Geoderma 217–218 (2014) 1–9

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Geoderma

j ourna l homepage: www.e lsev ie r .com/ locate /geoderma

The joy of teaching soil science

Alfred E. Hartemink a,⁎, Megan R. Balks b, Zueng-Sang Chen c, Patrick Drohan d, Damien J. Field e,Pavel Krasilnikov f, David J. Lowe b, Martin Rabenhorst g, Ken van Rees h, Peter Schad i, Louis A. Schipper b,Marthijn Sonneveld j, Christian Walter k

a University of Wisconsin–Madison, Department of Soil Science, FD Hole Soils Lab, 1525 Observatory Drive, Madison 53706 WI, USAb University of Waikato, Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton 3240, New Zealandc National Taiwan University, Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Taipei 10617, Taiwand The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Ecosystem Science and Management, 452 ASI Building, University Park, PA 16802-3504, USAe The University of Sydney, Department of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, 1 Central Avenue, The Australian Technology Park, NSW, Australiaf Lomonosov Moscow State University, Eurasian Center for Food Security, Leninskie Gory 1, 119991 Moscow, Russiag University of Maryland, Dept. of Environmental Science & Technology, H.J. Patterson Hall, College Park, MD 20742-5821, USAh University of Saskatchewan, Department of Soil Science, 51 Campus Dr. Saskatoon, SK S7N5A8, Canadai Lehrstuhl für Bodenkunde, Technische Universität München, D-85350 Freising-Weihenstephan, Germanyj Wageningen University, Soil Geography and Landscape Group, PO Box 47, 6700 AA Wageningen, The Netherlandsk Agrocampus Ouest, UMR 1069 SAS— Equipe MO-SOL, 65 rue de St Brieuc — CS 84215, F-35042 Rennes Cedex, France

⁎ Corresponding author.E-mail address: hartemink@wisc.edu (A.E. Hartemink)

0016-7061/$ – see front matter. Published by Elsevier B.Vhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2013.10.016

a b s t r a c t

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 14 August 2013Received in revised form 24 October 2013Accepted 27 October 2013Available online 27 November 2013

Keywords:Soil educationSoil studentsTeaching principlesPedology

The fundamental purposes of teaching are to impart knowledge, insight, and inspiration. Around the world,university teaching principles are changing as students also gain knowledge and inspiration in ways otherthan in the class room. Likewise, the soil science discipline is evolving as there is a new set of tools and techniquesavailable by which we investigate soils, and the foci are shifting toward other disciplines and changing researchquestions. In many universities, the teaching of undergraduate soil science increasingly takes place to non-soilscience majors. All these forces require some thinking about how we teach the subject and here we presentsome of our experiences and ideas of teaching soil science in different parts of the world. Some 15 examplesare presented from Australia, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand, Russia, Taiwan, The Netherlands, andthe USA. As the research is widening so is our teaching. The examples are diverse and, despite cultural and per-sonal differences, they show several trends. The cases represent vibrant and creative ways to teach soils, and theinitial focus is to create a sense of wonder about the soil and its utilitarian and scientific value.

Published by Elsevier B.V.

“There is no doubt that the world no longer holds in the highest esteemthe one-time self-evident virtues of the life of the mind, the pursuit ofunderstanding and the love of ideas” John Philip (1991)

1. Introduction

Soil science became a scientific discipline in the 19th Century whenagricultural chemists and agro-geologists combined their efforts andsoils were seen as natural bodies that ought to be studied independent-ly. In the first half of the 20th Century soil science grew rapidly andestablished some solid subdisciplines such as pedology, soil chemistry,soil biology, soil mineralogy, soil fertility and soil physics (Brevik andHartemink, 2010). Soil science is a special science and according to

.

.

Churchman (2010) there are three aspects that are unique to thestudy of soil: (i) the formation and properties of soil horizons, (ii) theoccurrence and properties of aggregates in soil, and (iii) the occurrenceand behavior of soil colloids. These aspects cross sub-discipline bound-aries so that both soil science and soils should be considered holisticallyrather than via the separate sub-disciplines through which they haveoften been studied (Churchman, 2010). Another unique aspect of soilscience is the interaction or tension between fundamental researchand its application (Bouma, 2001; Ruellan, 1997) or, as John Philipworded it “…the content of soil science is uneasily placed betweennatural science on the one hand, and the world of professional practiceon the other” (Philip, 1991).

