Soil judging is a competition in which undergraduate students compete to correctly describe and classify soils by analyzing specific soil morphological properties. Graduate students are welcome to participate in meetings and attend the contest, but they cannot compete.

In order to participate in the competition, the soil judging team meets regularly leading up to the competition to learn all about soils and how to properly describe them. No prior soils experience is necessary; you learn everything you need to know at the team meetings.

Meetings will be held once (maybe twice) per week for ~1-1.5 hours until mid-October. There will be a few opportunities to go on “field trips” to practice our soil judging skills on actual soil pits. These will be on Saturdays or Sundays (they will not overlap with football games).

The regional contest requires the team to travel for multiple days. You will receive signed participation letters to excuse your absence from your classes during the contest.

We expect students who are serious about participating in the contest to attend meetings regularly in order to learn everything they need to know prior to competing.

The goal of soil judging (as we see it) is to have fun and learn a lot about soils that you likely won’t learn elsewhere. In soil judging, you have the opportunity to learn a unique, yet useful skill that broadens your understanding of the landscape and your environment.

Again: we make it fun!!

Most of the travel to the contest is funded, but you will have to cover some of your meals while there. Most times, we all pool some money and buy materials to make sandwiches in advance of the practice days, which is not expensive (~$5-8 per person).

The contest involves two days of practice pits where we have the opportunity to tour different soil pits and study them. Following the practice days, there are two days of competition: the first day is the individual contest, where you compete by yourself. The second day is the team contest, where we will divide into multiple teams to compete.

The contest is very low-stakes and relaxed. It is a friendly competition! Only undergraduates may compete, but graduate students are often welcome to participate in examining the practice pits and usually have the opportunity to try their hand at the contest pits. 

The top 3 teams get to go to the national contest in spring!!!