Increasing Undergraduate Exposure to Novel Soil Types through a "Virtual" Regional Soil Judging Contest.

Exposure to diverse soils formed from varying parent materials and pedological contexts is critical for students to develop a well-rounded understanding of soils and the processes through which they form. Soil judging, a soil morphology and classification contest for undergraduates, is one way students gain experience with soils beyond their university’s area of study. Attending national and regional contests is an integral component of the intellectual growth of any soil judging team member by providing opportunities for hands-on learning in pedology and soil classification. Students who attend regional and national contests are also exposed to different soil types and pedological processes that occur outside the range of their university. Given current funding constraints, some university soil judging teams are limited in their ability to attend regional and/or national contests. As a result, access to diverse soils from regions outside the immediate university locale is decreasing. We conducted a “virtual” regional soil judging contest with teams from Oregon State University, Colorado State University, and University of Wyoming. Each team’s coach created two sets of soil judging materials from one representative soil profile in their region, with the following items: soil samples from each horizon, modified official series description with pertinent information removed, photos of the soil profile and local site, and other soil series descriptions for soils in the region. Student team members were tasked with completing a full soil profile description sheet given the samples and corresponding information from each of the two other universities. Such an approach can be applied beyond soil judging into undergraduate pedology courses around the US to increase student exposure to novel soils by encouraging coordinated “virtual” efforts that mitigate the funding and time constraints of travel.