Soil science has rapidly changed in the past decades from the days ofmajor scientific discoveries in the first half of the 20th Century to a de-cline in funding, students, research institutes and university depart-ments (Basher, 1997; Baveye et al., 2006; Mermut and Eswaran, 2001;Nachtergaele, 1990; Young, 1991). These trends have happened differ-ently in different parts of the world and at a different pace and level ofimpact. The tide has turned and for several years now there has beenan increase in the number of projects, and publications and an overall

2 A.E. Hartemink et al. / Geoderma 217–218 (2014) 1–9

increase in the demand for soil science expertise (Hartemink andMcBratney, 2008). Student numbers have also risen inmany soil sciencedepartments and universities (Hartemink et al., 2008) and a new set oftools and techniques is available and being tested to enhance scientificunderstanding of the soil (McBratney et al., 2000, 2006). A recentstudy in the UK has also shown that soil science is amongst the top 10of most wanted skills in a nationwide skill gap analysis (NERC, 2012).

The special traits of our scientific discipline require a particularway ofteaching. Five Australian soil science departments developed discipline-specific teaching principles (Field et al., 2011). These principles includethe uniqueness of the soil, fieldwork, jargon, active learning, connections,systems, communication, authentic problems, feedback, and assessment.The outcomes resulting from the application of these principles maymake graduates proficient (i) in the identification, understanding and ap-plication of the unique features of soil science, (ii) the role, context andrelationships of soil science to other disciplines and society as part of in-terrelated systems, (iii) identifying problems anddesigning relevant con-textual solutions, (iv) the ability to coordinate and function within andbetween relevant groups and effectively communicate results, and (v)enhance personal development and lifelong learning (Field et al., 2011).

The practice of teaching is evolving following technological develop-ments and enhanced insights in the way that we learn and educate(Daud et al., 2012; Kang, 2008). Given the rapid changes in our disci-pline and the teaching and learning methods, the question ariseswhether we currently deliver graduates who are equipped with theright skills and mindset for the jobs that are available (Ferris et al.,2010).Much of the teaching in soil science takes place for awide and di-verse student audience. Many of these students never intend being soilscience professionals but there is an opportunity to impress upon themthe importance of understanding soil behavior and response withintheir disclipine. Introductory soil science is often part of majors inagronomy, botany, forestry, ecology, geography, geology, and hydrology(Brevik, 2009). Such teaching requires a different approach than whenteaching soil chemistry or soil physics; but we need ideas how toteach soil science in a changing world that demands specific as well asdiverging expertise from our graduated students.

The objectives of this paper are to bring together experiences andideas from different parts of the world on the teaching of soil science.We have asked 15 authors from Australia, Canada, France, Germany,New Zealand, Russia, Taiwan, The Netherlands, and the USA to sharetheir soil science teaching experiences and in particular the relationbetween lectures, field and lab. Each author was asked to write about400–500 words about their teaching experience and in particularabout the joy that comeswith it. The information is presented alphabet-ically by author. Although the experiences are few and scattered, somesimilarities emerge and these are discussed at the end of the paper.

2. Teaching soil science around the globe

2.1. University of Waikato, New Zealand (Megan Balks)

I have had the privilege to teach introductory soil science over thelast 25 years, to a total of over 3500 first year university students, yet Itoo am still a student of soil science. My first encounters with soilscience, as a student, left me with a deep impression from the enthusi-asm of my teachers (unmatched by other lecturers that I encountered)and wonderful photographs that brought soils, and their associatedlandscapes, into the classroom. The clincher formewas the first expedi-tions into the field to see the differences between soils in closely relatedparts of the landscape and, best of all, to discover that the tactilepleasure of “playing with mud”, to assess soil textures and plasticity,was a legitimate scientific activity!

