The late and much loved Mary Appelhof wrote and published a book on vermicomposting specifically for teachers that you would likely find a godsend, Pat. It's called "Worms Eat OOUR Garbage", and is designed as both a "how to" for classroom worm bins as well as a k-12 curriculum guide. There are more than 30 pages of reproduceable handouts and activity sheets, and many more pages of curriculum ideas that connect vermicomposting to math, language arts, problem solving, etc., etc. You can find copies in most libraries, or purchase online at www.vermico.com or www.wormwoman.com.

I highly recommend this book!

Kelly S

A good math angle would be such and such number of worms are able to turn such and such of certain types of bedding into so much vermicompost. You could test it out using newsprint, cereal boxes, corrugated cardboard, and a mix thereof.

It would require measuring, weighing, and counting of cocoons/worms. If wanting even more variability you could also experiment with using different sizes and widths of the above items to see which produces the best results.

Thats the only one i can think of off the top of my head with a strong math angle. The book Kelly suggested should offer alot more.

Bryan

Kelly, Thanks so much, As soon as I saw the title, I thought I already had it, but I have Worms eat MY Garbage. The back cover about the author refers to the OUR book and a video. I'll talk with my co-teacher and see if we can pull this off. Again thanks.

Bryan, I never realized there would be a difference with the bedding, as I have always just used newspaper, thinking it was to absorb moisture since I feed my worms kitchen scraps. I guess I need to do some reading in MY garbage book. Thanks, Pat