Social Media from the First International Soil Judging Contest.

Intercollegiate soil judging has been going on in the United States since the late 1950s, and even longer as a high school “land judging” activity. The contest involves a team of four students who compete as individuals to describe several contest pits to a depth of about 1 meter, and then join with other students to describe two soils in a group effort. Descriptions are compared to those of local experts. In 2013, teams from Australia and New Zealand competed in a contest, guided by Soil Education officers from the International Union of Soil Science, and generally based on the rules used in the United States. In June 2014, the first widespread international contest was held on Jeju Island, South Korea, as a part of the 20^th World Congress of Soil Science. During the practice and the contest, the students and coaches representing the U.S. send tweets and posted Facebook messages, videos, and pictures to the SSSA social media sites. Students and coaches related their cultural and educational experiences.