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A global school science project is helping students not only become better scientists but also making them more aware of how the ground beneath their feet can be affected by climate change.

The Monitoring Soil Science Project is a soil science teaching resource which aims to increase awareness of the importance of soil among students, teachers and other interest groups and create an international network of soil science enthusiasts.

The project was initiated by WA’s Chief Scientist Professor Lyn Beazley, staff of the SPICE Program at The University of Western Australia and the Vice Dean of UWA’s Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, Winthrop Professor Lyn Abbott.

One of the aims of the project is to illustrate the importance of soils in the environment and in the climate change debate.

“The Monitoring Soil Science Project has been designed to become an ongoing global soil science project for schools, with the same or different students participating from year to year,” says Professor Abbott.

“With time, comparative information will become available and schools may communicate with each other about their findings. They could, for example, compare the biodiversity of soil fauna in different parts of the globe or in relation to climate, soil type and land use and in this process develop an understanding how their soils differ.”

While it was designed primarily for high school students, it has information suitable for students of all ages. The project brings soil scientists into the classroom as mentors to science teachers.

On-going partnerships between schools and local farming organisations (such as grower groups) can also be based around this soil science project for school students.

Each school can monitor their soil research site for such things as:

• the abundance and ratio of mites and springtails;
• soil pH and electrical conductivity (soil salinity); and
• soil bulk density, soil moisture content and organic matter content.

Students can then upload their data to the Monitoring Soil Science project website which will connect students, scientists and soil science enthusiasts across the world.

The project was piloted with the help of students and staff at Duncraig Senior High School, Gilmore College, Newman Senior High School, Perth Modern School, Shenton College, Newton Moore Senior High School in Bunbury, and Rossmoyne Senior High School.

The website was developed with financial assistance from the International  Union of Soil Sciences.

The SPICE team within the Centre for Learning Technology at the University has been instrumental in developing the Monitoring Soil Science Project, in particular: Bob Fitzpatrick, Dr Jan Dook, Jenny Gull and Dr Helen Billiald.
Deborah Lin, a PhD student in soil science at The University of Western Australia, assisted with developing the website and as the soil science mentor for the pilot with Rossmoyne Senior High School.

Many others contributed to the development of the project including Associate Professor Adrianne Kinnear, and Peter McCafferty of the Natural Resources Chemistry Laboratory at the ChemCentre. As well as those contributions, the Australian Society for Soil Science (WA) provided a start-up kit and soil science books to the schools participating in the pilot of the project.