Earthworms wriggled into popularity at the Maryland Association of Environmental and Outdoor Educators Annual Conference at Ocean City on February 4, 2006. Jenny Harvey, a Baltimore Ecosystem Study (BES) education fellow, and Janie Gordon, BES Education Coordinator, presented the earthworm population review unit to a crowd of over 50 outdoor educators, including teachers from several Maryland school systems. After a quick overview of the unit's learning goals and activities, participants had a chance to conduct an earthworm sampling procedure on the lawn of the Princess Royale Hotel.
Although no earthworms emerged from the sandy soil on that cold and windy winter day, the hands-on experience prepared the educators to guide their students through the protocol that comprises the data collection phase of scientific inquiry. Each participant was provided a CD-Rom review copy of the unit, which comes in two versions-for middle school and high school. In both versions, students formulate and test hypotheses about earthworm distribution in diverse habitats and draw conclusions based on their data, and on earthworm data compiled by the Baltimore Ecosystem Study.
The review unit is part of a larger Urban Soil module and was developed by Harvey with contributions from LTER ecologists Katalin Szlavecz, Richard Pouyat, and Ian Yesilonis. Review copies of the unit are available on CD-Rom by contacting Janie Gordon at janie.gordon@parkandpeople.org.
Jenny Harvey is BES's Education Fellow and science teacher at Hereford High, Baltimore, MD