Just in case we don't know it all.

http://soil.gsfc.nasa.gov/touchtheearth/studysoil.htm

"7. Teacher says: "The remaining 10% (approximately), a very small
fragment of the land area, represents the soil we depend on for the
world's food supply. This fragment competes with all other needs -
housing, cities, schools, hospitals, shopping centers, land fills, etc.,
and, sometimes, it doesn't win.""

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Why Do We Study Soil?
Purpose
€ To introduce students to the importance of soil and why it needs to
be studied
Overview
€ In the first activity, students generate a list of why soils are
important. In the second activity, students are asked to describe the
five factors that form a unique soil profile and to explore these
concepts. In the third activity, students are shown a demonstration of
how much soil there is on Earth that is available for human use.
Student Outcomes
1. Students will understand the importance of soil science.
2. Students will be able to provide reasons for studying soil.
3. Students will understand how soil properties are determined by the
five soil forming factors.
4. Students will appreciate the relative amounts of usable soil that
exist on Earth.
Science Concepts
Earth and Space Sciences
1. Earth materials are solid rocks, soil, water, biota, and the gases
of the atmosphere.
2. Soils have properties including color, texture structure, color,
and density; they support the growth of many types of plants and serve
numerous other functions in the ecosystem.
3. The surface of the Earth changes
4. Soils consist of rocks and minerals, organic material, air and
water.
5. Water circulates through soil affecting both soil and water
properties.
Physical Sciences
€ Objects have observable properties.
Life Sciences
1. Organisms can only survive in environments where their needs are
met.
2. Earth has many different environments that support different
combinations of organisms.
3. All populations living together and the physical factors with
which they interact constitute an ecosystem.
Scientific Inquiry Abilities
1. Identify answerable questions.
2. Develop descriptions and explanations using evidence.
3. Communicate procedures and explanations.
Time
€ One or two class periods (depending on level of exploration for
second activity)
Level
€ All
Materials and Tools
1. Apple and small knife (apple activity)
2. Soil medicine examples (e.g. diarrhea medicine, antibacterial gel
or cream, facial masks)
3. Soil art examples (e.g. mud cloth, sand painting, pottery)
4. Soil building material examples (e.g. red brick, p hotos of adobe
and Earthship houses)
5. Makeup (e.g. foundation, blush)
6. Plant
7. Soil Story example (e.g. Maryland flood plain soil)
Prerequisites
€ None
Why are soils important?
Soils exist as natural ecosystem on the surface of the Earth made up of
macro and microorganisms, minerals, organic matter, air, and water.
Soils are living systems that provide many of the most fundamental
functions needed for life. Important functions of soil include:
1. Providing the fertile medium in which we grow our food and fiber
2. Producing and storing gases such as CO2 (Carbon dioxide)
3. Storing heat and water
4. Providing a home for billions of plants, animals and microorganisms
5. Filtering water and wastes
6. Providing the source material for construction, medicine, art,
makeup, etc.
7. Decomposing wastes
8. Providing a snapshot of geologic, climatic, biological, and human
history
Soil forms very slowly and comprises only about 10 or 11% of Earth's
surface. So, it is important to study this essential natural resource
and understand how it should be used and conserved properly.
What to Do and How to Do It
Activity One: Why are soils important?
1. Collect as many materials and tools as possible from list above
2. Ask the class "Why are soils important?" and "Why do you think it
is important to study soils?"
3. Record their answers.
4. As students give answers that relate to the collected materials,
bring out those materials and pass them around the class. For example,
if a student says that we use soil as art, have a clay pot available for
touching. If students run out of ideas about the use of soils, ask them
about soil as art (and bring out the African mud cloth [Bogolanfini]) or
soil as medicine (for diahrhea, antibacterial gel, examples of people
eating soil for digestive problems, etc.)
5. Lead the discussion to the many possible reasons why it is
important to study soil (see above).
Activity Two: Are soils all the same?
1. Show students photographs from the Soil Investigation Introduction
section titled Soils Around the World. Have students check the World
Wide Web (e.g. soils.usda.gov or soils.gsfc.nasa.gov), library, and
other sources for other photographs of soil profiles. Also, look for
color drawings or photographs of soil properties by GLOBE students on
the GLOBE Web site (try going to the data access page, then to GLOBE
sites and then to Soil Profiles ).
2. Ask students why one soil profile looks different from another?
What are some of the factors that would make a soil look the way it
does? Help guide their responses by reading the Five Soil Forming
Factors (parent amterials, climate, topography, biota, and time) in the
GLOBE Soil investigation Introduction.
3. Have the students identify the 5 soil forming factors at their
school and ask how they might differ at other locations, both within the
neighborhood, or around the world.
4. Discuss the concept that every soil tells a different story based
on the properties that have formed because of the 5 soil forming
factors. As an example, use the following Maryland Flood Plain Soil
story. There is a soil profile from a creek bed in College Park,
Maryland, USA in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. When the soil scientists
were studying this profile, they noticed that there was a black layer
right in the middle of the profile. When the scientists looked at this
layer with a hand lens they could see that the black color was due to
many tiny bits of charcoal and ash. Using different kinds of tests, they
learned that this material was deposited about 300 - 350 years ago.
Where would charcoal and ash have come from about 300-350 years ago?
What was going on in the Chesapeake Bay region at about that time?
Settlers coming to this region for the first time were burning the
forests to make room for farms. The residue from those forest fires
flowed down into the rivers and creeks and eventually some of it was
deposited in this creek bed and became part of this soil profile. The
soil above this layer was created after the ash and charcoal were
deposited by flooding of the river and the addition of sediments eroded
from the local area on top of the charcoal layer. * In soils, the
youngest materials are found at the top of the profile. After the
sediments were deposited by the flooding water, soil processes took over
to form structure, color, and other soil properties that we can see and
measure.
The scientists also noticed that in the horizon below the charcoal and
ash layer, there were clam and oyster shells (as well as some pebbles
rounded by washing down the river during flood events). With careful
testing, they learned that the objects in this horizon were deposited
here about 400 - 450 years ago.
What was going on in the Chesapeake Bay about 400 - 450 years ago?
The indigenous people who lived in this area before the settelrs came
would come to the Bay for their holiday feasts and they would celebrate
and eat lots of clams and oysters. What we see here was what was left
behind. These shells eventually flowed down into this creek bed and
became part of the soil profile.
The last part of the story takes us to the beginning. The lowest two
horizons in this profile are of an earlier soil that was buried under
the river sediments of the newer soil. The buried soil shows structure,
colors and other features that indicate it is many thousands of years
old and was in a swampy area before the river changed its course a bit
and began to bury it.
This is an example of how a soil can be a record of the history of the
area around it and can tell us its story. Other stories are available on
the Soil Science Education Web page under the "Every Soil Tells a Story"
feature.

