This document outlines a hands-on lesson plan for students to create their own soil compositions and understand the various soil components and their effects on plant growth. Students will mix different soil types, plant a bean seed, and track the success of their custom soil mixtures, learning about the properties of soil in the process. The lesson aims to engage students with the practical application of soil science while integrating local soil mapping resources.

1. Make Your Own Soil
Grade Level: 4
Follow up lesson to “Soil Shake”
Description
In this lesson students take their knowledge about the components of soil, and will mix up their
own soil. To add a challenge element to this exercise, student teams will then grow a bean plant
in their custom made soil and record which plant does the best.
Background Information
No two soils are exactly the same. Over 18,000 types have been classified so far in the U.S.
These are divided into twelve major orders with suborders, great groups and families, similar to
the taxonomic system used for plants and animals.
There are five main soil types: clay, silt, sand, limestone and peat. Most soils are a mixture of
these five types, and their description refers to their major constituent. Soil mixtures are known
as loams: e.g. a soil with a high proportion of sand could be a “sandy loam”
Go to the website of the USDA’s web soil survey (http:// websoilsurvey.nrcs.usda.gov/app/
HomePage.htm) to see a soil map of your area and find out your local soil type. There are
instructions on the first page, but I suggest the following order to make things easier.
On the first page, click the green button that says “Start WSS.” When you get to the next page, in
the “area of interest” tab, I suggest you click on “soil survey area” and choose Massachusetts and
your county. Next click the “scale” button above the large box where the map will appear, this
automatically calibrates the scale. Once a map appears in the large box, you can then click the
“Soil Map” tab, and explore your specific location within this by selecting smaller areas with the
zoom button and moving the map around with the “hand” button. Be patient, this program is
processing a huge amount of data and can be slow.
Once you have found your particular location, you can cross reference the numbers on the map
with the soil type in the side bar to determine your soil type. Clicking here on your soil type will
tell you more information such as typical drainage properties, parent materials and typical
profile.
Although you could look at this website with your students, for this exercise I recommend that
you simply find out the names of the soils in your area. This way you can introduce the idea that
Lesson and agricultural enhancement supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Society for the
Promotion of Agriculture.

2. soils have names, and have them make up their own soils and name them, before they are
flooded with information from the soil maps.
Soil texture refers to the relative proportions of sand, silt and clay in the soil. Sands are the
largest particles and clays are the smallest. Imagine a piece of sand as the size of a basketball.
That would make silt the size of a baseball and clay smaller than the size of a marble. The basic
soil textures are sand, loamy sand, loam, silt, silt loam, sandy clay loam, clay loam, silty clay
loam, sandy clay, silty clay and clay.
Sand particles can be seen with the naked eye and feel gritty. They can be wiped clean from
one’s hands with ease leaving no materials in the pores and fingerprints. They can be further
subdivided into size fractions. The classes of sand are coarse sand, fine sand, and very fine sand.
Silt particles can be seen with a hand lens or light microscope. They have a smooth powdery feel
when dry, and a slick creamy feel when moist or wet. Some liken the feel to that of talcum
powder. Silt is not sticky or plastic. After handling silty soil, a coating will be left on the hand,
which for the most part can be brushed off when dry leaving silt particles in the pores and
grooves of your fingerprints.
Clay particles can be seen only with an electron microscope. Clay is sticky and plastic when wet.
It is hard when dry. After handling clayey soils a film will be left on the hands, the removal of
which requires vigorous washing.
About one half of any soil is made up of pores full of air and water. Plant roots need oxygen
from the air in soil for best root development and growth. Many bacteria also need air.
Plants need water to grow. Water movement in the soil brings better air circulation. When water
enters the soil, air moves out and is replaced by fresher air as soon as the soil pores are again free
of water.
The amount of open space between soil particles has a lot to do with how easily water moves
through a soil and how much water it will hold. Sandy soils do not hold much moisture since
there is less surface area for the water to cling to, and there are large pores spaces where the
weight of the water causes much of it to run down and out of the soil.
Finer textured soil can hold more water for plants because there is more surface area on which
water adheres. Since the size of the pores is reduced, the weight of the water is less and it doesn’t
run out of the soil so readily. There is however a fine line. Some soils that are high in clay hold a
great deal of water, but hold it so tightly that many plants can not extract the moisture. In
general, silt loam soils have the greatest available moisture holding capacity for plant growth.
Lesson and agricultural enhancement supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Society for the
Promotion of Agriculture.

