It's Not Dirt!!! Know Soil Know Life

 

 

 

 

“Without soil we’d be hungry, naked, and homeless," says Clay Robinson, a New Mexico soil scientist and co-editor of Know Soil Know Life, a new book published by the Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) for high school students and undergrads.

 

This book is co-edited by one of our very own! David L. Lindbo is current president of SSSA, and a soil science professor at N.C. State. Covering topics such as soil biology, soil chemistry and classification, this book challenges the reader to gain a new perspective on so called "dirt" as it weaves a thread of human connection throughout and in a capstone chapter titled "Soil and Society".

 

Soon to be at the Environmental Literacy Center, a full review of the book can be found here.

 

For K-12 lesson plans on soil, SSSA has launched a bank of resources found here.

 

Soil science can be correlated to the following areas in the Essential Standards:

 

1st Grade Science: The properties of soils, basic plant needs

3rd Grade Science: Ecosystems- Environmental conditions for plant growth, soil properties

5th Grade Science: Ecosystems- Producers, consumers, and decomposers

6th Grade Science: Formation of soil, monitoring the lithosphere

8th Grade Science: Interconnectedness of energy in the food web and the cycling of matter, Interactions of producers, consumers, and decomposers

Earth/Environmental Science: Factors affecting the lithosphere, erosion and weathering, human impacts on lithosphere, Conventional and sustainable agriculture

Biology: Ecosystems- flow of energy and matter, Human impact on the environment