This site is part of the US Department of Agriculture's Natural Resource's Conservation Service, providing state-of-the-art soil survey technology, standards, data, and expertise. This site covers soil quality, hydric and urban soils, facts and figures for the United States, and a number of world, national and thematic maps. Full description.

In this activity students work as a team to determine the effect salt has on plant germination. They then use their lab data to create a report on how the increasing salt concentrations affected the germination of the seeds and at what salt concentration no seeds will germinate. Students will discover that salt buildup is an existing or potential hazard on almost all of the 42 million acres of irrigated ... Full description.

This classroom activity provides an introduction to permafrost. Students can create their own "permafrost" by freezing soil and then examine how the frozen condition affects the ability of water to percolate through it. A materials list, procedures, and study questions are provided. Links to related topics are also included. Full description.

This report describes the characteristics used to define wetland (or hydric) soil types found in the United States. It is in text format and has one image showing the difference between hydric sandy soils and finer textured soils. The report identifies and describes the particular soil types and lists them by region. The information used for the report was provided by the USDA, NRCS, and Wetland Science ... Full description.

These activities demonstrate to students various types of soil erosion. They should be able to identify different types of erosion, and understand the effects of ice, water and wind on various landforms. The purpose of these activities is to increase students' awareness of proper land use. Full description.

These activities are from "Tales from the Underground", an online learning lab for learning about soil. They involve discovering why fish are dying in a hypothetical lake; and choosing plants to survive in a particular garden area based on soil pH, nitrogen and phosphorus. A set of links is available to maps and GIS products, environmental organizations, career information, and related topics. Full description.

This website houses the syllabus and reading list for an intermediate soil science class. The class objective is for students to gain a basic understanding of soil forming processes and relationships among soils and other Earth systems. By the end of the course, students should be able to undertake basic field description of soils, interpret the environmental history recorded in soil profiles, and ... Full description.

This field guide is useful for making or reading soil and site descriptions. The major sections address soil profile description, geomorphology, geology, soil taxonomy, soil map symbols, and field sampling strategies. Rock charts and timescales are provided to help with soil identification. Full description.

This experiment will help students understand that soil sometimes contains substances, like limestone, that buffer acids or bases, and that some salts in soil may also act as buffers. They will collect soil samples from their lawn, garden, or school and look for buffering effects by observing the pH change of an acid mixture poured through the samples. If the water collected from the sample is less ... Full description.

The purpose of the handout is to identify the three major types of soils: pedalfer, pedocal, and laterite, and to understand the soil profile. This is accomplished with brief descriptions of the soil horizons and the designation of common elements to pedalfers, pedocals, and laterite soils. The handout is concluded with a discussion of soil erosion. Links are provided to the online Physical Geology ... Full description.