Positives

• This project assists students in practicing inquiry-based learning by helping them ask questions like, "What makes soil so special, and why is it important?"
• Students are empowered to make a difference in their community and inspire others by investigating local soil problems, and designing and carrying out their own soil project.
  

Additional Prerequisites

• This Quest is designed to be a 2.5-week to 4-month long class project but each section can be used independently to complement your lessons.
  
• Educators can register to access an educator dashboard, related teaching resources, and other options.
• View this instructional storyline lesson plan for more in-depth information.
  

Differentiation

• This soil quest is designed to be flexible, teachers can adjust the activities as needed and can spend as little or as long on each step as they choose.
• While the quest is designed for middle school students, it can be scaled up or down in complexity.
• This introduction includes an animated story that could be used as inspiration for an art project or graphic novel to present their journey through the quest or depict their solution.
  
• For more information about the relationship between soil and the climate, check out this PBS video about the importance of soil and this lesson plan about soils.