Learning Site Home Page

Digging Into Soils!   Activities for Learning More                  

Conserving Soils
Developed by the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) for use by educators. This resource is available through your local conservation district office.  Conserving Soils includes enrichment materials for an interdisciplinary study of soils for students in grades 6 through 9. Three units, four lessons, 24 activity masters with supporting materials, a soil glossary and a resource guide are all included. Activities include as an example:

1. Soils: What are They?
2. Soil Ecology: Plants and Animals Under Your Feet* (pdf)
3. How Is Soil Formed?
4. What are Soil Horizons?* (pdf)
5. How do soils differ?* (pdf)
6. We Depend on Soils
7. How People have Used Soils
8. U.S. History Was Affected by Soils
9. How We Degrade Soils
10. Soil Erosion: How It Occurs
11. Soil Erosion: How It Occurs
12. Soil Erosion: How IT Affects Us
13. Why Conserve Soils?
14. Managing Soil Resources
15. Managing Water Resources
16. Matching Land Use with Soils* (pdf)
17. Rural Soil Conservation Practices
18. Urban Soil Conservation Practices
19. Growing Enough Food: Maintaining Soil Productivity
20. Growing Enough Food: Disappearing Farmland
21. A Home for Wildlife
22. Soil Pollution from Hazardous Chemicals
23. Surface Mining Reclamation
24. Recycling Organic Wastes

Dig In! Hands-on Soil Investigations
Developed by the National Science Teachers Association with the support of the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service. This resource is available through your local conservation district office. The USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service collaborated with the National Science Teachers Association on Dig In! Hands-on Soil Investigations for elementary science teachers and supervisors. The activities in Dig In! are designed for students in kindergarten through fourth grade and will introduce soil mysteries in an enjoyable and educational way. Sections in the booklet include: What is Soil? Who Uses Soil? What Lives in Soil and Where is our Soil Going? A Glossary and Correlations with the National Science Education Standards are also included as a resource.

Pike County Soils Explorer.
Developed by the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service for use by the Pike County Conservation District in public educational programs and as a resource for educators. The Soils Explorer is a digital data viewer delivered on CD-rom media containing Soil Survey Geographic data specific to Pike County. It is only available on loan from the Pike County Conservation District.

Soil Survey of Pike County, Pennsylvania: Interim Report Part One and Two.
Developed by the USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service for use by the Pike County Conservation District. Available on CD are a full set of soils maps for Pike County along with the soil survey report.