Mama Sam’s Vermicompost Farm

Event Year: 2023
Event Location: Cocoa-FL
Competition: Critter Comfort Cottage
Division: 6-8
School: Mama Sam's Co-Op
Team Size: 7

For our Critter Comfort Cottage we decided to create a worm farm (Vermicompost farm) that will be successful outside. In Florida the heat can make raising animals outside difficult at times, and this is particularly true when it comes to growing a worm farm. Here at Mama Sam’s we decided to grow a worm farm so we could add them to our gardens, which would benefit our soil, vegetables and production. We have two rubbermaid boxes, the top box with a locking lid, and there are holes drilled out of the lid that are then covered with screen. This allows airflow and sunlight to come in. There are also holes drilled throughout the bottom of the box, with a screen laid across the bottom to keep the worms inside the top box but to allow waste and condensation to drip through. The bottom box is where any water that is found is collected. The top box sits into the bottom box atop a few cut PVC pipes. On the lid of the top box there is palm-sized square cut out which is where a small fan is installed. This fan was originally powered by a typical wired plug in, but we cut the wires. This allowed us to convert it into being solar powered. The boys explored with the solar panels and hookups which would generate enough energy to power the fan. The fan is purposed to keep the worms cool enough so they don’t die in the Florida heat.

It took us a few tries as a class to figure out which solar panel would be best to successfully power the cooling fan.