When children work with soil (or dirt as they most often call it), they rarely question where it comes from. Soil, sky, water…they just are. But when they view soil as one component of a garden, one part of the system for growing plants, they may gain enough experience with it to begin classifying it as “good,” “bad,” “hard,” “wet,” and “dry.” In some regions, children may notice the presence of sand grains and clay. Feeling soil and squeezing it into a “ribbon” in your palm is one way soil scientists notice the properties of soil. When bedrock (the rock that lies under the soil) is visible, children may more easily identify how tiny pieces of rock become soil through the process of erosion. Learning how soil is formed through erosion of rock begins in early childhood with experiences but full understanding is not expected until grade 4 or later (see NGSS performance expectation 4-ESS2 Earth’s Systems). No rush!

To easily view the materials that are in soil, put a trowel-ful of it in a clear jar, add water but leave some space at the top, and shake well before letting all the parts settle for several hours or overnight. Put a tightly fitting lid on the jar before having the children shake it! I like to use a jar that is easy for preschoolers to handle, such as a mayonnaise jar. Put tape around the lid to remind children not to open the jar and keep it available for as long as the children are interested. They will return to it over time, shaking and then viewing the results again and again. What will the results be? That depends on the composition of the soil that was put into the jar. There will be some organic matter (bits of dead leaves, roots, maybe an insect or worm), small pebbles, sand, silt (smaller than sand grains but you can still feel them) and clay (very small but you know it when you feel that slick stickiness). These materials will settle out into rough layers, especially when given a long period of settling. Teachers and upper elementary students can follow more detailed directions in the Field Museum’s Underground Adventure webpages.  Retired teacher, Moira Whitehouse shared a fifth grade level slide show on soil properties that is useful for teachers to adapt for other ages. The GLOBE Soil Module has background information in a teacher implementation guide for a series of activities. The information can be adapted for your students.

“Mud kitchens” are another way for children to explore the properties of soil as they mix soil and water to create confections and concoctions. Muddy Faces offers a download of Jan White’s ebook, Making a Mud Kitchen, with free registration. She writes, “There is little more important in our physical world than earth and water and they are truly intriguing things, especially when they interact.” Imaginative play engages children for long periods of time, allowing time to make observations and discoveries and test out ideas.

Search the archive of articles and columns in Science and Children to learn more about investigating soil. In “Teaching Through Tradebooks: The Dirt on Soil” (September 2007) columnist Christine Anne Royce suggests books, describes activities for two age ranges and offers these safety guidelines:

1. Know the source of your soil samples! Soil can be contaminated by pesticides, animal waste, etc.
2. Obtain parent/guardian permission before having students work in soil or in compost to inform them of possible allergens (mold/spores, etc), which might affect students with compromised immune systems, allergies, or asthma.
3. Have students wear plastic gloves and make sure all open cuts or scratches are covered minimally to prevent infection, and always wash hands with soap and water after working with soil or compost. Wash desktops with mild soap and water where soil activities took place. Do not allow snacks or other food products during soil activities. Don’t keep wet soil more than a day or two. Mold and bacteria spores will grow in it.
4. Wear appropriate clothing (long sleeves and pants) and closed-toed shoes or sneakers when working in a compost pile.
5. Handle compost materials, wire mesh, stakes, wooden boards with care and caution. Use only nonmercury thermometers.

And of course, always wash hands after working with soil.

Although organic matter is only a small part of soil, it provides nutrients and helps keep the soil loose with space for air. Building organic matter into garden soil is one reason to compost scraps of fruits and vegetables from the kitchen or classroom snack. In the March 2016 issue of Science and Children I wrote in the Early Years column about how children in one preschool are adding to a minimalist compost pile. Over time they have observed the decomposition of pumpkins and apple peelings into compost. Does your program compost?

When the preschool moved, the new location presented many obstacles to gardening with children:

• Sloping ground.
• Mature trees shading much of the area.
• English ivy covered portions of the available area.
• The play area had not yet been constructed so the choice of “where” could not be made.

I turned to the resources of the early childhood education and science education communities to get some advice.

The National Science Teachers Association’s Learning Center has wonderful forums for asking and providing advice and information on many topics. It is free to all to register! I posted in the Early Childhood forum with a post title of “Gardening at school with young children” and heard from many of you with ideas for making a successful garden.

I found beginning instruction and great encouragement in Early Sprouts: Cultivating Healthy Food Choices in Young Children by Karrie Kalich, Dottie Bauer, and Deirdre MdPartlin (2009 Redleaf Press). Reading, “The most important things are a positive attitude and a willingness to try,” and the details about maintaining the garden were motivating. The work of these authors continues at the Early Sprouts Institute. 