5. Ask students to try to come up with "stories" about how other
soils may have formed and the properties that they have.
6. Introduce the concept of diversity in soil which states that
because every soil is different, each one can only be used in a certain
way. For example, which kind of soils would be best for growing crops
(flat, fertile, enough moisture, deep, etc.)? Which soils would be best
for building a pond or reservoir (clay with massive structure, high
density, low porosity, flat or depressed area on the landscape, etc.)?
Which would be best for filtering wastes (high surface area, lots of
organisms, not too cold or wet, etc.)? Have the students think of other
land uses and what kinds of soil properties would be best for those uses.
Activity Three: How much soil is there on Earth?
1. Take an apple and a small knife, to conduct the following:
2. Teacher says: "Pretend that an apple is the planet Earth, round,
beautiful, and full of good things. Feel its skin, hugging and
protecting the surface."
3. Teacher asks and discusses:
* a. "How much of the surface of the earth is covered by water?"
* b. Answer: Water covers approximately 75% of the surface.
* c. Action: Cut the apple in quarters. Toss three quarters (75%) away.

4. Teacher says: "The three quarters (75%) that was just removed
represents how much of the earth is covered with water - oceans, lakes,
rivers, streams. What is left (25%) represents the dry land. Fifty
percent of that dry land is desert, polar, or mountainous regions where
it is too hot, too cold or too high to be productive".
* Action: Cut the "dry land" quarter in half and toss one piece away.
5. Teacher says: "When 50% of the dry land is removed, this is what
is left (12.5% of the original). Of that 12.5%, 40% is severely limited
by terrain, fertility or excessive rainfall. It is too rocky, steep,
shallow, poor or too wet to support food production."
* Action: Cut that 40% portion away.
6. Teacher says: "What is left is approximately 10% of the apple.
Action: Peel the skin from the tiny remaining sliver.
7. Teacher says: "The remaining 10% (approximately), a very small
fragment of the land area, represents the soil we depend on for the
world's food supply. This fragment competes with all other needs -
housing, cities, schools, hospitals, shopping centers, land fills, etc.,
and, sometimes, it doesn't win."
Action: Pass the apple skin that represents the Earth's arable soil
around to the entire class. Discuss with students some ways in which
they could be more mindful of the soil and the way soils are being used
at their homes or in their town. For example, discuss the idea of
composting to recycle wastes and help make the soil rich in organic
matter, and about keeping soil covered with vegetation so that it will
not erode away or become compacted.
* How Much Soil Is There? Learning Activity courtesy of: The Natural
Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
(This material can be downloaded from soils.gsfc.nasa.gov)

