Do you teach about the formation of soil? If so, I have some WOW Factor ideas for you to bring to your middle school science classroom.
What is soil and how is it formed? Soil is the loose material that covers the Earth’s surface. It’s the “skin of the Earth”! Soil is made of both living and non-living components; however, not all soils are the same. Soil is formed by different processes such as weathering.
How long does it take for soil to form? Soil formation can take hundreds to thousands of years. It can form at a rate of 1 mm/year in the best conditions.
In this post, I will share these WOW Factor ideas to get your students excited about learning about this topic! First, I will share some WONDER strategies to help get students excited about learning more about the formation of soil process. Second, I will share an interactive lesson that dives into the content to make it engaging and interesting for students. Finally, I will share some WIDEN activities to help students learn even more about the formation of soil.
Soil Formation WONDER Activities
Soil may seem like a neat topic to some students, but it may be a little dry to others. It’s important to get students excited about a topic before diving into it. If you’re excited, they’ll get excited (even if it’s on the inside!). Middle schoolers will act “too cool for school”, but don’t forget, they secretly love it!
Here are some ideas to get them internally motivated to learn more about the types of soil formation and soil formation stages!
Soil Sampling
What better way to get excited about learning about the formation of soil than to explore some soil!
You can either collect soil samples from your own backyard or school yard, or you can purchase some (sand, silt, clay, loam). I’d suggest going outside and getting some because it’s free and relevant to your students.
You can even have students bring a sample from their home!
Put each soil into a stations. For each station, have your students answer the following on a sheet of paper.
- Draw an image of the soil.
- What are some characteristics of the soil?
- Describe the size of the grains.
- Where do you think this soil come from?
- How do you believe this soil was formed?
After students are finished going through the stations, discuss some patterns as a class.
At this point, students may not have the answers, so they will be wondering and ready to dive into the lesson.
Pre-Asssessment RAFT
I usually have my students do a RAFT after learning about a topic, but it’s a great pre-assessment and wonder tool as well!
What is a RAFT activity? It’s a writing strategy that represents Role, Audience, Format, and Topic.
Role: the role of the writer
Audience: who the author is writing to
Format: the format of the writing piece
Topic: what the writing piece is about
Before teaching about how soil is formed, you can have students “guess” and complete a RAFT assignment to express their guess.
Remember, they haven’t learned it yet, but it’s time to let their creativity shine while showing off what they already know and exposing what they don’t. It also gets them excited about learning what IS right.
Here’s an example you can use:
- Role: Environmental Scientist
- Audience: Kindergarteners
- Format: A fun letter
- Topic: What factors impact soil formation?
This will be a fun challenge for students. You can choose to let them research and dive into the content to write this piece, or just be purely creative in their thought process.
The Formation of Soil Lesson
What are the factors of soil formation? Are your students excited to learn more? Of course, they are! That’s what the WOW Factor is all about! Once you have students wanting to learn more, it’s time to dive into the lesson, and my favorite lesson is to use an interactive lesson.
Interactive lessons are designed to keep students engaged in the content while helping them to remember! These lessons were created using researched-based strategies to help reduce cognitive load.
They are broken into chunks with embedded activities to help students to process and make sense of the information before moving on.
This particular formation of soil lesson is no exception. This lesson and activity covers weathering and formation of soil and the 5 factors that affect soil formation including: parent rock, climate, topography, time, and bioactivity.
The embedded activities included inside the lesson are a KWL, drag-and-drop activities, four corners vocabulary activity, a chart, and more!
This resource can be found in the Bright in the Middle Shop.
It can also be found on TPT.
The Formation of Soil Widen Activities
Widen activities should be used for two reasons, for students to expand their knowledge, and to show off what they have learned so far. Here are some widen activities to use for this topic.
Decomposition Experiment
One of the factors that impacts the type of soil that is formed is bioactivity.
If time allows, give your students a chance to see what happens when organic materials decompose! Decaying organisms play a huge role is soil formation and produce the organic material (humus) in soil!
Here’s a fun experiment to try!
You’ll need:
- 4 types of organic material (examples: scraps of apples, bananas, oranges, lettuce, etc., leaves, grass)
- 4 containers with lids such as jars or plastic containers
- Once you have your organic materials, place each in a different container. Don’t forget to label!
- Have students to go ahead and record their observations. They can record what the material is, their observations, and the date and time.
- Place the jars in a place, such as a windowsill, where they will not be disturbed.
- As time goes on, have students to continue making observations and recording them (after a few days, a week, 2 weeks, etc.)
Once you decide to end the experiment, discuss what your students observed and how it relates to the formation of soil.
Dive into Other Lessons
Maybe you don’t have time for a widen activity yet because there is more to discuss with the formation soil from rocks! I feel you. There is never enough time.
It’s ok to dive into other lessons and do a widen activity at the end of the unit!
Here are some of the other lessons associated with the soil unit.
Soil Horizons – formation of soil profile
Soil Quality and Soil Stewardship
Learn more about factors that impact soil formation:
Factors Affecting Soil Formation
Help your students master science content!
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