Explore: Distribution and Use of Arable Soil

In this segment of the lesson teachers introduce soil via a series of hands-on labs and demonstrations.

Part A. Apple as Earth's Soil

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Provenance: Lauren McCann, American Society of Agronomy
Reuse: This item is offered under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ You may reuse this item for non-commercial purposes as long as you provide attribution and offer any derivative works under a similar license.

Begin the labs with this simple but powerful Apple as the Earth's Soil demonstration, which can be done live or via video. Note: this could be done as an activity.
Time required: 15-20 minutes
Key Points:

• There is very little arable soil on Earth.
• We are losing 26.4 billion tons of soil a year; far more soil is lost than is produced.
• Provide the students the data and have them graph it.

An alternative to doing the activity is to show the short (3-minute) video Dr. Dirt completing the Apple as Earth's Soil 

Part B. Farming and the Rural Landscape GIS activity

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No Till Farming

Provenance: NRCS
Reuse: This item is in the public domain and maybe reused freely without restriction.

This introductory GIS activity for AP Human Geography explores the relationship between farmlands and landscape features. In this exercise, students identify differences in the distribution of arable land on a global scale. Students use imagery to analyze differences in rural land use and the alteration of the natural environment.

Time required: 
10-15 minutes to explain how to use the program and 20 minutes to complete the activity. Note: this can be completed as a teacher-led demonstration. Farming and the rural landscape 

A student worksheet is available here: Google Drive with worksheet

Teachers who are new to ArcGIS online may access short tutorial here: Getting to Know GeoInquiries Getting to Know GeoInquiries

Part C. Population Growth and Soil

Key point: There is very little arable soil on Earth and a growing population 
Time required: 1 class period (50-minutes) 
Working in pairs or small groups, students review the following links and graphics in order to prepare a short summary of population growth as it relates to land-use changes. Students share their observations with the class. This lesson is designed to be an open-ended exercise for students to view and analyze a large variety of data and forms of presentation of data.   Educators may need to assist students with search terms for the websites and ways to critically review the data.

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Population increase in millions; total population (red line) in billions. Source: http://www.demographics.at/growth-decline.html

• Where around the globe is the population growing the fastest?
• How will this growth affect land-use choices?
• What conflicts may arise as a result of increases in population in areas without enough arable land?
• What trends do you see in the data that you are reviewing? 
• Give one or more scientific argument based on the evidence in the dataset.

Links for activity:

Our World in Data - Land Use 
Gap Minder 
WorldMapper 
World Population
Worldometer
Demographics - Population Growth