Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: Soil overview

10 minutes

Find Out: Connecting soils with regenerative farming

30+ minutes

Take Action: Creating a big picture of soil

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: Soil overview

Prior knowledge: This lesson has been designed to allow students the chance to review and demonstrate their learnings from the other lessons in this unit. So long as students have completed the food chain lesson in this unit they will have the background knowledge required to complete this Take Action lesson.

Step 1

Remind students that they are soil scientists. In this lesson, they will start by demonstrating some of the knowledge they have acquired as soil scientists.

Invite students to complete a Think-Pair-Share routine around the following image (also available on the Student Worksheet).

Invite students to work independently to look at this image and to record anything they see or know about what they see in this image and soil in general. They can record their ideas in Column A of the table on the Student Worksheet.

They can then collaborate with a classmate to share and discuss their ideas. They should record any new ideas following their discussion in Column B of the table on the Student Worksheet.

Step 2

Engage students in a class discussion around their thoughts and ideas about this image.

Depending on the lessons that you covered in this unit, students may have come up with some of the following points:

organisms in the soil are connected through the transfer of energy (food chains! Can you see any food chains in the image?)
soil as a living or non-living thing (it might not pass the living test but it is full of life, so could be described as alive)
organisms that live in soil, from the microscopic bacteria to the worms, insects and larger mammals
soil that is compacted has less air in it which makes it harder for plants and organisms to live in the soil
soil that is compacted won’t retain water as well, and water retention is also important for soil health
plants grow best in healthy soils. Plants need healthy soils to put roots down into, they absorb water and nutrients from the soil, and they also add nutrients to the soil which feed the organisms that live there.

Find Out: Connecting soils with regenerative farming

Step 1

Now invite students to work in pairs to respond to the following question (also available on the Student Worksheet):

why is soil important to me?

Students should discuss their ideas together, but each student should record their own ideas in their own words.

Volunteer students can then share their thoughts with the class. Through your discussion, ensure the following points are covered:

soils absorb water that then moves through the soil and keeps water moving through the water cycle (and we all need water to survive)
plants grow in soil, and we need plants for the fresh air that we breathe
plants grow in soil, and we need plants for many of the foods that we eat.

Explain to students that they will focus on this last point in the rest of this lesson.

Step 2

Project this Regenerative Farming information onto the board and invite students to take turns in reading one sentence each.

Step 3

Now invite students to work independently to select three points from the projected information that they think are the most important things all people should know about soils.

They should write these points down in their workbooks and make some notes about why they have chosen these points.

Differentiation: Students requiring extension could be asked to select more points to write down and could be asked to justify their thoughts using full sentences. Supported students could write down fewer points and make notes explaining their choices using keywords or bullet points.

Step 4

Students can then share their ideas with a classmate or through class discussion.

Take Action: A healthy farm

Step 1

Still with their soil scientist hats on, students will now work collaboratively to create an artwork showing why regenerative agriculture is important for people and the planet.

They need to create a drawing that shows a cutaway of a farmscape where we can see under and above the soil. The drawing should show the viewer how a regenerative farm might look in terms of soil health and plant health.

For example (also available here):

At a minimum, the drawing should contain the following elements:

sunshine
at least two plants, one of which is something they would eat from (they could choose a vegetable and a tree)
three soil organisms
a farmer.

Students should also have a go at highlighting a food chain within their farmscape. They need to show the energy flow between elements and organisms (remind them that the arrows show the direction of energy flow).

Other elements that students could incorporate include (these will depend on the other lessons that students have already completed in this unit):

native plants and animals
water (for example, rain or a watercourse or groundwater)
the addition of compost to the soil
the inclusion of details of decomposers in the soil and food web.

Differentiation: These elements could be set as a requirement for students requiring extension.

Encourage groups to plan their works before they create them. This could include creating rough sketches and sharing their work with other groups for feedback. Final works can then be created.

Note: The work should also include information about how regenerative farming can help us all look after our soil. This could be provided by the teacher or by students (this could be a task for students requiring extension). For example:

Students have been taking on the role of soil scientists, investigating how regenerative agriculture can help our growers in the important task of growing food and looking after our environment. Regenerative agriculture focuses on farming practices that improve soil health in ways that align with natural systems rather than trying to control them. The first step in becoming regenerative growers is to understand soil and why it is so important. Students have been stepping into the shoes of soil scientists to learn all about soils and soil food chains. They have created this work to show you what they have learned about soils and why they think caring for our soils is so important.

Step 2

Try to provide students with an opportunity to share their work with an audience (parents, other students and teachers at your school).

Reflection

Explain to students that through all these lessons on soil, we have learned that soils are so full of life that they are essentially alive. They are also crucial to our lives; without healthy soils, life would be much, much harder.

Invite students to respond to complete the following sentences:

looking after soils is important because …
I will look after soils by …

Differentiated learning

We trust that teachers are the best equipped to know how to cater to the diversity in their classes. At Cool, we incorporate a variety of differentiation strategies into each lesson. Firstly, each lesson in this unit appeals to an array of different learning preferences. Learning activities can be completed in a number of different ways - if a student feels more comfortable speaking rather than writing, there are opportunities to accommodate this.

In lessons that feature group work or learning stations, we trust that teachers will use their discretion in knowing how to best organise their students in accordance with positive working relationships and ability. Graphic organisers and scaffolds are often included so students can ‘visually think’ and keep a record of their work. While our lessons are designed to be 55 - 60 minutes in length, we trust that teachers will manipulate lesson and segment times according to the needs of their students.

Food Chains and Regenerative Farming

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Summary

Lesson guides and printables

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