--
Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden

³Every conflict in the world today has its origin in the
imagination of British map drawers,² Author Unknown

On Feb 19, 2:08*pm, Bill who putters wrote:
*Just in case we don't know it all.

http://soil.gsfc.nasa.gov/touchtheearth/studysoil.htm

"7. Teacher says: "The remaining 10% (approximately), a very small
fragment of the land area, represents the soil we depend on for the
world's food supply. This fragment competes with all other needs -
housing, cities, schools, hospitals, shopping centers, land fills, etc.,
and, sometimes, it doesn't win.""

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Why Do We Study Soil?
Purpose
* *€ *To introduce students to the importance of soil and why it needs to
be studied
Overview
* *€ *In the first activity, students generate a list of why soils are
important. In the second activity, students are asked to describe the
five factors that form a unique soil profile and to explore these
concepts. In the third activity, students are shown a demonstration of
how much soil there is on Earth that is available for human use.
Student Outcomes
* *1. Students will understand the importance of soil science.
* *2. Students will be able to provide reasons for studying soil.
* *3. Students will understand how soil properties are determined by the
five soil forming factors.
* *4. Students will appreciate the relative amounts of usable soil that
exist on Earth.
Science Concepts
Earth and Space Sciences
* *1. Earth materials are solid rocks, soil, water, biota, and the gases
of the atmosphere.
* *2. Soils have properties including color, texture structure, color,
and density; they support the growth of many types of plants and serve
numerous other functions in the ecosystem.
* *3. The surface of the Earth changes
* *4. Soils consist of rocks and minerals, organic material, air and
water.
* *5. Water circulates through soil affecting both soil and water
properties.
Physical Sciences
* *€ *Objects have observable properties.
Life Sciences
* *1. Organisms can only survive in environments where their needs are
met.
* *2. Earth has many different environments that support different
combinations of organisms.
* *3. All populations living together and the physical factors with
which they interact constitute an ecosystem.
Scientific Inquiry Abilities
* *1. Identify answerable questions.
* *2. Develop descriptions and explanations using evidence.
* *3. Communicate procedures and explanations.
Time
* *€ *One or two class periods (depending on level of exploration for
second activity)
Level
* *€ *All
Materials and Tools
* *1. Apple and small knife (apple activity)
* *2. Soil medicine examples (e.g. diarrhea medicine, antibacterial gel
or cream, facial masks)
* *3. Soil art examples (e.g. mud cloth, sand painting, pottery)
* *4. Soil building material examples (e.g. red brick, p hotos of adobe
and Earthship houses)
* *5. Makeup (e.g. foundation, blush)
* *6. Plant
* *7. Soil Story example (e.g. Maryland flood plain soil)
Prerequisites
* *€ *None
Why are soils important?
Soils exist as natural ecosystem on the surface of the Earth made up of
macro and microorganisms, minerals, organic matter, air, and water.
Soils are living systems that provide many of the most fundamental
functions needed for life. Important functions of soil include:
* *1. Providing the fertile medium in which we grow our food and fiber
* *2. Producing and storing gases such as CO2 (Carbon dioxide)
* *3. Storing heat and water
* *4. Providing a home for billions of plants, animals and microorganisms
* *5. Filtering water and wastes
* *6. Providing the source material for construction, medicine, art,
makeup, etc.
* *7. Decomposing wastes
* *8. Providing a snapshot of geologic, climatic, biological, and human
history
Soil forms very slowly and comprises only about 10 or 11% of Earth's
surface. So, it is important to study this essential natural resource
and understand how it should be used and conserved properly.
What to Do and How to Do It
Activity One: Why are soils important?
* *1. Collect as many materials and tools as possible from list above
* *2. Ask the class "Why are soils important?" and "Why do you think it
is important to study soils?"
* *3. Record their answers.
* *4. As students give answers that relate to the collected materials,
bring out those materials and pass them around the class. For example,
if a student says that we use soil as art, have a clay pot available for
touching. If students run out of ideas about the use of soils, ask them
about soil as art (and bring out the African mud cloth [Bogolanfini]) or
soil as medicine (for diahrhea, antibacterial gel, examples of people
eating soil for digestive problems, etc.)
* *5. Lead the discussion to the many possible reasons why it is
important to study soil (see above).
Activity Two: Are soils all the same?
* *1. Show students photographs from the Soil Investigation Introduction
