Preparation Description for the "Julia Child" Method of Training the Soil Science GLOBE Protocols
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Treat this prep list as if you are conducting a training for 50 participants and that you'll be breaking them up into two big groups (sessions) to be trained. This is a suggested method of training the soil portion of the GLOBE Protocols if the training will be conducted all in one week and all of the soil protocols (beginning and advanced) will be taught. Included on this sheet are links to various step by step guides for the protocols for which the trainer is preparing.
***At least a couple of weeks before the training, find out whether or not there is a pit (or a roadcut or streambank) and whether or not you can dig and whether or not they can bring in a backhoe to do it for you. Make sure about any safety issues such as underground cables, pipes, etc.***
Day 1 (first prep day)
- Get to site by 10 am
- Unpack (note: if you are using a GLOBE kit with which to train, some of your equipment will be in boxes other than those marked soil characterization or soil moisture)
- Set up each protocol by station (this depends on how many participants there will be; I try to break the participants up into groups of five since several protocols have five different jobs. For 50 participants, you'll have ten groups of five.) Set up drying oven and test it to make sure it works.
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A. Instrument setup:
- Golf tees (or other markers)
- Color book
- Tape measure
- Trowel
- Permanent marker
- Plastic sheet
- Spray mist bottles full of regular water
- Ziplock bag
- Camera
- Two sampling cans with lids (If you're in a real time crunch, weigh each can (always weigh cans without the lids) and put its mass on the bottom of the can in permanent marker. Then, mark one can in each bucket BD (for Bulk Density) and the other can in each bucket SM (for Soil Moisture). Next, get the volume of each BD can and write it on the bottom of the can. That way, the participants won't have to take time to do this during the training session.)
- balances available for measuring (doesn't have to be one per table)
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Wash glass- and plastic-ware in water and rinse with distilled water
-
Field work has two buckets: characterization and infiltration
-
Characterization buckets (five buckets):
- funnel
- wood block
- two coffee cans (dual-ring infiltrometer) (Mark these cans with the appropriate marks for use with the protocol. On most standard coffee cans, use the lip side up and mark around the first and third indentations from the top and then mark the outside of the first indentation from the bottom)
-
Infiltration
buckets (five buckets):
- 100mL graduated cylinder
- Meter stick
- Soil Characterization bucket
- Infiltration bucket
- Put regular water into five one-liter plastic bottles (one bottle per table) and mark them "Regular water."
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On each table:
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B. Dig a pit (as much as you can, but
preferably at least 1 by 1 by 1 meter pit). If you can get someone
to the site with a backhoe, it's much easier. Also, make sure you
have some way of marking off the pit so no one falls in, etc.
-
C. Choose the horizon that you'll study (one horizon will be used
for both the field work and the lab work so that participants can
compare their results) and get particle
size distribution (PSD) samples from that horizon so that you
can then take them in, dry them, sieve, disperse them, and set up
PSD. Get enough samples so that each group (of five) will have a sample
plus an extra 25 g per how many times you're going to teach PSD so
that you have a 24-hour sample. For example, for a group of 50 participants
if you're breaking them up into 10 groups of five and teaching PSD
twice [so that you have two sessions and you'll be teaching five groups
of five at each one]. You'll need to have at least 25g of dried sieved
soil for each group plus at least 25g of soil for each time you'll
teach PSD (so 50g in this case). Plus, if the horizon on which you're
working is either a highly clay or highly sand horizon, you can use
the soil from that horizon to be one of the soils for the Just
Passing Through learning activity so grab at least a liter bag's
worth of soil (because you don't know how rocky the soil is and so
won't really know how much real, dried, sieved soil you'll end up
with) from the horizon you'll be studying. Then, when you're out in
the field, have the participants study and do the characterization
for that same horizon so they can compare it to their lab results
later. (They don't have to know that right then though; it's part
of the fun to compare later.)
