Soil Investigations

Students apply knowledge of soil, environmental impacts, economics, multiple human demands, and use given data for a proposed scenario in making land use decisions. They debate land use issues and/or scenarios and discuss a case study.

Militaries throughout history have used topography information to plan strategies, yet many pupils today don't understand it. Scholars use Legos and a contour gauge to understand how to construct and visualize topographic profiles. This...

Students show how soil varies across the landscape, they explain how soil can be used to solve mysteries. Pupils are introduced to techniques that would be used to distinguish soils from different places.

Through a PowerPoint presentation and the embedded animation and video, earth science enthusiasts find out about the moisture in the soil beneath our feet. In the animation, follow a water molecule on its path through the water cycle. As...

Students are introduced to the differences that exist in soil properties with depth. They are introduced to the factors that influence a soil's development (soil forming factors). Pupils are introduced to the impact of soil of soil...

Students study the different soil types and describe the different soils in various environments.  In this soil lesson students walk to a reserve and discuss what they saw. 

Huygens spacecraft landed on Saturn's moon Titan in 2005, making it the farthest landing from Earth ever made by a spacecraft. In this hands-on activity, the 12th installment of 22, groups explore how density affects speed. To do this,...

A set of 27 slides systematically shows how weathering, erosion, and deposition contribute to soil formation. Both chemical and mechanical weathering are described, as are resulting soil layers and properties. There is no longer any need...

Fifth and sixth graders are introduced to the primary landforms of Illinois and discover how they were created. Landform cards are made for each pupil. They use the twenty-questions format until they have identified each one. Then,...

Learners complete hands-on activities and watch a video to learn about soil erosion. In this erosion instructional activity, students use hands-on studies to investigate soil erosion. Learners then visit the given websites to identify...