section titled Soils Around the World. Have students check the World
Wide Web (e.g. soils.usda.gov or soils.gsfc.nasa.gov), library, and
other sources for other photographs of soil profiles. Also, look for
color drawings or photographs of soil properties by GLOBE students on
the GLOBE Web site (try going to the data access page, then to GLOBE
sites and then to Soil Profiles ).
* *2. Ask students why one soil profile looks different from another?
What are some of the factors that would make a soil look the way it
does? Help guide their responses by reading the Five Soil Forming
Factors (parent amterials, climate, topography, biota, and time) in the
GLOBE Soil investigation Introduction.
* *3. Have the students identify the 5 soil forming factors at their
school and ask how they might differ at other locations, both within the
neighborhood, or around the world.
* *4. Discuss the concept that every soil tells a different story based
on the properties that have formed because of the 5 soil forming
factors. As an example, use the following Maryland Flood Plain Soil
story. There is a soil profile from a creek bed in College Park,
Maryland, USA in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. When the soil scientists
were studying this profile, they noticed that there was a black layer
right in the middle of the profile. When the scientists looked at this
layer with a hand lens they could see that the black color was due to
many tiny bits of charcoal and ash. Using different kinds of tests, they
learned that this material was deposited about 300 - 350 years ago.
Where would charcoal and ash have come from about 300-350 years ago?
What was going on in the Chesapeake Bay region at about that time?
Settlers coming to this region for the first time were burning the
forests to make room for farms. The residue from those forest fires
flowed down into the rivers and creeks and eventually some of it was
deposited in this creek bed and became part of this soil profile. The
soil above this layer was created after the ash and charcoal were
deposited by flooding of the river and the addition of sediments eroded
from the local area on top of the charcoal layer. * In soils, the
youngest materials are found at the top of the profile. After the
sediments were deposited by the flooding water, soil processes took over
to form structure, color, and other soil properties that we can see and
measure.
The scientists also noticed that in the horizon below the charcoal and
ash layer, there were clam and oyster shells (as well as some pebbles
rounded by washing down the river during flood events). With careful
testing, they learned that the objects in this horizon were deposited
here about 400 - 450 years ago.
What was going on in the Chesapeake Bay about 400 - 450 years ago?
The indigenous people who lived in this area before the settelrs came
would come to the Bay for their holiday feasts and they would celebrate
and eat lots of clams and oysters. What we see here was what was left
behind. These shells eventually flowed down into this creek bed and
became part of the soil profile.
The last part of the story takes us to the beginning. The lowest two
horizons in this profile are of an earlier soil that was buried under
the river sediments of the newer soil. The buried soil shows structure,
colors and other features that indicate it is many thousands of years
old and was in a swampy area before the river changed its course a bit
and began to bury it.
This is an example of how a soil can be a record of the history of the
area around it and can tell us its story. Other stories are available on
the Soil Science Education Web page under the "Every Soil Tells a Story"
feature.

* *5. Ask students to try to come up with "stories" about how other
soils may have formed and the properties that they have.
* *6. Introduce the concept of diversity in soil which states that
because every soil is different, each one can only be used in a certain
way. For example, which kind of soils would be best for growing crops
(flat, fertile, enough moisture, deep, etc.)? Which soils would be best
for building a pond or reservoir (clay with massive structure, high
density, low porosity, flat or depressed area on the landscape, etc.)?
Which would be best for filtering wastes (high surface area, lots of
organisms, not too cold or wet, etc.)? Have the students think of other
land uses and what kinds of soil properties would be best for those uses.
Activity Three: How much soil is there on Earth?
* *1. Take an apple and a small knife, to conduct the following:
* *2. Teacher says: "Pretend that an apple is the planet Earth, round,
beautiful, and full of good things. Feel its skin, hugging and
protecting the surface."
* *3. Teacher asks and discusses:
* a. "How much of the surface of the earth is covered by water?"
* b. Answer: Water covers approximately 75% of the surface.
* c. Action: Cut the apple in quarters. Toss three quarters (75%) away.

