Recently in class with Park City Composting, our 8th graders learned all about Vermicomposting! Vermicomposting is a method of composting that utilizes worms! The worms are mixed in with food scraps, soil, some wood chips, and cardboard. Worms are an incredible decomposer (breaks down matter into a form that can be used again by other organisms) which helps to keep ecosystems in balance. In addition, worms are very useful for sustainable gardening practices. The worms will eat the food scraps and help to break down the nutrients into an accessible form that will eventually be deposited as worm castings. Worm castings are a nutrient rich soil amendment used for gardens and planters. The 8th graders will help maintain this vermicompost bin all year long and we’ll use the compost for the school garden. In this seminar, the students were able to have a hands on experience in which some of them even overcame their fears of the friendly red-wigglers!