Ag. Science Soil Texture Explained
Added: 17 Sep 2018
Contributor:
Rory McShane
Resource type:
Demonstration
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Lesson Plan
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Presentation
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Reference
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Simulation
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Textbook
A really useful analogy for teaching or demonstrating soil texture. Soil texture is an important area for question 2 in the exam as it features regularly. Soil texture helps students to understand the drainage, temperature and cation exchange capacity of a soil.
How it maps to the curriculum
- SC
- Agriculture Science
Strand: 2. Soils
Strand unit: 2.2 Physical Properties
Suggestions for use: Useful for teachers who are trying to find away of getting students to visualise pore spaces between soil particles. I carry this out as demonstration normally, I will grab a container, usually the bin in the classroom (remove the rubbish first of course), I will hold it so all of the students can see in to the empty container and ask them to imagine how many basketballs they could fit, then ask what they notice between the basketballs... the pore spaces. I do this with silt (tennis balls) and clay (marbles). I usually ask them to imagine pouring a bucket of water over each one as well, the idea being the water will flow past the bigger particles, but its more difficult to flow through the small ones.