* *4. Teacher says: "The three quarters (75%) that was just removed
represents how much of the earth is covered with water - oceans, lakes,
rivers, streams. What is left (25%) represents the dry land. Fifty
percent of that dry land is desert, polar, or mountainous regions where
it is too hot, too cold or too high to be productive".
* Action: Cut the "dry land" quarter in half and toss one piece away.
* *5. Teacher says: "When 50% of the dry land is removed, this is what
is left (12.5% of the original). Of that 12.5%, 40% is severely limited
by terrain, fertility or excessive rainfall. It is too rocky, steep,
shallow, poor or too wet to support food production."
* Action: Cut that 40% portion away.
* *6. Teacher says: "What is left is approximately 10% of the apple.
Action: Peel the skin from the tiny remaining sliver.
* *7. Teacher says: "The remaining 10% (approximately), a very small
fragment of the land area, represents the soil we depend on for the
world's food supply. This fragment competes with all other needs -
housing, cities, schools, hospitals, shopping centers, land fills, etc.,
and, sometimes, it doesn't win."
Action: Pass the apple skin that represents the Earth's arable soil
around to the entire class. Discuss with students some ways in which
they could be more mindful of the soil and the way soils are being used
at their homes or in their town. For example, discuss the idea of
composting to recycle wastes and help make the soil rich in organic
matter, and about keeping soil covered with vegetation so that it will
not erode away or become compacted.
* How Much Soil Is There? Learning Activity courtesy of: The Natural
Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
(This material can be downloaded from soils.gsfc.nasa.gov)

--
Bill *S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden

³Every conflict in the world today has its origin in the
imagination of British map drawers,² Author Unknown

Very intersting Bill. My Dad worked for Seabrook Farms in your area
for a couple of years before he went back to teaching Soil Chemistry
at Rutgers from which he retired. He had previously taught at Purdue
PennState, and UMass as an agronomist. He had a sign in his
office that said "Don't Say Dirt Around Here" which one of his
grandaughters had made for him.His name was Joseph Steckel, and
we ran into former students of his all over the place.
Nanzi

In article
,
Nanzi wrote:

On Feb 19, 2:08*pm, Bill who putters wrote:
*Just in case we don't know it all.

http://soil.gsfc.nasa.gov/touchtheearth/studysoil.htm

"7. Teacher says: "The remaining 10% (approximately), a very small
fragment of the land area, represents the soil we depend on for the
world's food supply. This fragment competes with all other needs -
housing, cities, schools, hospitals, shopping centers, land fills, etc.,
and, sometimes, it doesn't win.""

