Teaching sequence

Work through this resource material in the following sequence:

15 minutes

Tune In: Living and non-living things

15 minutes

Find Out: Soil as a living thing

25 minutes

Take Action: Looking closely at the soil

5 minutes

Reflection

Tune In: Living and non-living things

Step 1

Explain to students:

Part of being a grower is understanding the elements you are working with and how they all interact. When we say elements here, we mean things like soil, water, air, plants and animals. Science has helped us to understand all these elements by studying all the elements individually and then looking at how they work together.

One of the tools that scientists have created that can help us understand our growing world is the ‘Living Test’. In this test, we can answer a set of questions to determine if something is living or non-living.

Step 2

Work through this presentation: Living and Non-living Things.

Step 3

Invite students to focus on the final slide of the presentation (The Living Test) and to play with this test by creating two lists; one of living things and one of non-living things. Start your list by looking around your classroom and trying to classify things like people, desks, plants, windows, sunshine etc., as either living or non-living.

Which types of things are easy to classify as living or non-living?
Which things are tricky to classify?

Extend:

You could extend this activity by taking a walk around the schoolyard to classify the things you see as living or non-living.

Find Out: Soil as a living thing

Step 1

Hold up your tub of soil and pose the question:

do you think this is a living or a non-living thing? What makes you say that?

Step 2

You will now conduct the ‘Living Test’ on the soil. Invite students to gather around your soil and work through the following questions:

can it move around?
can it grow?
can it breathe?
does it react? Does it respond to changes around it?
does it reproduce?
does it take in or make food?
does it produce waste?

This may work best in small groups or as a whole class activity with a nominated scribe to record your findings.

Step 3

Based on this test, students are likely to come to the conclusion that soil is a non-living thing. However, you could explain that many people - including scientists, growers, gardeners and others working with the land - often describe soil as ‘living’ or ‘alive’.

Pose the question:

why do you think soil might be described as ‘living’ or ‘alive’?

Through your discussion, lead students to the idea that soil is full of living things. These living things all help to feed the soil by adding nutrients to the soil and helping the soil to absorb water.

Step 4

Pose the question:

can you think of any creatures that might live in the soil? Suggested answers could include worms, ants, wombats, beetles, woodlice/slaters, rabbits and snakes.

Keep a record of any organisms that students suggest. You can compare these predictions with the observations students make later in this lesson.

Through your discussion, lead students to the following:

most of the larger animals that live underground often make burrows in the soil, but find their food and water in other places (these include animals like snakes, rabbits and wombats).
the smaller animals - like the worms, beetles and woodlice - help to make the soil by eating dead organic matter (like leaves, grass, and dead animals); the poo they produce is soil. Many will also get all their nourishment from organic matter within the soil.
and then there are animals that are even smaller. They are so small we would need a microscope to see them. Scientists and growers have been studying these animals, and they know that the soil is completely full of them; there are so many that it’s almost impossible to count them. They also know that they are incredibly important to keep the soil healthy. And because we rely on healthy soil for food, they are also incredibly important to us.
This video can help to explain the importance of microbes to healthy soils.

Note: Students will have the chance to explore some of these animals in other lessons in this unit.

Take Action: Looking closely at soil

Step 1

Students will now have the chance to go outside and get their hands dirty!

Ensure that each student has drawing materials (pencils and paper) and take a walk into the yard. If you have some magnifying glasses, you could also take them.

Firstly lead students to a place in your yard with an open space with grass or other greenery. Invite students to imagine:

the soil that is underneath this space
all the animals that are creeping, crawling, wriggling, slithering and shimmying through the soil
what it might sound like if all these animals were making noises that we could hear
if all these animals were actually the size of humans - how much space would they take up?

Step 2

Now lead students to a place in your yard where there is soil exposed soil (or some grass through which students can find some soil).

Invite students to get close to the ground to inspect the soil. You could ask them to:

touch the soil
smell the soil
see how the roots of the grass connect with the soil
notice what they can see on the surface of the soil with their naked eye (e.g. small stones, deal organic matter)
notice what they can see on the soil's surface with a magnifying glass.

Students should record their observations on their paper.

Differentiation: Students could record their observations using keywords or using full sentences. This could help satisfy the literacy component of this lesson.

Extend:

Have students compare soil from different locations. Is the soil from a footpath the same as the soil found under mulch? Or is the soil under grass the same as the soil in the garden beds?
You could also take some water bottles and invite students to observe the changes to the soil when the water has been poured into the soil.

Step 3

Students should now take out a fresh piece of paper and attempt to draw the soil. Ask students to annotate their drawings with labels to show the different features of the soil they are observing. Students can add a label and description to their drawings to say whether the soil is a living or non-living thing.

Differentiation: Students requiring extension could be guided through creating a scientific drawing (see Scientific Drawing Fact Sheet).

Reflection

Step 1

Engage students in a class discussion around the following:

what did you find interesting or important about this lesson?
what would you like to know more about?
and finally, if soil can be alive, can it also be dead? Why or why not?

Step 2

Now that students know about soil, they can get their hands dirty!

Explain to the students that in this unit, they will be working as regenerative growers. Regenerative growers grow food in a way that looks after the soil, water and biodiversity. You could be a country regenerative farmer, a backyard regenerative gardener or an urban regenerative farmer growing food on your balcony or in an old warehouse in the city. People who grow food (growers) are some of the most important people in our world because they produce the food we all need to survive. Plus, they need to do it in a way that means we can keep producing enough food for everyone into the future; this means not damaging the environment in how we grow food.

An essential part of being a regenerative grower is looking after the soil. Why? Well, the plants that we eat grow in the soil, and the animals we also get food from through meat or dairy also eat plants. We need to look after our soil because we need it for so many things!

So let’s put on our grower's hats and gloves and explore why soil is so important and how we can look after it.

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.

Soil as a Living Thing

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