Hi! Our family has wanted to try vermiculture for some time. Our 3rd grade son decided to do a science fair project relating to worms. We realize that a really good project would take at least 4-6 weeks, however we only have about 3 weeks. The fair is in 3 weeks, the worms arrived only this morning (took too long to arrive!).

Since our son is really excited with this idea, and wants to learn about earthworms, we wanted to stick with the worm project even though the materials arrived late. We'd like to do something really straightforward and short-term. Some ideas we had:

--test whether they like light or not (even though we know they don't).

--test if they react differently to different kinds of light

--test whether worms make noise (this one sounds fun).

What we'd really like to do but don't know if we have enough time given our new setup:

--Do earthworms like to eat/show a preference for certain foods?

(requires filling small bowls with damp soil with 3-4 earthworms in each bowl, then testing different kinds of food in the different bowls and observing what the worms do.)

Does anyone have any other suggestions of ideas?

We have now a small composting kit for kids (it was second hand but never used--it was "Worm Acres"). It is about shoebox size, sturdy green plastic, with holes in bottom ande a lid, along with a foam airflow filter. It came with a bag of starter compost bedding and a water sprayer.

The kit originally came with a certificate for 250 worms, but since it was missing we ordered 1 lb of redworms. We are going to set up the small worm kit tonight, as the earthworms just arrived.

Needless to say, we're planning on setting up a larger worm bin following his science project.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I'm getting a little nervous about helping my son get this project up and running!

Amy