Impact of Soil Judging Contests On Students' Perceptions of Learning.

Experiential learning activities have been shown to promote student learning. However, there is a dearth of research demonstrating soil judging contests foster student learning. Therefore, a survey was developed to evaluate the impact of participating in collegiate soil judging on students’ perceptions of learning. The survey was administered at the ASA national soil judging contest and the NACTA soil judging contest in April 2008. One hundred seventeen out of two hundred thirty participants completed the survey. Of the participants that completed a survey 53.8% were males and 46.2% of the participants were females. There were twenty- eight schools that participated in the survey. Ethnicity of participants was 93.2% Caucasian with minorities at 6.8%. The statement that participants agreed with the most was, “Training activities such as practice pits prepared students for the soil judging contest” while statement the statement they agreed with the least was “Winning a regional or national soil judging contest is the most important motivation for participating in soil judging contests”. Results from this study show that soil judging contests enhance students’ perception of learning and may improve social competency skills. Based upon these results, it is recommened universities encourage students to participate in soil judging contests.