This page archived August 2008
SOIL SCHEME OF WORK (Word Document to download)
"There can be no life without soil and no soil
without life" Charles Kellogg (of Corn Flakes fame)
"The nation that destroys its soil destroys
itself" Franklin Roosevelt (US President in the wake of the Dust Bowl
events)
"Dirt's a lot more fun when you add water"
Dennis the Menace
(with thanks to Val Vannet)
Pedology is not, as some of my students think, the study of feet, but the science of soil and specifically its formation. To some people soil is just soil, but it is a tremendous consequence of thousands of years of chemistry, weathering and worm frass. Edaphology is the scientific study of the influence of soil on living things. I spent the final year of my degree doing a lot of soil related work, lots of Casagrande stuff and messing around with Tullgren funnels as well as bouncing along in Land Rovers through the Pennines.
One of the main issues surrounding soils is SOIL EROSION - more on this page of my website which is a popular result of Google searches.
Try the SOIL ASSOCIATION site for more information on SOILS in general, and some links on Organic farming and other uses.
Try FRED MOOR'S WORLD OF SOIL (I kid you not..) which has a huge set of links to all types of soil information. This is the only site you'll need (almost). There are loads of links and information here for all that you need. Thanks Fred! Link updated and now works...
For an interactive SOIL TEXTURE PYRAMID go here. You need to register first it seems - has changed since last time I visited.
There is a useful page of information and links at the 42EXPLORE page.
For a trip underground try this VIRTUAL TRIP UNDERGROUND - may not be exactly at the level you need.
Soil erosion is a big problem in many parts of the world, with increasing desertification caused by overuse of marginal land. Many sites have useful materials on the DUST BOWL of the 1930s.
Some starter notes at PUPILVISION
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/7_8/rocks_soils.shtml - a nice animation for the younger pupils - test to see which rocks are most resistant to certain testing
http://www.soils.org/lessons/ - materials from the Soil Science Society of America
http://www.pedosphere.com/textbook.html is the latest version of a site which I have known about since 2000. This version has a great deal of information and links to a number of other useful sources. There are PREVIEWS of chapters of a textbook, and some entire chapters, which are available as PDF downloads. This is well worth checking out...
GEONET's investigation has the helpful acronym SODU (you could perhaps pronounce it 'Sod you!', which gives the 4 main farming practices which lead to erosion in the developing world.
Could provide some triangular graphs and some figures for SAND, SILT and CLAY and then identify the soil type. Students occasionally come up against these graphs in the exam.
The table below is a common one for classifying the various SOIL TYPES.
| Cool Climates | Warm Climates | |
| Moist Climates | Podsol Brown Earth |
Yellow & Red
Podsol Lateritic soil Tropical Red |
| Dry Climates | Chernozem Chestnut soil Brown soil Tundra soil |
Tropical Pedocal |
Clay shrinks as it dries out - see the image below for the patterns that this process creates (starter ?)
Dried out mud on the fringes of The Wash. Picture taken by Mister P. Click to enlarge.
1. Soil Erosion page
2. SOILS AND SOIL PROCESSES
Definition: "the uppermost weathered layer of the earth's crust, consisting of decomposed and disintegrating bedrock which has been altered to the extent that it can support plant life"
How does soil form ?
What processes operate in the soil ?
How long does soil take to form ?
3. S-COOL
This website offers notes for AS/A2 students which include FLASH images and animation.
http://courses.soil.ncsu.edu/resources/physics/texture/soiltexture.swf - animated SOIL TEXTURE PYRAMID
http://courses.soil.ncsu.edu/resources/physics/texture/soilgeo.swf - animated SOIL STRUCTURE
4. Thanks to Rob Chambers for finding this set of SOIL SONGS (and other links.....)
http://soils.usda.gov/education/resources/k_12/songs/ - you may be able to make some use of these...
Get the students singing along or making up their own, or adding a new verse. What rhymes with podzol ??
5. WYCOMBE HIGH SCHOOL ANIMATIONS
The Mothersoles have been busy creating some rather nice animated illustrations which will help students get to grips with the variety of soil profiles which there are out there.
Their page of ANIMATED SOILS ( a long link...) has the following useful content (in FLASH format):
What is Soil?
How soil profiles develop over time.
