Earth and Environmental Science · Week 19 · Land, Food, and Natural Resources
Soil Is Alive
Investigating how water and organisms build soil and reflecting on what helps students put down roots in a new semester.
- Students will
- Students investigate how water and living things shape soil and explain why some desert soils support crops while others do not.
- SEL skill
- Identify what helps you do well in a new situation, using soil needs as a comparison
- What it looks like
- Students use emotions to think about what helps them put down roots in a new semester.
- Content focus
- Soil Is Alive
- Format
- Partner exchange
Self-awareness
Self-awareness means recognizing your own emotions, thoughts, values, and strengths and noticing how they influence what you do. More self-awareness activities
What you get
A teacher guide with what to say, step by step, plus student pages and a supports page for students with diverse learning needs, including those with IEPs. Print or Project it, or assign it in Google Forms and Google Docs for Google Classroom. Your first 10 activities are free.
Standards
- HS-ESS2-5: High School Earth and Space Science performance expectation
- Science and engineering practice: SEP3 Planning and carrying out investigations
- Crosscutting concept: CCC5 Energy and matter
- CA Environmental Principles and Concepts: Principle I: People depend on natural systems
- Literacy in science: WHST.11-12.7 Conduct short and sustained research projects to answer a question or solve a problem.
- Traditional course: Earth and Environmental Science
Fits these textbook chapters
Textbook names are used only to help you find activities that fit what you teach. RoseThread Connect is not affiliated with these publishers.
More self-awareness activities for Earth and Environmental Science
- Scientist of This Place Self-awarenessStudents map the land, water, and people that shape their lives and name the kind of environmental scientist they want to become.
- Where Our Water Comes From Self-awarenessTracing valley water from the Colorado River and the aquifer to the tap and reflecting on what we take for granted.
- Reading Climate Clues Self-awarenessAnalyzing ice core and tree ring evidence of past climates and noticing the feelings that arise when data points to change.
- Semester Reflection: Footprint and Handprint Self-awarenessStudents reflect on how their thinking about the environment changed and set a spring goal for a positive handprint.
Previous: Semester Reflection: Footprint and Handprint · Next: Feeding the Nation from the Desert
RoseThread Connect activities are drafted with the help of AI and shaped by educators. Students never have to share anything personal. Our five SEL skills are informed by CASEL's SEL Framework; RoseThread Learning is not affiliated with or endorsed by CASEL.