About this package

This education package is designed to help your students explore:

• the relationship between agricultural soils and the food we eat (including food security);
• how biomes are changed for the purpose of agriculture;
• how “healthy” soil sustains life;
• the relationship between what we do with soil in agriculture and climate change;
• how everyone can influence changing soil management practices over time.

Soil management is complex, but it is important to sustainability, climate change, food security and other major issues that are relevant to Australian high school students and their future. This package contains material that can engage students and help them to understand the role of soil stewardship.

This package is an outcome of a 3-year project by a team from Charles Sturt University and the University of Tasmania, funded by the Soil CRC (Cooperative Research Centre). This project investigated how to activate consumer markets for soil stewardship, through the creation of a hypothetical food brand (“Nurtured Lands”). One of our findings was that soil and its role in supporting humans is poorly understood and rarely considered by people in the general population. A better understanding, and appreciation, of soil will help consumers make choices that are better for them and the planet.

How this package fits with National Curriculum areas

This package has chiefly been designed for use within the Year 9 Geography unit of study, Biomes and food security.

The materials have been tailored to help teachers engage students in the following key inquiry questions:

• What are the causes and consequences of change in places and environments and how can this change be managed?
• What are the future implications of changes to places and environments?

In addition, this package is highly relevant to the cross-curriculum priority area of Sustainability, given the centrality of soil in the capacity of Earth to maintain all life. This package will contribute to students’ …

• Understanding the ways social, economic and environmental systems interact to support and maintain human life
• Appreciating and respecting the diversity of views and values that influence sustainable development
• Participating critically and acting creatively in determining more sustainable ways of living.

Overview of the package

The package aims to provide students with an opportunity to:

• Learn the importance of soils for food security, now and into the future;
• Understand the difference between “healthy” and productive soil and degraded, under-productive soil;
• Develop emerging understanding that soil management is not ‘one size fits all’;
• Think about the roles of farmers and consumers in creating demand that interconnects with places and environments; and
• Make connections between soil, food and climate change.

The package consists of six sections. Each section contains:

• Teacher notes with detailed content and suggested resources and activities;
• Editable worksheets for class activities;
• An editable PowerPoint presentation;
• Section 6 also contains an editable handout for a suggested major term project, which includes a suggested marking rubric.

Each section has a specific focus and learning aims. Sections are sequential and build on learning in previous sections. However, they are amenable to a pick-and-mix approach, depending on the teacher’s preference.

Other areas of application may include Earth & Environmental Science (Unit 2: Earth processes – energy transfers and transformations, Biological soil crusts and nutrient cycling in Australian rangelands; Unit 3: Living on Earth extracting, using and managing Earth resource, Food security and protecting agricultural biodiversity) and Agriculture.

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the contributions made by the following individuals, who provided their expertise and guidance at different stages of the development of the package, and without whom the project would not have been possible.

Dr Sergio Moroni (Charles Sturt University) provided input on the structure and content of a late draft of the package and helped guide us away from overly simplifying a complex set of issues.

Dr Catherine Allan (Soil CRC) provided input and content checking on the final draft of the package.

We would also like to acknowledge the Cooperative Research Centre for High Performance Soils, and Sustainability at Charles Sturt who provided funding to enable completion of this project.