The Little Worm That Could

By Shannon, Tashma, Olivia, and Deja

Have you ever wondered why there are no worms on the beach? Well, that’s the question that set off our project. Our curiosity made us want to try this project out.

The question we investigated was can worms go through a layer of sand to get to food in a soil layer? Since we never have seen worms on a beach, we wondered if it was because they don’t travel through sand.

We knew a few facts about worms like they have five hearts. We knew that worms eat soil. Soil is made up of broken down rocks and small bits of plant materials. After they eat, the food gets digested, and whatever is left comes out called castings. This makes good fertilizer. That’s why worms are good f or gardens. In a book called Worms Eat My Garbage by Mary Appelhof, we learned that worms can eat food waste such as apples, apple peels, banana peels, orange peels, lettuce, turnip leaves, egg shells, etc.

First, we gathered a few fruits and vegetables and let them rot overnight. We put that in with the soil. Next, we put the soil at the bottom of a big box. Next we put the sand on top. Finally, we put the earthworms on the sand. We were thinking that the worms would crawl through the holes in the sand to get to the dirt.

We noticed that the worms would travel across the sand, but they did not travel into the sand. Most of them just sat there. Some things we discovered is that worms need to be moist with water.

We are still wondering about why there aren’t any worms on the beach. We have some guesses. Maybe the saltwater at the beach is bad for the worms’ skin. It might dry them out. Since worms eat soil, maybe there’s no food in sand for a worm to eat. Not seeing worms on the beach might be due to the fact that they are not able to live in water.