-
D. Dig an auger profile onto a sheet
of plastic, wrap the auger in the sheet (to steady it in transit)
to carry it back to the classroom. (You'll need a second auger profile
for the second session.)
-
E. Make the Just
Passing Through (JPT) bottles (use clear, wide-neck 1-liter bottles
and follow the instructions in the Just Passing Through Learning Activity
in the teacher's guide). The difference with what I do is that I put
the bottles into 500 mL graduated cylinders instead of beakers. That
way, they stand higher and you get a better idea of how much water
has filtered through because it's easier to measure.
If you have a high clay content horizon, use that horizon for your clay soil and dry at least 2 kilograms of that soil. If you don't have a high clay content horizon, then purchase 100% clay non-scented all natural kitty litter. That kind of kitty litter is often a clay like Bentonite and will work well for the activity.
For sand, if you have a high sand content horizon, grab about a liter bag's worth of that soil and use it for JPT. If not, then get some sandbox sand and use it for the learning activity.
For your high organic content soil, use potting soil.
Put the soils into the drying oven to dry so that they can then be used for JPT. Once they are dried, you'll place them in plastic bags marked JPT Sand, JPT Clay, JPT Organic.
Soil Temperature is taught within the Atmosphere protocols so get the Atmosphere trainer the temperature probes, the gutter spikes, the wood blocks (or PVC pipes) and the Soil Temp viewgraphs.
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F. For your self, you'll want to be sure that you have all of the
necessary viewgraphs (including the Soil Characterization and Soil
Moisture viewgraphs as well as the data
entry viewgraphs if you will have to show soil data entry in this
manner.) You'll also need transparencies of the Bulk
Density Data Worksheet (Appendix 3), and the PSD
Data Worksheet (Appendix 5) as well as the, PSD
Conversion Table and the Calculation Worksheet (Learning Activities
33 and 34 respectively) as well as the big Texture
Class Triangle (Appendix 19). Also, you'll need some transparency
markers.
- Plate
- Mortar and pestle, or hammer, or rolling pin, or wood block (something for each group to use)
- Sieve
- Paper plates (four or five per table)
- Spoon
- Plastic ziplock bag
- Permanent marker
- Regular water in one liter bottles
- Rubber gloves
- 100mL graduated cylinder
- Calculators
- balances available for measuring (this doesn't have to be per table)
-
Continue setup for the lab protocols (for each table)
-
Bulk Density
- 100mL beaker
- 100mL graduated cylinder
- Glass stirring rod
- pH meter, pen or paper
- Distilled water in squirt bottles
- dried, sieved soil in a plastic bag
- balances available for measuring (this doesn't have to be per table)
-
pH
- 500mL graduated cylinder
- 500mL beaker
- Thermometer
- Hydrometer
- Meter stick
- Plastic wrap
- Distilled water in squirt bottle and gallon bottles
- Glass stirring rod
- Calculators
- dried, sieved soil in a plastic bag
- Soil dispersal agent (make dispersing solution and put into a two liter bottle)
- balances available for measuring (this doesn't have to be per table)
-
Particle Size Distribution
- NPK Kit
- Plastic spoon
- Distilled Water in squirt bottle
- dried, sieved soil in a plastic bag
-
Soil Fertility
-
Take compass, grass clippers, flags, and a meter stick and mark
out the star pattern for soil
moisture. Clip away the grass from the areas from which
you will be taking samples.
-
Choose ten areas for soil
infiltration and mark them with a flag and clip away enough
grass to cover an area slightly bigger than the bigger coffee
can.
-
Set up all of the equipment together in various places in the
room so that you can easily transfer all of the (e.g. bulk density)
instruments to the appropriate spots during breaks.
