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Soil Science educational resources
Soil-Net – an environmental educational resource on soil
http://www.soil-net.com
Soil-Net.com is a free environmental educational resource about soil, aimed for Key
Stages 1 to 4 (age 5-16), with extensive teacher aids supporting the many interactive student activities. |
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Soil is one of the three most vital natural resources, alongside air and water. It plays a crucial role in sustaining food production, in supporting the variety of our plant and animal life, and as a foundation for much of the country’s infrastructure. Less well known is the part soil plays in cleaning our water supplies, in archaeological preservation and its important potential to moderate the rate of climate change. Soil is all around us – just under our feet!
The European Union recently introduced its Soil Framework Directive, and the UK Government has a stated Soil Action Plan, both in part aimed at better education about soils and seeking to ensure sustainable management of soils into the future. Associated with these initiatives is the need to see soils play a more significant part in school and college curricula.
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To this end a major website, www.Soil-net.com, commissioned by Defra, has been developed by Cranfield University in association with Norwich School of Art and Design. Visit the website and see for yourself the exciting, interactive, animated movies teaching about soil and its importance. On the site you will find extensive materials such as developing a School Garden, Soil Walks, Eco-Lifestyle Quizzes, Postcode-driven interactive soil maps, over 2,000 environmental photographs to help in the classroom and many other resources that bring soil alive. Soil-Net trials have been successfully undertaken in schools in Hampshire and Bedfordshire and Norfolk.
Soilscapes Viewer is a free interactive web-based map of soil types in England and Wales. Soilscapes Viewer offers a fantastic way to learn more about the soils in your region, and across the two countries. Input your UK Postcode and discover more about the soil resource under your feet.
The Land Information System, or LandIS, is an environmental information system holding comprehensive soils information for England and Wales. LandIS is run by Cranfield University's National Soil Resources Institute, (www.cranfield.ac.uk/soil) and is used by a broad range of users interested in soil conditions, properties and mapping. Datasets, maps and publications are available from LandIS to support your research and educational projects.
Associated with its sister websites Soil-Net.com (aimed at a schools audience) and Wossac.com (holding soil reports and maps), SoilsWorldwide is a free online web resource, developed by Cranfield University’s National Soil Resources Institute, dedicated to exploring and presenting the sheer variety of soil and related soil landscapes worldwide. SoilsWorldwide is the home of SoilPIC, the Soils Photographic Image Collection and Archive, partly sponsored by the British Society of Soil Science (BSSS<http://www.soils.org.uk>). SoilPIC seeks to present photographic imagery to depict the astonishing variety of soil types from around the world, together with the landscapes typical of these soils. If you would like to share your own soils photographs, please contact the SoilsWorldwide project!
Soil Publications
The World Soil Surveys Archive and Catalogue (WOSSAC) seeks to provide a secure home for soil survey reports, maps and photographs produced by British companies and surveyors overseas in the last 80 years in 250 territories, with a view to ensuring their enduring availability and protection and making them as widely accessible as possible. WOSSAC is a project of the Cranfield University’s National Soil Resources Institute (www.cranfield.ac.uk/soil) in the UK.
WOSSAC is also the home for the recently announced ‘SoilPIC’ archive. Sponsored by BSSS, SoilPIC is intended to offer scholars and researchers access to high quality photographs of soil and soil conditions from all around the world. Photos of soil pit horizons and their associated landscapes will form an invaluable resource for those wishing to learn more of the astonishing variety of world soils.
Universities and Colleges
A number of Universities offer Soil Science within the curriculum
Cranfield University
For information about courses at Cranfield University which include aspects of Soil Science and Soil Management, visit
http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/sas/masters/#soil
Courses of relevance include:
Environmental Management for Business MSc
Geographical Information Management MS
Land Management MSc (DD)
Ecotechnology for Cities (option)
Ecological Conservation (option)
Land Reclamation and Restoration (option)
Natural Resource Management (option)
Soil Management (option)
Sports Surface Technology MSc
Design for Sustainability MSc
Environmental Diagnostics MSc (DD)
Integrated Waste Management MSc/PgDip/PgCert (DD)
University of Lancaster
Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes which contain Soil Science within the curriculum
BSc. Environmental Science
BSc. Earth and Environmental Science
BSc. Environmental Chemistry
BSc. Earth Science with Geography
MSc in Environmental Biotechnology
MSc in Environmental Remediation
MSc in Environmental Technology
MSc in Waste Science and Management
MRes in Science of the Environment
MSc in Ecology and Environment
MSc in Environmental Impact Assessment
MSc in Environmental Pollution and Protection
MSc in Environmental Science
MSc in Hydrology and Water Quality
MSc in Water Science
All can be accessed from www.es.lancs.ac.uk
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