I Love Soil – Tiaki o Papatuanuku
An Educational Resource Produced for the 2015 International Year of Soil
Soil: The World Beneath Our Feet
“Soil: The World Beneath Our Feet”, was a website that was designed on behalf of the New Zealand Society of Soil Science (NZSSS), in 2015, to promote the public understanding and appreciation of soils and to celebrate the then, 2015, International Year Of Soils. Although here at the NZSSS, we believe that every year is a celebration of soil.
Because this website was a unique New Zealand resource, it was decided that the pages should be kept available for anyone who wished to use them. The best way to do so was to add them to the actual NZSSS website, where they would be available as a wonderful source of information for children and teachers wanting to learn more about the world beneath our feet.
Some tenets of soil science are global by their nature, but where possible, we use New Zealand examples. Educator Angela Schipper wrote the articles and activities. Dr Megan Balks and Professor Louis Schipper provided expert advice and quality assurance.
Resources
Some of the resources from the I love Soil website have been integrated into the NZSSS website (Teacher Resources, Activities & Career Information). The rest of the content is available here.
An introduction to the I Love Soil website and the importance of soil (previous home page of the I Love Soil website.
A brief introduction to what’s in soil and how this influences the way soil looks, feels and behaves. Find out how soil properties influence sport, where we put our buildings and grow our food.
Have you ever wondered if the soil in your garden is the same as the soil across the street, at your school or where you work? Soils differ due to how and where they were formed.
Have you ever wondered if the soil in your garden is the same as the soil across the street, at your school or where you work? Soils differ due to how and where they were formed.
One-quarter of life on earth uses soil as a habitat. Read about soil life in native and urban habitats and why life above the ground depends on life below the ground.
When Maori first arrived, they found a land quite different to their native Polynesia. Crops such as kūmara required a different growing regime. Maori modified soils with sand and gravel to optimise kumara production.
Resource Contributors
Here is a little bit about the team members who produced the material for the I Love Soil website.
Angela Schipper
Angela Schipper is a former primary school teacher who now works for them Science Learning Hub. She still makes appearances as Mrs Frizzell and enjoyes children’s enthusiasm for hands-on science.
Dr Megan Balks
Dr Megan Balks teaches soil and environmental sciences at the University of Waikato. She has a special interest in Cryosols – or frozen soils, especially in the Antarctic, a place she has visited 19 times to do research. Dr Balks was the first woman to be made a Fellow of the New Zealand Society of Soil Science.
Prof Louis Schipper
Professor Louis Schipper is a soil science lecturer at the University of Waikato. His research interests are in organic matter cycling, nitrogen dynamics, soil quality and educating the next generation of soil scientists!