Kids from westcot elementary school, west Vancouver school district 45 grade 6-7, Want to send red worms into space with the aim of gaining important scientific information that could benefit future space travel, and to see if worms can burrow like they can earth in microgravity. It happened on august 10, 2015. the co-principal investigators, Griffin Edwards, Vesal Farahi, Shania Farbehi, Kristopher Kirkwood, Joseph Piovesan, were the people working on it.The background research they did was, that the worms don’t have bones but they do have muscles to borrow through dirt, also red worms are a very important part of composting toilets. Other background research they did was about composting toiles separates feces from other waste into a giant metal canister, then they turn the waist into fertile soil from the worms in the canister the fertile soil can be used for growing food. Also they thought that if the worms can grow in space they could have gardens up there which means they don have to spend as much and send up as much food up because the astronauts can just grow there own food. The control group is the red worms here on earth, the experimental group are the worms on the space ship. All factors will be consistent between the two groups such as the number of worms, the type of worms, the age and size of the worms, the amount of food and the type food, the amount of soil and type of soil, light, temperature, and the size of the test area. In order to have a successful outcome and accurate results all factors between the two groups must be the same except for the micro gravity. Some information about the red worms are that Red worms scientific name is Eisenia fetida, Red worms tolerate a wide range of temperatures, however, the ideal temperature is between 55 – 77 degrees. red worms are a species of earthworm adapted to decaying organic material. Red worms are the same family as the common earthworm or Night Crawlers. Though Red worms are a species of earthworm, they are rarely found in soil. Red worms are photosensitive, therefore, they only work in the dark. Red worms will excrete a foul smelling liquid when handled roughly. Red Worms when happy and healthy can eat about half of their weight in food each day. Red Worms have gizzards that need grit to help grind up their food. Soil, shredded leaves, coffee grinds are examples of things that support the Red Wigglers digestive process. Red worms are hermaphroditic (they have both male and female sex organs) but two worms are needed to reproduce. The two worms join together and exchange sperm and both worms secretes cocoons that contain eggs. Red Worms are ready to mate when their clitellum’s are orange in color. Teenage Red Worms eat more than adult Red Worms. Red Worms love watermelon, pureed pumpkin and corn meal. I’ve heard that corn meal encourages Red Worms to reproduce prolifically but I have not witnessed that myself. I think these people won because there idea is amazing and if everything go’s to plan they will be actually saving NASA money

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