The Ground We Walk On: An Effective Analogy for Exploring Soil Characteristics

Authors

Sally Wilson, Marshalltown Community College
Meher Vani Bojja

Document Type

Article

Abstract

Soil is common to all of us, so common that few people think about it and its importance in our everyday lives. The activity presented here provides an analogy useful for helping students design experiments and explore how soil particle size affects its behavior. Originally a simple “cookbook” demonstration for community college students, we restructured it to be more inquiry oriented so that it mentally engages students and promotes several important goals for science teaching. We believe the modified activity is applicable across a broad grade/age range, perhaps from upper elementary to some introductory post-secondary science courses. This activity promotes National Science Education Content Standards A, B, D, and E, and Iowa Teaching Standards 2, 3, 4 and 6.

Publication Date

Spring 2007

Journal Title

Iowa Science Teachers Journal

Volume

34

Issue

2

First Page

18

Last Page

23

Copyright

© Copyright 2007 by the Iowa Academy of Science

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Recommended Citation

Wilson, Sally and Bojja, Meher Vani (2007) "The Ground We Walk On: An Effective Analogy for Exploring Soil Characteristics," Iowa Science Teachers Journal: Vol. 34: No. 2, Article 6.
Available at: https://scholarworks.uni.edu/istj/vol34/iss2/6