Lesson 1: Digging into the Secrets of Soil

Learning Goal:
Explore soil composition and its impact on plants and ecosystems to better understand gardening and agriculture.

Essential Questions:

• What is soil, and how is it different from dirt?

• What is soil made of?

• Why is soil important for plants, animals, and ecosystems?

Learning Outcomes:

This unit provides students with a foundational understanding of soil, helping them explore its essential role in the ecosystem and its connection to agriculture and conservation.

• Explain what makes soil unique and how it differs from dirt.

• Identify the four components of healthy soil and their importance for plants and other living things.

• Describe different categories of soil particles.

• Provide an example of a plant well-suited for a particular type of soil.

• Explain how human activities, like gardening and agriculture, rely on healthy soil.

• Discuss how other living things depend on healthy soil.

Key Vocabulary:
Biodiversity, weathering, decomposition, soil composition, texture, gardening, agriculture, crops, conservation

Standards:

• NGSS: 3-ESS2-1, 3-ESS2-2, 4-ESS2-1, 4-ESS2-2, 5-ESS2-1, 5-ESS3-1, 3-LS1-1, 4-LS1-1, 5-LS2-1

• CCSS: SL.3.2, SL.4.2, SL.5.2, SL.3.4, SL.4.4, SL.5.4, W.3.7, W.4.7, W.5.7

Lesson 2: Soil Superheroes: Bugs, Tiny Creatures and Bees that Dig!

Learning Goal:
To explore Earth's forces that create crucial soil layers teeming with essential invertebrates and microorganisms, including ground-nesting bees.

Essential Questions:

• What are soil layers, and what forces shape them?

• What living things call the soil home, and how do they contribute to a healthy ecosystem?

• What do living things rely on from the soil?

• What are some ways we can support healthy soil?

Learning Outcomes:
This unit builds on content from the previous unit by exploring the essential role of soil layers and the organisms that inhabit them, fostering an understanding of how soil health impacts broader ecosystems and how we can take action to support it.

• Describe the main forces that shape soil layers.

• Name the different soil layers and describe their characteristics.

• Identify invertebrates that live in soil and their roles in the ecosystem.

• Explain how soil-dwelling organisms contribute to ecosystem health.

• Discuss ways to support and maintain healthy soil.

Key Vocabulary:
Microorganism, pesticide, invertebrate, soil horizons, geology, erosion, deposition, decompose, aerate

Standards:

• NGSS: 5-ESS3-1, 3-LS4-2, 3-LS4-3, 4-LS1-1, 5-LS2-1

• CCSS: SL.3.2, SL.4.2, SL.5.2, SL.3.4, SL.4.4, SL.5.4