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Description: How does soil keep fertilizers from leaching out of the plant root zone? Clay and organic matter with varying amounts of negative surface charge. Determine if soil has a positive or negative charge with this experiment.
Grade Levels: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Keywords: cation exchange capacity, negative charge, clay, root zone, fertilizer
Lesson Area: Soil Chemistry
Resource Type: Activity

Next Generation Science Standards

Grade Discipline Core Idea
3-5 ESS2.A: Earth materials and systems Four major Earth systems interact. Rainfall helps to shape the land and affects the types of living things found in a region. Water, ice, wind, organisms, and gravity break rocks, soils, and sediments into smaller pieces and move them around.
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.
9-12 ESS2.A: Earth materials and systems Feedback effects exist within and among Earth's systems.
3-5 PS1.B: Chemical reactions Chemical reactions that occur when substances are mixed can be identified by the emergence of substances with different properties; the total mass remains the same.
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.
9-12 PS1.B: Chemical reactions Chemical processes are understood in terms of collisions of molecules, rearrangement of atoms, and changes in energy as determined by properties of elements involved.
3-5 PS3.D: Energy in chemical processes and everyday life Energy can be "produced," "used," or “released” by converting stored energy. Plants capture energy from sunlight, which can later be used as fuel or food.
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.
9-12 PS3.D: Energy in chemical processes and everyday life Photosynthesis is the primary biological means of capturing radiation from the sun; energy cannot be destroyed, it can be converted to less useful forms.