Garden Lesson Plan: Soil
Lesson Plans
Grades6, 7, 8Biology, Earth and Space Sciences
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Provided by The Nature Conservancy
What it is
- In this lesson, students will learn about the importance of soil health, test their soil for various properties, and suggest ways to improve the soil.
- Students will perform a soil texture analysis, test the soil's fertility, and use their data to determine if their soil needs amendments.
Teaching tips
Positives
- The hands-on activities will keep students engaged, and they will love being outside working in the garden.
- The resource also includes a few resources to help teachers and students build a school garden.
Prerequisites
- Before beginning, the resource suggests using the lesson, How Dirt Works, to introduce the importance of soil.
- In Step 1 of Part 1 of the Explore portion, answers to the questions are in parenthesis, not in red.
- All USDA links are broken. The link to the Soil Texture Calculator can be found HERE. The link for Soil Education can be found HERE.
- The link to the Soil Evaluation Handout does not work, but the handout is included in the pdf.
- The links for the US Composting Council’s Composting for Educators site and the USDA soil biology classroom activities are broken.
- Teachers can find the Global Gardens video HERE.
Differentiation & Implementation
- Teachers can create a word wall from the words in the glossary or use these words in language arts classes for word work activities.
- After watching the How Dirt Works video, students can write poems using the metaphor of soil as the skin of the earth as inspiration.
- During the apple demonstration, teachers can support students in reviewing the fractions math concepts by writing the questions on the board and inviting students to evaluate the questions.
- After watching the soil stability test video, students can explore and research the impact of tilling and other industrial agricultural practices on soil health.
From the scientist review
This resource from the Nature Lab provides teachers with a lesson plan to introduce students to soil. Additional links on the lesson plan include materials for the lesson, learning tasks, references, and resources. The references and sourced material utilized for this lesson plan are from reliable organizations and present up-to-date information. This lesson plan would be a valuable resource for educators seeking to enhance climate-related learning experiences in the classroom.
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