Explain: Best Management Practices

Teachers may use these materials to develop lectures, student reading materials or as resources for further investigations. Start by taking time to review the questions and conclusions from the labs. Once students have engaged in the causes of soil ddegradationThe changing of a soil to a more highly leached and a more highly weathered condition; usually accompanied by morphological changes such as development of an A2 horizon. and the issue of feeding a growing world population, introduce Best Management Practices (BMP) with materials listed below. In this activity, 2-4 person student teams select one of the BMP to present to the rest of the class.
Time required: 2 class periods, one to research and one to present to the class.

Soil Conservation Student Presentations

Using this site, students access descriptions of Best Management Practices. Soil and Water Conservation Site Media Gallery. The site includes link PPT files, videos, and photos. Assign each team one practice to research and present.
Choices include:

• Cover Crops
• Drainage Water Management
• Saturated Buffers
• Prairie Strips

As an option educators may want to include these two topics, more pertinent to Urban landscapes: Rain Gardens and Permeable Pavers.
Links to these resources are below.

Rain Gardens
What is a Rain Garden?
Soak Up the Rain: Rain Gardens

Permeable Pavers
USGS: Evaluating the potential benefits of permeable pavement on the quantity and quality of stormwater runoff
UNL Water Permeable Pavers