UW River Falls Crops and Soils Club: Educates Future Farmers about Soil.

UW River Falls Crops and Soils Club: Educates Future Farmers about Soil In celebration of the International Year of Soils, the Crops and Soils Club at the University of Wisconsin River Falls (UWRF) desired to bring a greater awareness among the youth about soils in general and what we can do to protect our soils in Wisconsin in particular. Through interactive presentations and demonstration the club members informed local 4-H and FFA chapters about dominant soil types and some of their unique characteristics. The club members also emphasized the different roles of soil and the need to protect soils from degradation. Through a demonstration and hands-on exercise the members of the club instructed their audience how to determine soil texture by feel. The club introduced a “mystery soil” for which the audience had to determine soil texture and had to guess what soil type it was based on some shared facts. At the conclusion of the meeting the audience was given the opportunity to ask questions and complete a five question quiz about the information shared by the club. This assessment was done to evaluate if the 4-H and FFA members had acquired new knowledge about soils and if they enjoyed the activity. The results of this educating activity showed that the youth really did learn something new about their local soil, that they enjoyed investigating soil texture, and that they enjoyed finding out what soil type the “mystery soil” was. Overall, the members of the 4-H and FFA indicated that they enjoyed having the club members come out and educate them on soils. Based on these results the club members feel that they have contributed to the effort of making the next generation of agriculturalists better stewards of the soil.