Characteristics of Dirt

Summary
This is an introductory lesson about soil, its composition, and its importance.

Objectives
• to describe and discuss the three basic layers of soil;

• to explain and discuss the four basic characteristics of topsoil;

• to explain and discuss the importance of topsoil in relation to growing crops.

Suggested Grades
4th Grade
5th Grade
6th Grade

Excerpt
Most of us walk around day after day and never think about the stuff we are walking on. But the dirt beneath our feet is one of the most important natural resources we have. It took thousands of years for the earth?s rock surface to ?weather? into the soil we have today. In just a few hundred years, we are close to depleting our limited supply.

Without good soil, we will not be able to grow our food. There are already regions of the world where people are hungry because the soil there is too poor to grow good crops. In some places there is no soil left at all! The roots of grass and plants help keep the soil from washing and blowing away. When there is nothing growing, the soil will soon be gone.

If you stood in a hole dug deep enough in the ground, and looked at the wall of earth around you, you would see three basic layers of soil.

Continued...