Soil Moisture:
Training Notes
Your mission, as if you have any other options, is to teach the bare
essentials of the Soil moisture protocol, activities and science motivation
in just one hour. Time is limited so be prepared, cover background rapidly
and leave time for hands-on activities. Good luck!
Notes
- These activities are not inclusive of the material that is in the GLOBE
Teachers Guide but are representative of it and should promote and encourage
the teachers to be comfortable with and use the full activities.
- Work in engaging questions and hands-on activities wherever possible
but with the limited time most things will have to be demonstrated.
- Know what these pages say beforehand; let trainees read it while you
emphasize the main points.
Structure
Most pages have a common format that contain:
Purpose: obvious
Emphasis: basic theme related to purpose (Exploration, Science, Data Quality, Protocol, ...)
Total training time: minutes you can spend on this unit given 60 min limit.
Connections: to similar activities in other modules/units
Expected Outcomes
What to do and how to do it
Extentions
- Ideas to plant in teacher's minds so they can see full scope of activity
Demonstration materials
The Data Game
(demo)
- Clear cup and water or soil
Soil and Sponges
(~3-4 people/group)
- Cups of water
- Set of sponges (different sizes, porosities/densities)
- Electronic or triple beam balance
- Paper towels for clean-up
Digging Around
(demo)
- Sketch map of hypothetical site
Gravimetric soil moisture
(supplies for 4 groups)
- Trowel (an auger will be needed for advanced students but I only demo near-surface hole)
- String or 10 m tape
- Soil cans
- Metric ruler
Optional Gypsum-block depth profile
(demo)
- Soil auger
- Soil can
- 250 ml Water in a bucket
- Soil Moisture Meter
- Gypsum Blocks
- Metric ruler (a meter stick will be needed for real but I only demo 10 cm hole)
- 10 cm dia. x 20 cm PVC "collar" tube
Please share any corrections, comments or learning aids with the author, below.
Comments? jwash@hwr.arizona.edu
v. Jul 5, 1996