Related Lessons

What's in Soil?

In grades 3-5, students should become adept at using magnifiers to inspect rock and soils. The point is not to classify rigorously, but to notice the variety of components in rock and soils. This lesson encourages students to investigate the formation, properties, and components of soil. They create their own soil, then conduct an experiment to see how it compares to other varieties of soil for growing plants.

Read the recommended activities ahead of time, and decide how to best use them in your classroom:

• The Dirt on Soil
• Soil Ingredients
• A Recipe for Soil

Begin this lesson by having a discussion with your students about what soil is and how they think it is formed. Encourage your students to write down their ideas in their science journals and keep a master list of their ideas on the blackboard or a flip chart.

To further your students' understanding about the variety of components in soil, you can lead them through some soil activities found on the Utah Education Network site. The activities found at this site can be adapted for use in your classroom.

For each of these activities, you can print out the instructions ahead of time and then lead your students through the activities. Be sure to encourage your students to record their observations in their science journals.

Activities

1. The Dirt on Soil There are several activities on this page that you can do with students. We suggest that you do these activities:

Water is a Component of Soil: In this activity, students determine that water is one of the four ingredients in the soil. In addition to showing your students the appearance of the paper towel on the overhead projector, you can have your students directly examine the towel both before and after the soil has been on it. Also, in addition to the questions asked in this activity, you might want to allow your students to open the bags of soil and carefully sample the soil with their hands.

Ask these questions:

• What color is the soil?
• What texture does the soil have?
• Is the soil moist? Dry?
• What does the soil smell like?

Air is a Component of Soil: By performing this investigation, students can determine the approximate amount of air space that has been displaced.

Before your students pour water into their cups of soil, ask them these questions:

• What do you think will happen to the soil when you pour water onto it? Why?
• What do you think will happen to the water? Why?
• Do you think you will be able to pour the full cup of water onto the soil?

After the students have poured the water onto the soil, ask them these questions, in addition to the ones asked in the online activity:

• What happened when you poured the water onto the soil? Why do you think you got that result?
• Did you use the full cup of water? If not, how much did you use?

2. How Are Soils Classified? With the aid of a hand lens, students separate out various particles found in soil.

3. Soil Ingredients Soil ingredients are sorted into organic materials and rock sediments. Before you do this activity with your students, you might want to have them to name some organic materials for you. This process will help you to gauge whether or not they understand what organic materials are. Encourage them to write down their ideas in their science journals and keep a master list of their answers on the blackboard.

4. A Recipe for Soil Students make soil using local materials. The instructions for this lesson take you through the soil-making process. Before you ask your students to gather organic material (step 6), ask them to name some things that they think are organic materials. Ask them to write down their ideas in their science journals and keep a master list yourself on the blackboard.

Once your students have gathered all the materials needed to do activity #5, ask them to take some time to observe the pebbles, sand, and organic material before it is pounded. Ask them to describe what the material looks like (color, shape, texture) and write down their descriptions in their science journals.

After the material has been pounded and pulverized, ask your students to observe the material once again, before they add water to it, and describe what it looks like (color, shape, texture) and write down their descriptions in their science journals.

To assess student understanding, have students create a poster depicting the formation of soil. They should use words and pictures.

As an extension to the soil making activity (A Recipe for Soil), have your students compare plant growth in natural and student-made soil. Have students keep a journal of the growth of each of the plants, including measurements, drawings, and written descriptions.

Have your students visit Seeds of Change Garden-Soil: Gotta Have It! for an activity on making compost.

Students can go to the Microbe Zoo website to learn more about the living organisms found in soil.

For an additional lesson related to the benchmarks for the Physical Setting, visit Properties of Air.

Created :10/20/2001