One neglected topic is soil science. Soil is so important to farming! I did some digging to locate resources. For several years, some of my students competed in Envirothon, which has a soils component. There is a National Land and Range Judging Contest. Here is a guide to soil judging. Let’s create a soils course for upper school.
1. Soil Science Curriculum provides an outline. Guides such as Soil Judging are good for introductions and overviews. Why Do We Study Soil? has an interactive discussion with activities to introduce soil science.
2. GLOBE Pedosphere (Soils) has subunits such as, Soil Particle Density and Soil Characterization.
3. Envirothon has a soils component. Consequently, there are many resources available. The Soil Basics Video is 50 minutes in length—another good way to introduce soils. The video is intended as an Envirothon Training. These Soils Practice Questions can check for understanding. Here is a soils study guide.
4. This Garden Lesson Plan is constructed for middle-school aged students. I checked that the VIMEO and YouTube links are live; some of the activity links are broken.
5. Agriculture in the Classroom has Properties of Soils with links to loads of activities. I like to begin with middle-school level materials. The instruction tends to be both simpler and clearer.
What about younger kiddos? Soils-Elementary GLOBE has the free ebook, The Scoop on Soils, an introduction with a teacher’s guide. Look at Soils Treasure Hunt, one of the Elementary GLOBE activities. Project Learning Tree’s Resources for Soil Stories includes The Dirt on Dirt featuring Sid the Science Kid.
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