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Why Do We Study Soil?
Purpose
* *¤ *To introduce students to the importance of soil and why it needs to
be studied
Overview
* *¤ *In the first activity, students generate a list of why soils are
important. In the second activity, students are asked to describe the
five factors that form a unique soil profile and to explore these
concepts. In the third activity, students are shown a demonstration of
how much soil there is on Earth that is available for human use.
Student Outcomes
* *1. Students will understand the importance of soil science.
* *2. Students will be able to provide reasons for studying soil.
* *3. Students will understand how soil properties are determined by the
five soil forming factors.
* *4. Students will appreciate the relative amounts of usable soil that
exist on Earth.
Science Concepts
Earth and Space Sciences
* *1. Earth materials are solid rocks, soil, water, biota, and the gases
of the atmosphere.
* *2. Soils have properties including color, texture structure, color,
and density; they support the growth of many types of plants and serve
numerous other functions in the ecosystem.
* *3. The surface of the Earth changes
* *4. Soils consist of rocks and minerals, organic material, air and
water.
* *5. Water circulates through soil affecting both soil and water
properties.
Physical Sciences
* *¤ *Objects have observable properties.
Life Sciences
* *1. Organisms can only survive in environments where their needs are
met.
* *2. Earth has many different environments that support different
combinations of organisms.
* *3. All populations living together and the physical factors with
which they interact constitute an ecosystem.
Scientific Inquiry Abilities
* *1. Identify answerable questions.
* *2. Develop descriptions and explanations using evidence.
* *3. Communicate procedures and explanations.
Time
* *¤ *One or two class periods (depending on level of exploration for
second activity)
Level
* *¤ *All
Materials and Tools
* *1. Apple and small knife (apple activity)
* *2. Soil medicine examples (e.g. diarrhea medicine, antibacterial gel
or cream, facial masks)
* *3. Soil art examples (e.g. mud cloth, sand painting, pottery)
* *4. Soil building material examples (e.g. red brick, p hotos of adobe
and Earthship houses)
* *5. Makeup (e.g. foundation, blush)
* *6. Plant
* *7. Soil Story example (e.g. Maryland flood plain soil)
Prerequisites
* *¤ *None
Why are soils important?
Soils exist as natural ecosystem on the surface of the Earth made up of
macro and microorganisms, minerals, organic matter, air, and water.
Soils are living systems that provide many of the most fundamental
functions needed for life. Important functions of soil include:
* *1. Providing the fertile medium in which we grow our food and fiber
* *2. Producing and storing gases such as CO2 (Carbon dioxide)
* *3. Storing heat and water
* *4. Providing a home for billions of plants, animals and microorganisms
* *5. Filtering water and wastes
* *6. Providing the source material for construction, medicine, art,
makeup, etc.
* *7. Decomposing wastes
* *8. Providing a snapshot of geologic, climatic, biological, and human
history
Soil forms very slowly and comprises only about 10 or 11% of Earth's
surface. So, it is important to study this essential natural resource
and understand how it should be used and conserved properly.
What to Do and How to Do It
Activity One: Why are soils important?
* *1. Collect as many materials and tools as possible from list above
* *2. Ask the class "Why are soils important?" and "Why do you think it
is important to study soils?"
* *3. Record their answers.
* *4. As students give answers that relate to the collected materials,
bring out those materials and pass them around the class. For example,
if a student says that we use soil as art, have a clay pot available for
touching. If students run out of ideas about the use of soils, ask them
about soil as art (and bring out the African mud cloth [Bogolanfini]) or
soil as medicine (for diahrhea, antibacterial gel, examples of people
eating soil for digestive problems, etc.)
* *5. Lead the discussion to the many possible reasons why it is
important to study soil (see above).
Activity Two: Are soils all the same?
* *1. Show students photographs from the Soil Investigation Introduction
section titled Soils Around the World. Have students check the World
Wide Web (e.g. soils.usda.gov or soils.gsfc.nasa.gov), library, and
other sources for other photographs of soil profiles. Also, look for
color drawings or photographs of soil properties by GLOBE students on
the GLOBE Web site (try going to the data access page, then to GLOBE
sites and then to Soil Profiles ).
* *2. Ask students why one soil profile looks different from another?
What are some of the factors that would make a soil look the way it
does? Help guide their responses by reading the Five Soil Forming
Factors (parent amterials, climate, topography, biota, and time) in the
GLOBE Soil investigation Introduction.
* *3. Have the students identify the 5 soil forming factors at their
school and ask how they might differ at other locations, both within the
neighborhood, or around the world.
* *4. Discuss the concept that every soil tells a different story based
on the properties that have formed because of the 5 soil forming
factors. As an example, use the following Maryland Flood Plain Soil
story. There is a soil profile from a creek bed in College Park,
Maryland, USA in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. When the soil scientists
were studying this profile, they noticed that there was a black layer
right in the middle of the profile. When the scientists looked at this
layer with a hand lens they could see that the black color was due to
many tiny bits of charcoal and ash. Using different kinds of tests, they
learned that this material was deposited about 300 - 350 years ago.
Where would charcoal and ash have come from about 300-350 years ago?
What was going on in the Chesapeake Bay region at about that time?
Settlers coming to this region for the first time were burning the
forests to make room for farms. The residue from those forest fires
flowed down into the rivers and creeks and eventually some of it was
deposited in this creek bed and became part of this soil profile. The
soil above this layer was created after the ash and charcoal were
deposited by flooding of the river and the addition of sediments eroded
from the local area on top of the charcoal layer. * In soils, the
youngest materials are found at the top of the profile. After the
sediments were deposited by the flooding water, soil processes took over
to form structure, color, and other soil properties that we can see and
measure.
The scientists also noticed that in the horizon below the charcoal and
ash layer, there were clam and oyster shells (as well as some pebbles
rounded by washing down the river during flood events). With careful
testing, they learned that the objects in this horizon were deposited
here about 400 - 450 years ago.
What was going on in the Chesapeake Bay about 400 - 450 years ago?
The indigenous people who lived in this area before the settelrs came
would come to the Bay for their holiday feasts and they would celebrate
and eat lots of clams and oysters. What we see here was what was left
behind. These shells eventually flowed down into this creek bed and
became part of the soil profile.
The last part of the story takes us to the beginning. The lowest two
horizons in this profile are of an earlier soil that was buried under
the river sediments of the newer soil. The buried soil shows structure,
colors and other features that indicate it is many thousands of years
old and was in a swampy area before the river changed its course a bit
and began to bury it.
This is an example of how a soil can be a record of the history of the
area around it and can tell us its story. Other stories are available on
the Soil Science Education Web page under the "Every Soil Tells a Story"
feature.