Gardening With Young Children by Sara Starbuck, Marla Olthof, and Karen Midden (2014 Redleaf Press) has supporting information and answers to most of my questions. It was recently reviewed in the Early Childhood Resources Review column in the November 2015 issue of Science and Children (NSTA members can view the review by Gail Laubenthal in the digital version of the journal). 

The National Gardening Association published Garden Adventures: Exploring Plants with Young Children by Sarah Pounders (2010), and you can see a KidsGardening.org list of suggested books here.

The “interim” plan has turned into a long-term plan. We continue with two large pots that nestle next to the fence, in an area that receives about 6 hours of direct sunlight a day, half of it in the afternoon. The successful crops have been a few spinach plants that overwintered without any help from gardeners, and this spring we have a thriving crop of sugar snap peas. We transplanted seedlings grown inside after observing the sprouting seeds. I’m cautiously optimistic that we’ll be able to harvest a handful of pods in late May! It’s a beginning we can grow on.

This month, all three K-12 journals include What We Call Misconceptions May Be Necessary Stepping-Stones Toward Making Sense of the World (a must-read) and Outstanding Science Trade Books for Students K–12 (a must-share).

The Science Teacher – Powered by the Sun

Most of the lessons in TST include a detailed chart connecting the lesson to the NGSS.

• Science’s Super Star is not about celestial bodies—but the starlet sea anemone. The article describes how to culture these organisms in the classroom and the types of research students can conduct on their reproduction, growth and development, regeneration, and reactions to stimuli.
• Does It Mix? Introduces students to the concepts of hydrophilic and hydrophobic molecules.
• Building a Greener Future connects engineering and science in a project to design, construct, and test compost bins for a community garden.
• Science 2.0: Mastering Scientific Practices With Technology, Part 2 recommends technology tools that support the NGSS science and engineering practices of analyzing and interpreting data, using mathematics and computational thinking, and constructing explanations and designing solutions.
• Idea Bank: Using Earthquakes as “Teachable Moments” has a source of real-time information and data on earthquakes (the presentations are also available in Spanish). There are three entries to date for 2016. http://www.iris.edu/hq/retm/
• Powered by the Sun includes many photographs of an engineering challenge in which students designed, built, and tested solar-powered vehicles (with electric motors, solar cells, gears, and wheels).

For more on the content that provides a context for these projects and strategies see the SciLinks topics Cnidarians, Emulsions, Forces and Motion, Graphing Data, Math and Science, Measurements and Data, Solar Energy, Solubility, Solutions.

Continue for Science and Children and Science Scope.

Science and Children- Earth and Human Activity

Spring is a perfect time for the featured lessons here on the connections between human behavior and the environment. Most of the lessons include a detailed chart connecting the lesson to the NGSS.

• The Lorax Readers’ Theater has an example of how to integrate literature and science, using a popular book.
• Capturing Insects and Student Interest builds on the interest students have in carnivorous plants through investigating, learning centers, and creating illustrated descriptions.
• Students explore sustainability in Aquaponics: What a Way to Grow! by designing and building aquaponic systems. The article has photos of the results of this 5E lesson.
• Understanding Human Impact is the focus of a lesson in which students learn about watersheds and the effect of human activity on the living things and the quality of the environment.
• Students take the role of marine biologist in the 5E lesson Crabby Interactions to study the impact of human activity on the blue crab and its environment.
• Teaching Through Trade Books: Humans and the Earth includes two lessons that trace objects to their origins (K-2) and study the impacts of natural disasters, specifically earthquakes (3-5). Trade books also are the basis for activities in Engineering Encounters: The Cat in the Hat Builds Satellites
• The Early Years: Composting With Children shows how young scientists can explore how materials decompose and how composting recycles these materials.
• Formative Assessment Probes: Is It Erosion or Weathering? explores differences between these two concepts that students may think are the same.

For more on the content that provides a context for these projects and strategies see the SciLinks topics Adaptations of Plants, Aquatic Plants and Animals, Arthropods, Composting, Decomposers, Deposition, Earthquakes, Earthquakes and Society, Erosion, Hydroponics, Natural Resources, Stream Deposition, Water Erosion, Watersheds, Weathering and Erosion, Wind Erosion.

Science Scope – Physical Science

From new elements to engineering designs to technology enhancements, physical science and its applications are interesting to students (and teachers). Most of the lessons include a detailed chart connecting the lesson to the NGSS.

