Nebraska Soil Summer Institute Lesson plans

Geoscience

  1. Geoscience - Unequal Distribution of Thermal Energy in Soils
    • Students will understand the heating and cooling of Sunlight, and the insulating properties of soils.
  2. Geoscience - Soil and the Earth System
    • No description provided.

Biology & Geoscience

  1. Biology and Geoscience - Soil Formation, Ecosystems, and Decomposition (multiple activities)
    • Ecology→ Ecosystems→ Abiotic & Biotic Factors- How do abiotic and biotic factors shape ecosystems→ Biosphere- How do living and nonliving parts of the Earth interact and affect the survival of organisms? Soil ecosystem will be used as a model to answer the aforementioned questions.

Chemistry

  1.  Chemistry - pH and Ions in Soil
    • No description provided.

Environmental Studies

  1.  Life and Death (the struggle for balance...) (multiple activities)
    • This activity is designed for environmental studies students in high school, typically 11th or 12th grade. These students have had Geoscience, Biology and Chemistry and this gives the teacher the ability to pull together multiple disciplines to show relationships. It could also easily be used for a research class or for Biology. This activity is designed to help students see that decomposition is an important part of life, and as complex as growth. Students will study the process of decomposition by changing enzyme activity, changing oxygen concentration, observing detritivores and watching decomposition happen over a long period of time.