3. Guiding Question: Every soil on earth is different. How might this affect agriculture?
Big Idea: We can mix together the components that exist in an agricultural soil, and make our
own soil for our garden.
Learning Objectives: To understand that an agricultural soil is made up of a mixture of certain
things, and that you can mix up your own healthy soil.
Materials (for every 6 students, or if doing as a class. Multiply as necessary)
* 1 cup sand
* 1 cup clay
* 1 cup finished compost
* 1 cup leaves/twigs or other organic matter
* Silt or other soil types if available.
* large bowl or bucket
* tablecloth if doing inside
* sticks or large spoons to stir
* Jug of water to moisten
* A Small pot to fill with the finished soil.
* A bean seed or other seasonal seed.
* A piece of paper or card and a marker for group record keeping.
* Plant labels to write soil types on. (popsicle sticks or cut up yogurt pots and permanent markers
will do)
Preparation
Set up soil ingredients at group tables.
Introducing the Lesson
Activate prior knowledge: You remember doing our soil shake test? What did we find out about
the soil here at our school? What was it made up of?
Engage Student Interest: We are going to mix up our own soil recipes, and then see which soil
grows the best bean plant.
Procedure (Total time approximately 30 mins)
Lesson and agricultural enhancement supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Society for the
Promotion of Agriculture.

4. 1. After introducing the lesson, hold up the different soil components and ask students to
remember what they are. You could talk about what different components do for plants - sand
will help with drainage, compost has a lot of organic matter and nutrients etc. Talk about the
soil you found at your school. What did it have a lot of? A little of?
2. Now explain that they are going to mix up their own soil type. They should choose carefully
with their team what they are putting in, they should not put all of their ingredients in, just
enough to fill their pot. They need to keep a record of their “recipe” so should designate (or
you could designate for them) a record keeper.
3. After they fill their pots with soil parts, tell them they can dump these parts out into a bowl to
mix them up, then put them back into their pots if they like.
4. Now tell them that soil surveyors name soils all kinds of interesting names. You could give
them a few examples of the soil names in your area. Ask them to come up with a name for
their soil as a group. Their name should be two or more words, the last word being either
“loam” or “clay.” They should write this name on their card along with the soil recipe, a
picture if they like, and on their plant label.
Tiger Bite Loam
1/2 cup sand
1 cup compost
1/2 cup clay
1 cup leaves and sticks
5. Now go around the class and ask each group to present their soil, its name and describe its
characteristics. e.g This is a tiger loam, it is made up of mostly sand.
6. Have students plant a bean seed into their pot, (or other type, as long as all students are
planting the same kind of seed). Have them also put their soil type markers in their pots.
Wrap up
7. Place their pots in a sunny spot outside or under a grow-light, and monitor over the weeks to
come to see how the plants do. You could judge in a month which plant did the best, and declare
Lesson and agricultural enhancement supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Society for the
Promotion of Agriculture.

5. that soil type a winner. Look back at the soil recipe and talk about why that plant might have
done the best.
Assessing Student Knowledge
Why might soil surveyors give soils names?
Extensions
You could similarly challenge your class to make your own potting soil, looking at different
recipes, for your spring seedlings. Look at your local soil map as a class and learn more about
soils in your area.
* MA Department of Ed. Standards in this lesson*
Earth and Space Science Standard #5: Recognize and discuss the different properties of soil.
Books and Resources: Resources used for writing these guides included here.
• USDA Natural Resources Cons. Service State State Office 451 West Street, Amherst, MA
01002. (413) 253-4350. Web Site: www.nrcs.usda.gov
• Soil & Water Conservation Society of America. 7517 Northwest Ankeny Road Ankeny, IA
50021-9764. (800) The Soil Fax: (515) 289-1227. Website: www.swcs.org
• Soil Society of America: www.soils.org
• U.S.D.A. Agricultural Research Service
Kids Science Projects www.ars.usda.gov/is/kids/fair/story.htm
• NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Soils Activities for Kids http://ltpwww.gsfc.nasa.gov/
globe/index.htm
• Project Soil. http://projectsoil.org/project_soil
• Soil and Conservation Website with Soil Zoo: www.waite.adelaide.edu.au/school/Soil/
index.html
P. O. Box 345 Seekonk, MA 02771
www.aginclassroom.org
Please Visit the Massachusetts Agriculture in the Classroom Website
to tell us how you used this resource.
Thanks!
Lesson and agricultural enhancement supported by a grant from the Massachusetts Society for the
Promotion of Agriculture.