• Exposing Hidden Energy Transfer With Inexpensive Thermal Imaging Cameras uses this technology to help students understand and capture images of “missing” energy.
• If your students are new to problem-based learning, Chemical Connections: A Problem-Based Learning, STEM Experience provides a step-by-step example and advice that could apply to a variety of subject areas.
• Pinball Wizards illustrates a project in which students collaborated on designing and constructing a mechanical pinball machine,
• In another design project, Build Your Own Sunglasses, students apply what they’ve learned about light and UV radiation to design eye protection.
• Everyday Engineering: Sitting Around Designing Chairs presents a 5E lesson that challenges students do design a structure made of paper that will support their weights.
• Add some sparks to your unit on electricity with Tried and True: Measuring Static Electricity: A Classroom Investigation to Understand the Triboelectric Series.
• Take your students to a interdisciplinary level with Teacher’s Toolkit: A Framework for Cross-Disciplinary Engineering Projects with ideas for designing marble ramps and marshmallow towers.

For more on the content that provides a context for these projects and strategies see the SciLinks topics Forces and Motion, Heat Energy, Radiation from the Sun, Simple Machines, Static Electricity, Transfer of Energy, UV Index.

If you teach middle school science, you need to be in Nashville for the NSTA National Conference on Science Education, March 31–April 3. You’ll be with thousands of your fellow teachers for the week and take home tried-and-true strategies for everything from creating maker spaces to breaking down lessons for diverse communities of learners. There will be an entire day devoted to middle school teachers and hundreds of other sessions throughout the rest of the conference. Teach your students about circuits and electricity with Sewing Science: Using Electronic Textiles Technology to Teach Electricity and Circuits or face the Zombie Apocalypse session to learn more about how disease spreads using simulations and models. We have something for every middle school teacher, no matter if you’re just starting out or been at the job for years. Check out the events below to get a sense of what we’ve got in store, and browse all the sessions here (more than 1000 of them!) to see all that we have to offer.

Meet Me in the Middle Day
Saturday, April 2 10:15 AM–4:00 PM| Omni Nashville Hotel

• The day’s events will include a networking session, more than a dozen presentations specifically for middle school educators, and an afternoon share-a-thon featuring more than 100 presenters. You’ll walk away with ideas you can put to use in your classroom next week! [Organized by the National Middle Level Science Teachers Association (NMLSTA) and sponsored by Carolina Biological Supply, PASCO scientific, and Texas Instruments]

Middle School Science with Vernier

• Use Vernier sensors, including our Go Wireless sensors, to conduct a variety of age-appropriate experiments in this engaging, hands-on workshop. Experience data collection using LabQuest 2, Logger Pro computer software, Chromebook, and mobile devices. Explore the wide range of tools from Vernier that promote understanding of middle school science concepts.

Sewing Science: Using Electronic Textiles Technology to Teach Electricity and Circuits

• Learn how to engage students in circuits and electricity though sewing! Research shows how electronic textiles are an effective way to engage girls and others in science.

Bumpers Save Lives

• In this hands-on and very active session, experience the science behind the materials selected for car bumpers. Apply those concepts to engineer a car bumper. Bumpers will be tested and analyzed to determine the best design solution. Take home CD of lesson plans and resources.

Zombie Apocalypse!

• Become part of a zombie apocalypse as brains will be served (while supplies last). Learn about disease spread modeling using simulations and fun storylines about a zombie outbreak. Applicable for middle school and high school, this workshop is sure to scare you and your little zombies into learning how exciting Hollywood themes can be used to teach science concepts.

Amplify Science for Grades 6–8: Experience Three-Dimensional Teaching and Learning with the Newest Curriculum from The Lawrence Hall of Science

• Experience our field-tested, technology-enhanced, 100% NGSS-designed K–8 curriculum. Built around argumentation, digital simulations, modeling tools, hands-on investigations, and explicit disciplinary literacy instruction, Amplify Science engages students with deep dives into understanding the natural and designed worlds. Focusing on middle school, this workshop provides a sneak peek.

Modeling Energy Flow in Ecosystems: Developing Models in Middle School Life Science

• How is matter conserved, and how does energy flow through an ecosystem? Develop these models through hands-on activities. Take home a set of student materials, overview instructional strategies for scientific practices, and preview online activities and NGSS connections in the newly revised FOSS Populations and Ecosystems Course for middle school.

Meet Me in the Middle Session: Use Science to Support and Develop ELL Language Acquisition

• The NGSS supports science learning for all students. We will focus on English language learners and the language support and discourse strategies that engage all students regardless of their English proficiency. Activities will be geared toward developing a classroom culture that ensures that all student voices are included and respected. Take home engaging lessons.

Register to attend #NSTA16 Nashville here—and don’t forget, NSTA members get a substantial discount!

The mission of NSTA is to promote excellence and innovation in science teaching and learning for all.

Future NSTA Conferences

2016 National Conference

• Nashville, March 31–April 3

2016 STEM Forum & Expo

• Denver, July 27–29

2016 Area Conferences

• Minneapolis, Oct. 27-29
• Portland, Nov. 10-12
• Columbus, Dec. 1-3

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