creature than earthworms. They really do so much for our soil, they are every gardeners friend, and they are really small (which helps when bringing in creatures to our classroom).
When I told our students that we were going to do a DIY Earthworm Habitat they were more excited than I expected. We had been working on a few activity pages on worms, and as we continued discussing them, the students seemed to have more questions about our soil friendly critters. So what better way to learn more about them than with some true hands on observations. For our Education Week showcase, we will be inviting parents in to see not only our worm home, but also all the inquiry based questions and answers we've been able to come to as a class.
What do Earthworms do? Earthworms are the Earth's friend, they eat the soil (or compost material) and as it goes through them and out the other end they add extra nutrients to the soil. This is why a lot of people put worms in their compost bins (if you do you need to be careful about adding to much acidic items like tomatoes, oranges, and onions as they can burn the worms), the worms make the soil very nutrient which helps your plants grow. The worms also aerate the soil by digging tunnels, this brings plants the oxygen they need to grow.
What we will observe with this experiment? In this experiment you will view the worms mixing the soil and sand. They do this two ways, by digesting it and by travelling through it. You will also get to see how the worms travel through the soil by creating tunnels, which help to aerate the soil. Just make sure to keep your worms fed and the soil damp.
We will also answer many different questions the students have such as: Are worms nocturnal? Do they see light? Do they see colours? Do worms make sound? How do they communicate?
