Understanding Your Nightcrawlers: If Darwin had Popsicle Sticks - Green Thumb Education Series

Description

Pollinators are important to the environment, but if you dig a little deeper, you’ll find the unsung heroes of good gardens everywhere: nightcrawlers! These wonderful wigglers are earthworms that help aerate, filtrate and recycle organic material in your soil making it richer to help plants grow and thrive. Get to know your earthworms! Join local gardener, photographer and inventor Brad Griffith for the Green Thumb Education Series presentation “Understanding Your Nightcrawlers: If Darwin Had Popsicle Sticks” to find out more on nightcrawlers and what Charles Darwin, earthworms and popsicle sticks have in common. Brad’s macro video photography of nightcrawlers (Lumbricus terrestris) has led to new discoveries about worm behaviors. “Understanding how worms turn green plant materials into nutrient rich soils is critical to the growth of our own food products,” Brad said. Brad’s experiment displays will show: • A worm tearing off live green plant materials and moving stones with its mouth. Brad’s videography takes you down inside a worm midden mound where this crossroads of the ecosystem begins to convert natural materials to nutrient rich soil. • How to spot a nightcrawler’s front door entrance called a midden mound. Worms can move natural vegetation, soil, sticks, stones, leaves, grass, plastic toys, marbles, coins, popsicle sticks and more to build this protective entrance to their burrow. • How Charles Darwin’s worm experiments inspired Brad to design his own trials using the midden mounds and popsicle sticks. The displays will also feature experiments for primary and secondary education use including field experiments such as “The Night Crawlers Tug-of-War,” “The Stone Drag,” “The Worm Hut” and “The Worm Well.” These experiments are useful in teaching behavioral science, developing observational skills and result in students becoming more aware of the everyday ecosystems that surround them. Brad fell in love with photography in high school and continued his education and career of 25 years working with film in the printing industry. His love of the outdoors brought his family to the Olympic Peninsula in 2000 when he started a construction business. Finding new and unusual subjects to photograph led Brad to photograph nightcrawlers eating, drinking and moving sticks and stones to build their midden mounds. He also realized the need for students to be creative with making their own STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) experiments and learning observation science. Brad invented a basic field experiment that students can make using popsicle sticks and tools they make themselves. Brad’s photography and videos can be found on his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@USASTEAMcom. The Green Thumb Education Series presentation “Understanding Your Nightcrawlers” will be held in person on Thursday, May 9th from noon – 1:00 p.m. at St. Andrews Episcopal Church, 510 E. Park Avenue in Port Angeles. Or you may join via Zoom from PC, Mac, Linux, iOS or Android: https://wsu.zoom.us/j/93629898830?pwd=UnRkYjdwSGNmTnA4Y2hxVFBuRHVkZz09 Meeting ID: 936 2989 8830 Passcode: 676224 Or join by phone: 253-215-8782 The Green Thumb Education Series, sponsored by the Washington State University Clallam County Master Gardeners, is held on the second and fourth Thursday of each month through October. In November, December, and January, one lecture is offered. Scheduled presentations are subject to change. Visit the WSU Extension Clallam County website calendar for the latest information on upcoming presentations. For questions, call 360-565-2678.