Eluviation and Illuviation between Soil Horizons
Processes of Mineral Weathering in Soils
The Main Zonal Soils (Map)
Brown earth
Podsol
Chernozem
Ferralitic Soil (Latosol)
Surface-water Gley
Rendzina
6. DIG A SOIL PIT
I suggest the school cricket square...on second thoughts....
Choose a location which is not too exposed, or too affected by local factors e.g. at the base of a big tree where there will be loads of roots in the way. Also consider drainage.
Use a decent spade and make sure that the turf is taken off so that it can be replaced once you've finished.
Need a recording chart to keep notes on each horizon as you go down, and need to expose a vertical face. Get the students doing the digging, but make sure you've assessed all the risks first.
7. DUST BOWLS
Use an article from 'The Independent' from 13/06/94
Rainfall and soils need to be conserved from one year to the next, yet poverty and population growth compel farmers to do otherwise.
Are Dust Bowls likely to make a return with modern farming methods ? Have they already returned ?
8. Why not subscribe to a journal ?
Was recently contacted by Wiley who publish a journal called LAND DEGRADATION AND DEVELOPMENT. For those who want to go deep into soils.
9. SOIL.NET
Was also contacted recently by Dr. Hallett from the National Soils Resources Institute (NSRI) at Cranfield University
He told me about a number of useful soils resources online.
Soil-Net.com - a free environmental educational resource about soils for Primary and Secondary schools age. Soil is right under our feet. Visit http://www.soil-net.com
About Soil-Net - Soil is important in all our lives. As one of the three major natural resources, alongside air and water, soil is vital to the existence of life on earth. Soil-Net.com help you learn about what soil is, the teeming life in soil, what soil does and about the many environmental threats facing our soils. Remember, soil is all around us, just under our feet! Be sure to visit Soil-Net.com
Primary - Designed for Key Stages 1 and 2 (ages 5-11), Soil-Net offers a series of exciting, interactive and animated movies that teach about soil and its importance. Follow Badger and class in soil school as they learn about what soil is, why soil matters, how soil forms and differs and how soil supports the plants and animals on earth. Activity and topic sheets accompany the on-screen fun.
Secondary - Designed for Key Stages 3 and 4 (ages 11-16), Soil-Net offers a broad coverage of soils information; introducing soils, examining the global cycles, presenting the functions soils perform, looking at the diversity of world soils and considering the threats and concerns facing our soil resources. A series of case studies and informative activities and downloads are also provided.
Soilscapes Viewer, http://www.landis.org.uk/soilscapes, is a free interactive web-based map of the soil types in England and Wales. Soilscapes Viewer offers a fantastic way to learn more about the soils in your region, and across the two countries. Input your UK Postcode and discover more about the soil resource under your feet. The Land Information System, or LandIS, is an environmental information system holding comprehensive soils information for England and Wales. LandIS is run by Cranfield University's National Soil Resources Institute, (http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/soil) and is used by a broad range of users interested in soil conditions, properties and mapping. Datasets, maps and publications are available from LandIS to support your research and educational projects.
(FOR OLDER STUDENTS)
World Soil Survey Archive and Catalogue. Visit http://www.wossac.com
The World Soil Surveys Archive and Catalogue (WOSSAC) seeks to provide a secure home for soil survey reports, maps and photographs produced by British companies and surveyors overseas in the last 80 years in 250 territories, with a view to ensuring their enduring availability and protection and making them as widely accessible as possible. WOSSAC is a project of the Cranfield University’s National Soil Resources Institute (http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/soil) in the UK.
WOSSAC is also the home for the recently announced ‘SoilPIC’ archive. Sponsored by BSSS, SoilPIC is intended to offer scholars and researchers access to high quality photographs of soil and soil conditions from all around the world. Photos of soil pit horizons and their associated landscapes will form an invaluable resource for those wishing to learn more of the astonishing variety of world soils.
PAST QUESTIONS
1. Describe and explain the distribution of _________ soils
2. Describe the main characteristics of a __________ soil
3. Using examples, outline the ways in which named human activities affect soil formation and quality
4. What is a loam soil ?
5. Suggest how various agricultural techniques can affect the soils in an area
6. Define zonal, azonal and intrazonal soils, and suggest examples of each type
7. Compare and contrast these 2 soil profiles and suggest how they reflect the conditions under which they were formed
8. Justify and explain what you feel to be the main problems of management within an ecosystem of your choice