Integrating Soil Science into Primary School Education: Soil Education Using the SSSA-Sponsored Dig It! Exhibit.

Soil science is often absent from primary education curriculums. However, it is highly complementary with subjects required by state and national standards and offers an opportunity to integrate numerous subjects. Soil science offers a unique perspective on global challenges, which reflects the fundamental role of soils in the terrestrial biosphere earth sciences and consequently translatability of soil science knowledge to related disciplines and challenges. Integrating soil science into primary education also holds great potential for sparking future soil scientists.  To this end, the Soil and Biogeochemistry Graduate Group (SBG) at the University of California-Davis partnered with the California Museum to integrate soil science into primary education using ‘Dig It! Secrets of the Soil’ exhibit.  Primary school educators, museum staff, SSSA and SBG graduate students have worked to make the exhibit an extension of the classroom aimed at education grades 2-7. Grade-specific tours and activity-based workshops were designed to address state and national Common Core Curriculum standards.  Primary educators were provided with resources to facilitate incorporation of soil science into classroom material. To engage students in soil science, hands-on activities centered on soil science techniques like soil texture and visual color measurement. SBG graduate students also designed and implemented training for museum docents, for general public and classroom tours. These interactive aspects were the basis for a soil science summer day camp featuring the exhibit for children ages 6-13. The goal of these efforts was to raise awareness and knowledge of soils and their importance to society, as well as raise interest in soil science career opportunities. These efforts also point to collaboration between academic institutions like UC Davis and SSSA as a strong opportunity to improve soil science education.