This document outlines an activity for preservice elementary teachers to design a soils and society unit. It involves three main activities: 1) Discussing the relevance of science and soils' role in society through student examples of local societal issues related to overfertilization and landfills. 2) Having students explore soil properties and characteristics through hands-on stations. 3) Creating a "Soils and Society Kit" which is a 3+ lesson NGSS-aligned sequence for grades K-8, incorporating student's chosen societal issue, supporting materials, and standards/objectives. Students will then present their Soils and Society Kits. Supplemental activities include analyzing maps and

1. Kathryn Baldwin (EWU)
Jennifer Dechaine (CWU)
Rodger Hauge (EWU)
Gary Varella (WSU)
Soils and Society
An InTeGrate Module for Preservice Elementary Teachers

2. • Preservice elementary teachers (students) will apply geoscientific data,
inquiry practices and systems thinking to analyze a relevant societal issue in
the context of soils.
• Students will design, develop, and present a standards-based K-8 soils unit,
incorporating a locally and broadly relevant societal issue that integrates
scientific content and inquiry practices.
Goals

3. • Activity 1
o Discuss science relevancy, soils role in society
• Activity 2
o Analyze soil properties and characteristics in stations
• Activity 3
o Create a Soils and Society “Kit” (SSK)
• NGSS-aligned K-8 lesson (3+) sequence
• Supporting materials: images, maps, graphs, artifacts, books, etc.
o Present their Soils and Society Kits
• Supplemental Activities
o Images as data
o Maps as data
o Additional required background information
Unit Framework

4. A series of guided discussion questions
Activity 1 - Discussion
Science
relevancy
Local
societal
issues
Soil
relevancy

5. Student Societal Issue Local Importance
Global Importance
(Grand Challenges)
Questions
1
Overfertilization of
agricultural land
Contamination of
water supply and soil
degradation
Environmental degradation
How does using
fertilizers affect the
quality of soil?
What are safe
alternatives?
2 Landfills Used to collect trash Soil contamination
How is the soil
around a landfill
contaminated?
Activity 1 - Examples

6. Activity 2 - Stations
• Soil Composition
• Parent Material
• pH
• Pore Volume
• Particle Size
• Water Retention
• Soil Erosion
• Capillary Action
• Soil map (Google maps)

7. Supplemental Topics – Analyzing Maps

8. o Relevance – Grand Challenge
o Lesson Plans for a 3+ Lesson Sequence
• 1+ NGSS systems standard
• 1+ quantitative data collection
• 1+ interdisciplinary and/or integrated
with other sciences and subjects
o Standards and Objectives
o Assessment Plan
o Resources and Materials
• 6-10 images/media
• artifacts
• 2+ maps, charts, tables, graphs
• Readings, books, resources
Activity 3 – Soils and Society Kit