Soil: Stewardship and Conservation

Introduction

Soil is essential for life on Earth.

The composition, characteristics and condition of soil determines its capacity to sustain life on Earth.

Through this webquest you will review how soils sustain human, plant and animal life and learn how to protect and renew soil as a resource.

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Ontario Grade 3 Curriculum

Task

Only a very small percentage of the Earth's surface is suitable for growing food, and yet humans often impact our soil in negative ways, further reducing the availability of good-growing soil. Natural events also effect soil's ability to sustain life.

Your task is to research some of the different challenges faced in maintaining sustainable soils and develop a stewardship plan to help address one of the challenges. How can we implement what you have learned about maintaining sustainable soils to be good stewards of our school soil and improve our school gardens?

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Process

1. Research the following threats to sustainable soil use:

Erosion

http://www.ducksters.com/science/earth_science/erosion.php

http://www.scienceforkidsclub.com/erosion.html

Desertification

http://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/conservation/issues/desertification.htm

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2000/12/1219_tanzania.html

Pollution

http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/causes-and-effects-of-soil-pollution.php

http://eschooltoday.com/pollution/land-pollution/what-is-soil-contamination.html

Degradation

http://www.soils-scotland.gov.uk/about/degradation

Record your research on all the threats to sustainable soil use on the provided graphic organizer.

2. Choose one threat to focus on for our school. How is our school affected by this particular threat? What could we do to make our school more soil-sustainable? Develop an action plan that we could implement to improve our school soil quality.

3. Share your research and action plan with your class. You might choose to do an oral presentation, make an iMovie, use Prezi or another tech-based app. Make sure you get teacher approval for how you choose to present your findings.

Note- You can also find out more information about this topic at the following sites:

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1082147.pdf

http://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/soil-erosion-and-degradation

http://www.acsgarden.com/articles/other-gardening/soil-degradation.aspx

http://www.soilassociation.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=KMGFQY-7sIM%3d&tabid=2416

http://forces.si.edu/soils/video/soil_savvy.html

Evaluation

Success Criteria

Completed graphic organizer of all threats to sustainable soil use
Detailed description of one way the soil at our school is under threat
Detailed plan to prevent/restore the soil at our school
Realistic and achievable plan
Description and plan demonstrate knowledge of soils
Demonstrate an application of what we have learned about soils through your plan

Soil Webquest

By: _____________________

Threats to Sustainable Soil Use

Causes

Effect on the Environment

How to Prevent/ How to Repair Damage

Erosion