Who Is Todd The Worm?

Caroline Bargo teaches students about compost.

On February 9th and 10th, roughly 500 students from Goleta Unified School District visited the 5th Grade Health Fair. The Fair, which takes place every year, is a way for community groups to interact with and inspire fifth graders to make healthy choices- whether for their own bodies or for their greater community.

This year, Explore Ecology took part, manning a compost education table. Our own resident compost expert, Bennett Rock, set up a station where students were able to, “Meet Todd,” and choose what to feed him. “Who is Todd?,” you might be asking. Todd is the industrious red wiggler worm that lives in most compost bins in Explore Ecology’s School Gardens. These bins are generally students’ first interaction with how great composting can be for our world.

Bennett Rock Talks Compost

Students were encouraged to take a look through some of Bennett’s own compost, searching for Todd and his family. They were also prompted to decide what items Todd can and cannot eat- organic matter and food scraps versus trash. Many of the students are, at this point, experts in composting, having had lessons both in their School Garden and through Explore Ecology’s In Class Education presentations. It was incredibly gratifying to hear students I’ve had in my classes spout off fun facts about composting and worm anatomy, knowing that they take our lessons with them into the outside world.