Creative Earthworm STEM Activity

Our exclusive creative earthworm STEM activity helps students understand that earthworms may seem small and simple, but they are full of fascinating features and behaviors that make them incredible little engineers of the soil.

All you need to enjoy our earthworm STEM activity are some simple items-dried rice, dried beans, baking soda, etc., and some gummy worms.

Have you ever turned over soil in a garden or flowerpot and found an earthworm wriggling around? It might look like they are just moving around randomly, but the way an earthworm moves is amazing. There’s a lot going on. It all comes down to a clever system of muscles and fluid working together.

Earthworms are invertebrates, which means they don’t have bones or a skeleton as we do. Instead, their bodies are made up of segments—like tiny rings stacked one after another. Most earthworms have between 100 and 150 of these rings.

How Earthworms Move

Each of the earthworm’s segments is filled with muscles and fluid, and that’s what allows the worm to move. As the worm travels through the soil, the muscles in each segment tighten and relax in a pattern that moves like a wave down its body.

Earthworms move using a process called peristalsis (per-uh-STALL-sis). This means their bodies move in a wave-like pattern. First, part of the worm stretches out long and thin. Then it becomes shorter and thicker, pulling the rest of the body forward.

The muscles help on the inside of the earthworm, and tiny bristles called setae (SEE-tee) help on the outside of the earthworm. These act like little anchors in the soil.

As the body stretches forward, the setae grip the dirt, keeping that part of the earthworm’s body in place. Then the back part of the body pulls forward. So, the movement is to stretch the body, then grip with these bristles, then the muscles pull the earthworm forward. It takes a while, but the earthworm slowly makes its way through the soil.

In addition, as earthworms move through the soil, they are actually eating! As they move through the soil, they leave tunnels. These tunnels are important for plants because they leave air spaces in the soil. The water and oxygen plants need are stored in these pockets of air. As the plant’s roots grow down into the soil, the plant uses this water and oxygen to grow.

If Earthworms Don’t Have Eyes, How Do They Know What to Do and Where to Go?

In our earthworm STEM activity, our children will understand more how earthworms know where to go and what to do. The soil moisture plays a key role in what we’ll learn in this STEM activity.

Earthworms don’t have eyes. Yet, there are other ways they sense the world around them and survive.

Light

Earthworms can sense light through their skin using special cells that cover it. These cells are called photoreceptors. When we dig through a garden or move soil around in a pot, we might see earthworms wriggling quickly at the soil surface. This is because they prefer darkness and burrow back into the soil.

Moisture

Earthworms need moisture because they breathe through their skin.

Even though earthworms do not have lungs, they still need oxygen. They get this oxygen from the soil.

The oxygen in the soil must dissolve on the earthworm’s skin before the oxygen moves into the earthworm’s body through its skin.

They then release carbon dioxide from their body the same way. This is called gas exchange because the earthworm takes in oxygen through its skin and releases carbon dioxide back into the soil.

There are air pockets in the soil. The air and the worms must be able to move through the soil. If the soil is packed too tightly, there is not enough air, and worms will not move there. That’s why if there is too much water in the soil, the water moves into those air pockets. Then, there is less air for the worms to breathe. Loose soil is the best place for earthworms to live.

Earthworms need soil that feels like a sponge with the water squeezed out. It’s not too dry and not too wet.

Temperature

Temperature is important for earthworms, too. Earthworms like cool to warm temperatures. When it gets very hot or very cold, they move deeper into the soil where the temperature is cooler.

Many people think earthworms come to the surface during rain so they don’t drown, but that’s not true.

Instead, they come up when it rains because the ground is wet. The moisture helps them move across the surface without drying out. This makes it easier for them to travel to new places or find other worms.

Download the earthworm STEM Activity Worksheets and Earthworm Lesson

We have create a 30-page lesson and worksheets for our exclusive earthworm STEM activity. We call the challenge the Worm Tunnel STEM & Engineering Challenge© .

This was created here first in the Brain-ySTEM© Lab at The Homeschool Scientist. Instructions are below and in the printable.

Please note the printable also includes more information about earthworm behavior, the earthworm life cycle, and the parts of an earthworm. If you’re doing a dissection with this activity, check out our earthworm dissection information.

If you are doing some gardening or composting, check out our post on making a mini composter. The composting printable is included when you request this earthworm STEM activity printable. You may also want to plan an earthworm dissection; here are our free earthworm dissection worksheets.

This original earthworm STEM activity helps students design and test a soil sample to see how well their worm can create tunnels. Students will test dry and wet soil. Students use materials to simulate the soil, such as dried beans, dried quinoa, baking soda, candies and more. This earthworm STEM challenge was designed and tested at TheBrainy-STEM Lab at The Homeschool Scientist.

Prep Time20

Active Time45

Keyword: STEM activity

Materials

1 Bag of dried beans black beans, kidney beans, large lima beans, etc.
1 Spray bottle with water
1/2 cup water
1 plastic container, preferably clear. We used a recycled clam shell container that held Campari tomatoes! 🙂 See the printable for other notes.
1 Foil or metal cookie sheet to protect the work surface
Activity worksheets from free printable
Pencil
Other "soil" items like little round candies, rice, sugar, baking soda, flour, dried quinoa The dried quinoa was a fun addition. Provide a variety for students to choose from. If doing this with more than 1 student you can then compare results.

Instructions

Read through the information in the printable packet that covers how earthworms move and survive. Then, review the pre-activity information and questions.
Review the materials on hand and select the materials you will use to make the layers of your soil sample. Then, determine the order of your layers.
Build your soil sample, one layer at a time.
Select one gummy worm and assign a person to keep time and the person who will move the gummy through the soil layers to the bottom using the eraser side of a pencil.
Press the gummy worm into the and through the soil sample. The person timing should start and stop when their partner stops and starts. Record the time it took.
Spray 12 – 15 pumps of water over the entire surface of your soil surface.
Press a second gummy worm into the soil sample and record the time and any observations. Was it more difficult to move through the soil?
Spray the same number of pumps over the soil surface again. Press a third gummy into the soil. Record the time and observations.
Nest, measure 2/3 cup of water. Pour it over the entire surface of the soil sample. You may need to use more if you used a container that is larger than 6" wide by 5" high.
Let the soil sample sit for three minutes to let the water soak in.
Push a fourth gummy bear through the soil sample to the bottom. Record the time and your observations.
Answer all of the post-activity questions, including the timing questions on the datasheet. If you did this as a group and have multiple soil samples, compare results.

Notes

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I hold a master’s degree in child development and early education and am working on a post-baccalaureate in biology. I spent 15 years working for a biotechnology company developing IT systems in DNA testing laboratories across the US. I taught K4 in a private school, homeschooled my children, and have taught on the mission field in southern Asia. For 4 years, I served on our state’s FIRST Lego League tournament Board and served as the Judging Director. I own thehomeschoolscientist and also write a regular science column for Homeschooling Today Magazine. You’ll also find my writings on the CTCMath blog. Through this site, I have authored over 50 math and science resources.