Geography Field Work in my learning community

Having the correct soil pH is essential to ensure that plants are able to absorb essential nutrients from the soil. Different soil pH supports the diverse Australian flora as well as a variety of fruits and vegetables grown at home, school or commercially. It is important to match plants being grown to the pH of your soil, or to change the soil’s pH to match the plants you want to grow.

Water Holding Capacity is the ability of soil texture types to physically hold onto water against the force of gravity. This happens through the scientific force of cohesion, where soil particles hold onto water molecules. Experience a cool experiment to test your school soil’s Water Holding Capacity, and learn why this knowledge is helpful for you and for Australian agriculture.

Students will learn to use scale and direction to create a map of an allocated area. They will learn to identify and apply the correct geographical features of a map and use mathematical tools to determine scale.

Soil is packed with amazing tiny living organisms called microbes. These microbes keep soils healthy, and help plants to soak up large amounts of water and nutrients through their roots. This water moves up the plant and evaporates through the leaves in a process called transpiration. This process returns water back to the atmosphere. You will see the results of these processes in soils using MudWatts and Microbits.

Some of the key processes in the formation of soils include: the weathering of rock, the build-up of organic matter, and the downward movement of oxidated mineral and salt solutions. Soils form very slowly over time, and generally follow the direction of gravity, leading them to be made up of different layers. These layers are called horizons. Discover how soil horizons present as a soil profile while making your own.

Students will undertake a series of experiments to explore qualities of water samples including conductivity, pH and turbidity.

Students will learn and apply the geographical technique: field sketching. They will learn to apply techniques including scale, horizons and labeling to create geographic field data sets.