* *5. Ask students to try to come up with "stories" about how other
soils may have formed and the properties that they have.
* *6. Introduce the concept of diversity in soil which states that
because every soil is different, each one can only be used in a certain
way. For example, which kind of soils would be best for growing crops
(flat, fertile, enough moisture, deep, etc.)? Which soils would be best
for building a pond or reservoir (clay with massive structure, high
density, low porosity, flat or depressed area on the landscape, etc.)?
Which would be best for filtering wastes (high surface area, lots of
organisms, not too cold or wet, etc.)? Have the students think of other
land uses and what kinds of soil properties would be best for those uses.
Activity Three: How much soil is there on Earth?
* *1. Take an apple and a small knife, to conduct the following:
* *2. Teacher says: "Pretend that an apple is the planet Earth, round,
beautiful, and full of good things. Feel its skin, hugging and
protecting the surface."
* *3. Teacher asks and discusses:
* a. "How much of the surface of the earth is covered by water?"
* b. Answer: Water covers approximately 75% of the surface.
* c. Action: Cut the apple in quarters. Toss three quarters (75%) away.

* *4. Teacher says: "The three quarters (75%) that was just removed
represents how much of the earth is covered with water - oceans, lakes,
rivers, streams. What is left (25%) represents the dry land. Fifty
percent of that dry land is desert, polar, or mountainous regions where
it is too hot, too cold or too high to be productive".
* Action: Cut the "dry land" quarter in half and toss one piece away.
* *5. Teacher says: "When 50% of the dry land is removed, this is what
is left (12.5% of the original). Of that 12.5%, 40% is severely limited
by terrain, fertility or excessive rainfall. It is too rocky, steep,
shallow, poor or too wet to support food production."
* Action: Cut that 40% portion away.
* *6. Teacher says: "What is left is approximately 10% of the apple.
Action: Peel the skin from the tiny remaining sliver.
* *7. Teacher says: "The remaining 10% (approximately), a very small
fragment of the land area, represents the soil we depend on for the
world's food supply. This fragment competes with all other needs -
housing, cities, schools, hospitals, shopping centers, land fills, etc.,
and, sometimes, it doesn't win."
Action: Pass the apple skin that represents the Earth's arable soil
around to the entire class. Discuss with students some ways in which
they could be more mindful of the soil and the way soils are being used
at their homes or in their town. For example, discuss the idea of
composting to recycle wastes and help make the soil rich in organic
matter, and about keeping soil covered with vegetation so that it will
not erode away or become compacted.
* How Much Soil Is There? Learning Activity courtesy of: The Natural
Resources Conservation Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
(This material can be downloaded from soils.gsfc.nasa.gov)

--
Bill *S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden

3Every conflict in the world today has its origin in the
imagination of British map drawers,2 Author Unknown

Very intersting Bill. My Dad worked for Seabrook Farms in your area
for a couple of years before he went back to teaching Soil Chemistry
at Rutgers from which he retired. He had previously taught at Purdue
PennState, and UMass as an agronomist. He had a sign in his
office that said "Don't Say Dirt Around Here" which one of his
grandaughters had made for him.His name was Joseph Steckel, and
we ran into former students of his all over the place.
Nanzi

I know Seabrook Farms. Large populations of Japanese, Tibetan, and
Eastern Europe lived there to escape WW2. When the Dalai Lama came to
the US and visited New York City he would stop by Seabrook Farms this
in 1960 -1975 time frame. We used to go to a very plain looking little
store called Cherries to purchase Asian food stuffs . Neat.
Sounds like you had a great Dad.

--
Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden

³Every conflict in the world today has its origin in the
imagination of British map drawers,² Author Unknown