The worms are safe thanks to this $1 million program and some Tacoma elementary kids
In the heart of Tacoma, the worms are safe.
Last week, worms were being dug up, marveled over and gently returned to the earth by a group of fifth graders from Arlington Elementary School in South Tacoma.
The kids, wearing matching blue jackets, are students in Wildlife Champions. The new $1 million program, a collaboration between Metro Parks Tacoma and Tacoma Public Schools, is teaching empathy for the natural world by exposing children to it.
On this day, under an unseasonably warm winter sun, the fifth graders were gathered around instructor Liz Hines at their outdoor classroom in Oak Tree Park.
They had come to the park to return soil samples they had scooped up a month ago to study decomposition.
Hines asked for volunteers to describe their experiments.
Ja’Mire Ford, 11, raised his hand. Days earlier, he had added peelings from a freshly eaten orange into a Mason jar filled with dirt.
“I have less peels,” Ja’Mire said, peering into the rich black earth.
“Where do you think they went?” Hines asked.
“They decomposed,” he replied. “I didn’t know it, but I had a worm.”
“What kind of animal is a worm?” Hines continued the questioning.
“A worm is a decomposer,” Ja’Mire replied.
WILDLIFE CHAMPIONS
The program, which every kindergartener through fifth grader at Arlington participates in, is set to run three years.
Each of the 450 students at the school spends 4.5 hours per month on it, according to Craig Standridge, a conservation educator with Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium.
It’s taught by both Metro Parks staff and Arlington teachers and administrators who developed the curriculum together.
Each month has a theme (animal homes, community science, plants, art) with kids spending one session in a classroom, one session in the schoolyard, one session in nearby Oak Tree Park and one session to wrap it up.
“The theory is that you have to know about something to care about it,” Standridge said.
Along with science, the program teaches mathematics, social studies and arts.
Wildlife Champions was purposely targeted at a school with a higher than average level of poverty. Arlington is also a diverse school. In the past, Metro Parks would bring students to them.
“It’s much better to bring those services to them,” Standridge said. “We can have a full hour of them engaging with nature and have adventures and then walk them back to the school.”
Oak Tree Park is just across South 72nd Street from Arlington.
Funding for the program comes primarily from a $749,000, 3.5-year grant from a private foundation that wishes to remain anonymous, Standridge said.
“They want the attention on the work they are doing and not who funded it,” he said.
Another $217,703 comes from from Metro Parks Tacoma and $58,423 was contributed by The Zoo Society, a non-profit fundraising group dedicated to supporting the zoo.
OAK TREE PARK
For many kids, Oak Tree Park was just a wooded hill on the landscape — a place to avoid and pass quickly through.
Organizers hope kids in the program will grow to become adults who understand and care for nature.
“Hopefully, that will spread out to their families and the communities as they get more engaged with the natural spaces around them,” Standridge said.
Until the program started, kids hadn’t spent much time in the park.
“A lot of them didn’t even know this park was here, and they live right down the street,” said teacher Nicole Sterling.
Though the Water Flume Trail runs through it, Oak Tree Park was often the home of unauthorized camping. It wasn’t unusual to find a hypodermic needle on the ground.
The 25-acre park is one of the few remaining stands of native Garry oaks.
“They just don’t understand it, what’s in there,” Standridge said. “Now, they’re sharing stories with us. They are walking their dogs there and bringing their families.”
Though the program begin in September, it’s already having an impact, Sterling said.
“They’ve had more of an awareness, more of an appreciation, and they get hands-on learning,” Sterling said. “They are more engaged in science.”
Before, Sterling struggled to make science interesting for the kids.
“They are catching on more quickly,” she said. “They are learning the vocabulary. They are learning about the environment. They are relating it back to their environment.”
The time spent on Wildlife Champions doesn’t take away from her other teachings, Sterling said.
“It’s a break in teaching because it’s not sitting in a chair” she said as she was interrupted by a girl, eager to display a worm she had just found.
“OK, go find a home for it, sweetie,” Sterling instructed the girl.
Sterling’s students recently urged her to capture and release a fly that was buzzing her classroom.
“‘That’s a decomposer,’ they said,” Sterling recalled.
“The kids are having lunchtime discussions about animals,” Standridge said.
He has overheard kids use “apex predator” and “tentacles” in conversations.
The park is benefiting as well.
A volunteer citizens group has been removing English ivy, holly and other invasive plants. Students pitched in.
“We took the kids out here, learned what an invasive species is and how to help your park,” said Megan Soland, an education assistant with Wildlife Champions. “We had cutters and gloves and shovels. They were loving every second of it.”
Albert Styers has been a volunteer habitat steward at the park for 10 years. He calls the program a “win-win” for all involved.
“A win for the students, as they get to be outdoors and learn about science and nature, and a win for Metro Parks, Oak Tree Park in particular, with more people in the park, plus the planting and restoration that is being done,” Styers said.
At Styers’ suggestion, students planted 400 camas bulbs in January. The blue lily-like flower is native to the Pacific Northwest.
CONNECTING WITH NATURE
After releasing their soil back into the wild, the kids collected new dirt samples and then placed non-organic material — what most would call trash — in the soil to see if it decomposes as readily as organic material. Spoiler alert: It won’t.
They were careful to avoid a 3-foot wide anthill, practically every inch of its surface swarming with black and brown thatching ants. The next day another class would see a Cooper’s hawk and a garter snake.
As the kids filed out of the park, they couldn’t help themselves from picking up more trash all the way back to school. Soon, they were hauling over a dozen bags.
Saniea Winston, 10, was picking up scraps of paper, bottle caps and chip bags.
“I’m picking up trash to help our environment,” she said.
Rubbish collecting was a new avocation for the youngster, she said, but she just might stick with it.
“I don’t want the animals to die,” she explained.
Statements like that are proof to Standridge the program is already having an impact.
“Now they are noticing (trash), and they are really getting offended,” he said.
If the program is deemed a success, and funding can be found, Metro Parks hopes to spread it to other schools. In the end, it will be the community that will be the driver.
Standridge is optimistic.
“One of the second-grade kids looked at me and said, ‘You know, Mr. Standridge. I love nature. I love my park.’”
Spring into Action
When: 10 a.m.-3 p.m. April 27.
What: A community day for Oak Tree Park neighbors to highlight student accomplishments, help restore the park and connect with nature. Includes litter clean-up, guided walks, planting and invasive plant removal.
This story was originally published March 22, 2019 at 1:03 PM.
