Teacher Resources

The articles and activities in these pages are intended for both the general public and for student use.

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The following information identifies how these resources fit within the New Zealand education system.

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Continue down the page to find links with other New Zealand soil resources.

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New Zealand Curriculum Achievement Objectives

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Science

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Nature of Science: Understanding about science, Investigating in science, Communicating in science, and participating and contributing.

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Planet Earth and Beyond: Earth Systems and Interacting Systems.

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Living World: Ecology.

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Social Sciences

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Understand how people view and use places differently. Understand how people make decisions about access to and use of resources.

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Understand how people’s management of resources impacts on environmental and social sustainability.

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Social Sciences: Geography.

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Science Capabilities

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Gather and interpret data – hands-on activities provide opportunities for observation/inference.

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Use evidence – produce explanations via data/observations from hands-on activities.

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Critique evidence – activities provide opportunities to compare/check findings with those of experts.

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Engage with science – opportunities to carry out the same soil assessment techniques that professionals use.

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Literacy Opportunities

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Consider printing a portion of an article for use as a reading activity. Cut and paste the information into Word, changing the font and font size if appropriate. Create a couple of simple questions to answer or remove content vocabulary to create a cloze activity.

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The activity Dig A Hole uses the picture book Sam & Dave Dig a Hole.

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The activity Test Your Soil Knowledge has a download option. Print the PDF to use for a reading activity.

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The School Journal and Connected series have these soil-related titles:

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• From rock to rock. Connected Number 3, 2000

• The water cycle. Connected Number 2, 2002

• Living on a volcano. Connected Number 1, 2011

• Living on a lava flow. Connected Number 2, 2005

• Earth paints Part 1, Number 5, 2004

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Links With Other New Zealand Resources

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Building Science Concepts Soil Animals: Diversity Beneath our Feet NZC levels 3-4. Themes include food webs, soil’s role in sustaining growth of all plants and indirectly all animals, recycling and composting.

 

Science Learning Hub Resources:

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• Soil, Farming and Science (NCE levels 3-6) Learn about soil science basics and explore innovative science ideas that can help farmers and the environment.

• Earthworms (NCE levels 2-6) Learn about introduced and common earthworms and the roles they play in soil ecosystems.

• Enviro-imprints (NCE levels 5-8) Learn about soil quality and soil contamination.

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The Manaaki Whenua Soils Portal has a section specifically for teachers, as well as Soils in Te Ao Māori

https://soils.landcareresearch.co.nz/resources/teachers/

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NZ Soils website. Extensive information about New Zealand soils. Contains maps, images and written content.

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S-Map Online. The digital soil map for New Zealand.

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Te Ara Soils. Soil basics and descriptions of the soil orders.