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Soils Overview Unit Teacher's Guide

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Description: The lessons in this Soils Overview Unit provide students with a basic understanding of the fundamentals of soil science through the integration of disciplinary core ideas, science and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts. The unit includes six sections, each containing learning objectives, background information, student information, selected resources, and ties to the NGSS standards
Grade Levels: 6-8
Keywords: ecosystem, soil formation, soil basics, particole size, soil texture, structure, color, profile, soil qulaity, sustainability, conservation, inter-disciplinary
Lesson Area: Soil Basics, Soil Biology, Soil Chemistry, Soil Conservation, Soils in Urban Environments, Soils and Climate
Resource Type: Teacher's Guide, Slides/Photos/Figures

Next Generation Science Standards

Grade	Discipline	Core Idea
6-8	ESS2.A: Earth materials and systems	Energy flows and matter cycles within and among Earth's systems, including the sun and Earth's interior as primary energy sources. Plate tectonics is one result of these processes.
6-8	ESS2.C: The roles of water in Earth's surface processes	Water cycles among land, ocean, and atmosphere, and is propelled by sunlight and gravity. Density variations of sea water drive interconnected ocean currents. Water movement causes weathering and erosion, changing landscape features.
6-8	ESS2.D: Weather and climate	Complex interactions determine local weather patterns and influence climate, including the role of the ocean.
6-8	ESS3.A: Natural resources	Humans depend on Earth's land, ocean, atmosphere, and biosphere for different resources, many of which are limited or not renewable. Resources are distributed unevenly around the planet as a result of past geologic processes.
6-8	ESS3.B: Natural hazards	Mapping the history of natural hazards in a region and understanding related geological forces.
6-8	ESS3.C: Human impacts on Earth systems	Human activities have altered the biosphere, sometimes damaging it, although changes to environments can have different impacts for different living things. Activities and technologies can be engineered to reduce people's impacts on Earth.
6-8	LS2.A: Interdependent relationships in ecosystems	Organisms and populations are dependent on their environmental interactions both with other living things and with nonliving factors, any of which can limit their growth. Competitive, predatory, and mutually beneficial interactions vary across ecosystems but the patterns are shared.
6-8	LS2.B: Cycles of matter and energy transfer in ecosystems	The atoms that make up the organisms in an ecosystem are cycled repeatedly between the living and nonliving parts of the ecosystem. Food webs model how matter and energy are transferred among producers, consumers, and decomposers as the three groups interact within an ecosystem.
6-8	LS2.C: Ecosystem dynamics, functioning, and resilience	N/A
6-8	PS1.A: Structure of matter (includes PS1.C Nuclear Processes)	The fact that matter is composed of atoms and molecules can be used to explain the properties of substances, diversity of materials, states of matter, phase changes, and conservation of matter.
6-8	PS1.B: Chemical reactions	Reacting substances rearrange to form different molecules, but the number of atoms is conserved. Some reactions release energy and others absorb energy.
6-8	PS3.D: Energy in chemical processes and everyday life	Sunlight is captured by plants and used in a reaction to produce sugar molecules, which can be reversed by burning those molecules to release energy.