The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Worming way into business
Class learning biology, basics of business at the same time.
The kids in Ms. Westover’s biology class studied the challenge: how to combine science and commerce.
Grow some food, suggested one. Yeah, and sell what we grow, added a second. But a short school year could not accommodate a long growing season. That idea withered.
And then someone — no one in the Meadowcreek High School class is sure who — hooked everyone with this suggestion: Let’s grow worms!
Yeah, added a classmate, and sell what we grow!
They asked their teacher. Maurine Westover thought it over — grow worms, sell them, make money, learn biology. She said OK.
The kids reached into pockets and purses. They ponied up about $30 — enough to buy 1,000 Eisenia fetida, red wiggler worms. The worms, a slimy glob in a stout bag, arrived about two months ago from an online retailer.
Worms At myAJC.com/living, read about more fun ways that metro Atlanta kids are learning about science, including a look at Fernbank Museum of Natural History’s“The Power of Poison” exhibition.
Now, those first worms have had babies. The proprietors of Mustang Worm Farm are preparing to market their product to area sporting-goods stores and organic farms.
They’re also prepared to tell anyone who asks that worms are, well ...
Mateo Hernandez, what do you say? “As a kid, I loved dirt.” As a 15year-old, he loves what dirt can yield.
Mateo is one of 39 students learning that science has practical applications: grow a worm, make some cash. And maybe, one day, he’ll get into Stanford. A little worm cash money would help defray his costs.
Or ask Anette Manjarrez. She’s 14, a member of the Gwinnett school’s swim team. Anette recently found herself promoting the young venture at a student-entrepreneur conference in Cobb County.
Anette, who apparently saves her breath for swimming laps, smiled. “It’s good,” she said.
Gabriel Wireko? One day, God and good grades willing, he’ll study software engineering at Georgia Tech. For now, he’s happy to be a worm magnate. For him, this is a change.
“Worms,” said Gabriel, 15, “used to creep me Members of The Mustang Worm Farm (from left) Edix Santiago, 15; Joshua Stapleton, 15; Anette Manjarrez, 14; Mateo Hernandez, 15; and Christian Penaloza, 15, handle worms with confidence, not disgust. out.”
Better yet, check with their teacher, a first-year instructor at Meadowcreek. She’s 25, crackling with good intentions.
“If I can turn them into bio-nerds,” Westover said, “that would be cool.”
‘Real life’
Meadowcreek is big. When classes change, about 3,400 students fill the hallways. They are a herd of bodies shouldering in all directions. Book bags bob atop their backs like cowboys astride mus- tangs, the school’s mascot.
Meadowcreek is not wealthy. It’s a Title I school, meaning it qualifies for additional federal funding.
Westover knows. A lot of her students’ parents lay brick, hammer nails, push lawnmowers. They come from all over the world. Their children enter her ninth-grade classroom at different scholastic levels. Worms are something around which they can rally, regardless of language or national origin.
She pointed at a plastic storage bin, battered from use; inside were a thousand-plus worms, snuggled down in shredded newspaper. Students daily chop up leftover food from Meadowcreek’s cafeteria to keep their investment growing. They also keep track of the creatures’ growth, the cleanliness of their environment. Worms are sturdy, but do need an occasional change of shredded newspapers.
“That takes science out of the textbook and lets them see this is real life,” she said. “They (students) are definitely getting it.”
They do. Worms, say her students, are great bait. Who hasn’t threaded a red wiggler on a hook? Watched with saucer eyes as a red-and-white bobber vanished into the depths of a pond?
Worms also have more practical applications, the students note. Their burrowing helps water and oxygen enter the soil. Worms’ nosing about helps break down organic matter. Even worm poop makes the soil more fertile.
“If you think about it,” said Mateo, who clearly has thought about it, “worms cover a big basis of biology.”
They also can help cover future expenses. The kids figure to make $100 from their initial $30 investment; a worm that cost 3 cents, they say, can be sold for 10. That’s a hefty profit. Multiply that by a growing population of worms. And remember: their food, leftovers from the cafeteria, is free. This is a business where the sky — er, the dirt — is the limit.
Now, the students are looking for an investor willing to underwrite packaging costs until this enterprise is up and running. Then the sales force will hit the streets to close the sale: A Mustang worm catches bigger fish! A Mustang worm makes the best dirt!
A Mustang worm is a passport to greater things.
“By their senior year,” she predicted, “we’re going to make some CEOs out of this group.”