Three lessons on Soil Education from the LOESS High-Level Symposium

Making your students aware of the importance of soil as the foundation for life is more important now than ever. But teaching about soil can be difficult. The topic spans different subjects - from biology and chemistry to geography and social studies - but it does not clearly appear in curricula. Moreover, even though soil is all around us, its connections to everyday life are often invisible to students, reducing their interest in their topic.

These challenges have been at the heart of the EU-funded LOESS project (Literacy boost through an Operational Educational Ecosystem of Societal actors on Soil health) The project celebrated its third birthday with a High-Level Symposium on soil education in Barcelona this month and invited teachers, teacher trainers, soil experts and policy makers to discuss how to promote soil education. Here are three tips that they provided to common questions educators have.

How can I speak about the different dimensions of soil to my students, when I’m not a soil expert?

During the symposium, teachers commented on the need to have high quality teaching materials, that are modular and can be adapted to the needs of their classroom, as well as their expertise. The Learning Scenarios developed by LOESS feature activities that combine different STEM and non-STEM subjects. You can always mix-and-match the activities to suit your needs and start building your own lesson based on your skills. Take a look at the available selection of scenarios and what subjects they cover, and choose what works best for your classroom.

• Extra tip: If you want to improve your understanding of soil health and how to teach about soil, the materials from the LOESS MOOC ‘Soil education: and Integrated STEM approach’ are always available on EUN Academy!

How can I get my students interested in learning about soil?

What emerged from the Symposium is that hands-on activities are crucial in sparking students’ interest and curiosity in soil. We learn best when we can see things up close, touch, smell, feel. So, take your students outside to experience soil for themselves! Use the LOESS Crowdmapping tool to plan an outdoor activity to sensitise students to soil health issues in your region or create a demonstrator garden in your school or community, based on the LOESS case studies.

• Extra tip: If you can’t go outside, you can still use the LOESS AR app to help students experience what kind of organisms live in the soil and prepare them for outdoor activities.

How can I get help my students understand the ‘bigger picture’ of why soil health concerns us all?

Soil health is connected to multiple areas of sustainable living – sustainable agriculture, food security, water quality, climate change. Educators during the symposium noted that getting their students involved in community-based actions, with multiple different actors, can help them understand the importance of soil health in different contexts. You can look for inspiration by listening to the LOESS podcast, continuously updated with new episodes, or visit the Scientix® Citizen Science Collection, to expand to actions beyond soil.

Extra tip: LOESS partners have set-up 15 Communities of Practice in their countries. Reach out to your local community to see how you can get involved!

Do you still want to dig deeper? You can find all LOESS resources in the handy LOESS Soil Atlas. Share it with your school community and sow the seed for better soil education!