Soil Profile Homework
This activity is part of the On the Cutting Edge Peer Reviewed Teaching Activities collection.
HideSummary
This is one of 4 homework assignments given to students throughout this introductory soils course. The main goal of these assignments are to give the students practice with the mechanics of problem solving, conversion, and soil profile descriptions.
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Context
Audience
This is a piggy back undergraduate/graduate introductory soil course taught in the department of Geography and the Environmental Studies program. The audience is usually a 50-50 undergrads and grad students.
Skills and concepts that students must have mastered
Students must have participated in a soil monolith description laboratory and field trip in order to complete the first problem in this homework assignment. Attendance in lecture where I provide examples of the kinds of problems represented by 2-4 is also crucial for completing those problems.
How the activity is situated in the course
The first in a sequence of homework exercises.
Goals
Content/concepts goals for this activity
Use of horizon nomenclature to interpret and synthesize many soil properties in a description.
Application of Stoke's Law in determining particle-size of soils.
Crystallography of clay colloids and charge imbalance.
Analyses and determination of cation exchange capacity.
Application of Stoke's Law in determining particle-size of soils.
Crystallography of clay colloids and charge imbalance.
Analyses and determination of cation exchange capacity.
Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity
Synthesis and interpretation of soil properties
Analysis of data
Integration of mineralogical information with surface chemistry properties
Analysis of data
Integration of mineralogical information with surface chemistry properties
Other skills goals for this activity
Mechanics of problem solving
Description and Teaching Materials
Teaching Notes and Tips
Assessment
Weighted average from the individual problems.