Integrating Spatial Educational Experiences (Isee) - Creating Maps for Teaching and Learning Soil Science.

The SSURGO database is a tremendous resource of information about the soils of the US. The traditional approach of presenting soil maps as polygons on an aerial photograph does not lend itself well to teaching and learning complex concepts of how and why soils occur across landscapes. As part of the Isee project, we have developed procedures for using the SSURGO database to create thematic maps of various soil properties, maps that are designed specifically for teaching and learning. In this presentation we discuss our approach for preparing thematic maps of soils properties such as Natural Soil Drainage Class, Surface Soil Color, Fragipan occurrence, and other soil properties, with particular emphasis on preparing the Dominant Soil Parent Material map. The Dominant Soil Parent Material map is the most complex, but also one of the most informative maps, particularly  for glaciated areas.