- Set up the PSD samples once they've dried. Sieve your soil samples and place in a plastic bag. Measure out 25g soil from your sample and pour into a 500mL beaker along with 100mL dispersing solution and 50mL distilled water. Stir for one minute and then rinse the glass stirring rod into the beaker, cover with plastic wrap and let sit. Do this for each sample (for ten groups over two sessions, you'd need 12 samples in beakers so that they'll disperse by the time they're needed. In addition, in order to better illustrate how to measure with a hydrometer you might want to disperse another sample so that you can then use it as an example of how to read the hydrometer. You can also have have a 500mL cylinder that just contains distilled water so that the participants will get an idea of when the hydrometer reads 1.0000.
- Once you've used the dispersing solution for the samples that the class will be using, fill the 2-liter bottle again with some distilled water. Since the participants will not actually be using the samples they work with, you don't need to use up dispersing agent to make more solution.
- Make sure that the break times will be in the building in which you are teaching. That may mean that you or someone else will have to bring the food to the participants. That will allow for shorter breaks and more teaching time.
- Place all chairs at the appropriate tables.
- Calibrate balances (make sure that you are using balances with max. weight of 600g and not 400g.
- Calibrate pH meters or pH pens (this should be done the day you'll be training pH). Be sure the pens and meters sit in distilled water for at least an hour before you calibrate or use them. (Remember to make sure that the water level is not too high. It should just cover the glass probe.)
- Make photocopies of all data worksheets and lay them out at each table
- Pour water into JPT beakers (for pouring through the soil) and have pH paper available for use in front of each beaker (great way to lead into pH protocol)
- Set up two plates of potting soil with a lot of baking soda mixed into it for the example of free carbonates.
-
Training (Suggested training schedule)*
- Conduct introduction to soil (field characteristics, soil moisture, etc.)
- Present auger profile and go through characteristics
- Present soil/baking soda mixture and demonstrate free carbonate reaction (here's a good place to introduce that you're doing the "Julia Child" method)
- Go out and do field work in pit, get samples for bulk density, get samples for soil moisture (at star pattern at the soil moisture study site)
- Come back into lab and weigh samples wet and place them in drying oven.
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First session with first group**
- Get dry weights of samples for both SM and BD.
- Figure out SM and talk about it.
- Figure out BD and discuss it. (I usually do BD with the whole group using one group's numbers and putting the data on an overhead transparency of the data worksheet for BD)
- Place sieved soil into sample bags for use in lab protocols.
- Introduce JPT and conduct learning activity.
- Introduce pH and conduct protocol (To shorten the amount of time spent on this protocol, you can ask them to take their break while waiting for the soil suspension to settle. Or you can ask them to take a break during JPT while the clay is filtering the water and instead use the waiting time during the pH protocol to show the viewgraphs for the data entry pages on the Web).
- Introduce Infiltration and conduct protocol outside.
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Second session with first group.
-
*Twenty-four hours before each third session, you or a lab
assistant should set up the 24-hour samples for PSD so that when
you are ready to do the 24-hour hydrometer reading there will
be a sample for each session to use. At this point, you can use
just the one sample that has been sitting for 24 hours and everyone
in that session can use that hydrometer and thermometer readings
to do their PSD calculations.
- Introduce concepts of PSD and concepts of Stokes Law and Specific Gravity. Conduct PSD protocol (Have participants do everything until just before they get up to pouring the soil they've just mixed with dispersing solution and distilled water into the 500mL graduated cylinder. [That means that they will weight out the soil, measure out the dispersing solution and distilled water and pour that all into the the 500mL beaker, but don't have them pour that stuff into the 500mL graduated cylinder] Have them cover the 500mL beakers and then replace those beakers with the ones you've had dispersing all this time.) After they have poured previously prepared samples that had been sitting and dispersing into the 500mL graduated cylinder, you can conduct the protocol and use the one sample that has been sitting for 24 hours to get the 24-hour hydrometer and temperature readings.
- Conduct Making Sense of PSD learning activity.
- Introduce Soil Fertility protocol and conduct protocol.
- Finish with "How Much Soil Is There?" apple learning activity.
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Third session with first group.
**The second group of 25 participants would go through the protocols in the same manner.