The Green Room: Saving Our Soils

Journal Article | October 2012

This column focuses on making your teaching more environmentally friendly. This month’s issue disscusses the importance of fertile and arable soil.

Teaching through Trade Books: The Dirt on Soil

Journal Article | August 2007

Have you ever played in the dirt? Repotted a plant? Planted a garden? In each and every one of these activities, you touched something that is a valuable resource in our lives—dirt! This month’s column has students…

Formative Assessment Probes: Soil and Dirt: The Same or Different?

Journal Article | February 2015

This column focuses on promoting learning through assessment. This month’s issue explores children's commonly held ideas about soil.

Scope on Safety: Digging up the dirt on soil safety

Journal Article | January 2010

Should middle school science teachers be concerned about students bringing in unknown sources of soil to work on in class as the activity suggests? The science is well intended, but is it safe? What are some possible…

Tried and True: Soil is more than just dirt

Journal Article | March 2010

This article describes a series of activities in which students investigate soil, culminating in the biomimicry of reducing landfill waste. After students learned about soil’s ecosystem structure and the function of its…

Dig In! Hands-On Soil Investigations (e-book)

eBook | July 2009

Give students the dirt on soil with a practical book that brings new meaning to the term "hands-on." Using these 12 activities and two original stories as guides, kids will soon be up to their elbows in the study of…

Soil Studies: Applying acid-base chemistry to environmental analysis

Journal Article | October 2001

To help secondary students understand acid-base chemistry, two educators design experiments focusing on acid rain’s effect on soil. Students conduct experiments to measure the pH of rainwater and soil before and after…

A Botany Laboratory Inquiry Experience: Investigating the Effect of Soil Resistance on Bean Seedling Emergence

Journal Article | November 1998

This article describes how a Botany Laboratory Inquiry Project (BLIP) can be included in a general botany laboratory. The stated purpose of the BLIP component is to provide a student with the opportunity to select a…