Purpose
A fun, interactive interface that allows students to design soil profiles
with a range of typical soil characteristics
Overview
Begining-level students select different soil characteristics for a series
of soil horizons to start familiarizing them with specific soil properties
and the concept of soil as distinct layers. Initially, the student is asked
to set some general environmental parameters (biome, soil saturation) which
is used to restrict some entries later to be more sensible. A soil section
might have relatively uniform soil saturation but the actual soil water
content can be estimated from the texture that is specified. Next, a form
would be filled out similar to the soil characterization data input page
for each layer down to one meter depth. Because this
interface might serve as the front-end to a more advanced component, we
want two levels of interactivity: 1) simple but fast and 2) more visual
and motivating. The basic design below would be fairly easy to implement,
but represents but one possible expression of these goals.
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Time Required
- Should be self-explanatory; about 10 minutes to design a simple profile
Skill Level
Key Concepts and Skills
- Concepts: soil properties and soil horizons
- Skills: Reading, Comprehension
Materials and Tools
- GLOBE internet connection
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GLOBE III - Design-a-Soil