The students who arrive in my classes today generally have notenrolled to study soil science — it just happens to be part of an earthor environmental science paper that they picked up to complete theirfirst year science course requirements. Thus my challenge is to get

students to engagewith something in which they have often previouslytakenminimal interest.Whilemyfirst year lectures ultimately comprisean introduction to the language (jargon) of soil science my underlyinggoals are simple, namely to get an increasingly urban, cyber-worldoriented, group of students to understand that soils:

1. exist2. are vital to life on earth3. are not all the same and the differences matter4. are a response to the environment in which they form, and5. are fascinating in their complexity, diversity, and esthetic appeal.

I use the same techniques that I enjoyed inmy teachers: enthusiasm,pictures, and stories that bring soils alive in the classroom, along withlaboratory and field experiences that allow students to grow confidencein their ability to understand and work with soils.

The joy (and serious responsibility) of teaching soil science is to seesome students awaken to the fascination, intrinsic beauty, and impor-tance of our soil resource and go on to make soil science their life'swork. There is also joy in knowing that students who go on to otherthings are just a little more aware, and appreciative, of the rich diversityand vitality of our soil resource, and maybe just a little wiser as futurestewards of our Earth.

2.2. National Taiwan University, Taiwan (Zueng-Sang Chen)

I have been teaching soil science courses for over 25 years at theNational Taiwan University (NTU). In the 1990s, soil science studentsof NTU came from the Departments of Agricultural Chemistry,Agronomy, Horticulture, Forestry, Livestock, Agricultural Engineering,Plant Pathology, Entomology, and Agricultural Extension. The numberof students in the 1990s was about 240; now we have about 120 stu-dents and they mainly come from the Departments of AgriculturalChemistry and Agronomy, and few from Departments of Horticulture,Forestry and Plant Pathology.

Themost joyful aspect of teaching soil science is the study tour at theend of the course. During this tour students learn about the different soiltypes along a toposequence from the hilltops to the seashore, includingUltisolswith argillic horizon and plinthites, Alfisolswith argillic horizon,Entisols with very shallow depth along the river, and Entisols with verydeep sands along the seashore. About 110 undergraduate students with10 teaching assistants, taken by three buses, are divided into 10 groupsin the field. Students use a 1.5 m auger and see soil samples with differ-ent hydropedological status, soil morphologies, and soil physical andchemical characteristics. Themost exciting part is to see the groundwa-ter level existed at 120 cm depth. From the study tour experience,students can review the knowledge and management strategies duringthe soil science course and learn about our soil resources and environ-mental quality by soil functions. Students also learn about the pedogen-ic processes of different soil groups formed in the toposequence.

Other exciting and memorial elements for the undergraduatestudents are listed in their study tour report and soil museum report:

■ Soil functions of the agricultural ecosystem, especially for food safetyand environmental quality;

■ Soil formation and properties are strongly related to the airtemperatures and rainfalls;

■ The distribution of soil orders is related to the crop productivity,family income and cultural development, especially for theMollisols, Entisols, and Inceptisols;

■ Soil organic carbon stocks are strongly related to soil quality, cropproductivity and environmental quality;

■ Nutrient management technologies of the micronutrient deficien-cies in calcareous soils;

■ Phytoremediation to remove heavymetals from contaminated soils;■ Soil testing is a tool to predict the contents of bioavailable soil

nutrients and how these can be related to crop productivity.

Table 1Examples of scenarios that have been the focus of the problem-based learning atThe University of Sydney.

Rural

Crop management/irrigation – Bathurst, NSWManagement of soil carbon, Hunter Valley – Private Irrigation DistrictPipeline installation – Landholders, Orange

Urban

Urban contamination – Environmental consultingcompany

Community garden – Sydney College of the ArtsCarbon sequestration in urban areas – Local municipal council

Research

Major soil issues – 19th WCSS, 2010Community awareness of climate change/soil – UQ & QLD Government

3A.E. Hartemink et al. / Geoderma 217–218 (2014) 1–9

The senior students and graduate students in pedology are request-ed towrite a paper on the soil ordermapof a county in Taiwan. A countycontains 50 to 70 soil series (50,000 ha). Three students are grouped ina team to finish this soil mapping exercise at a scale of 1:25,000. Thestudents classify the soils and collected information on geology andlandscape, vegetation types and weather data, crops and land uses,soil morphology, soil physical and chemical properties. It is a challengefor them, and they often complain butfinally thankme for providing theopportunity to understand their soils.

The soil museum of the National Taiwan University is open forstudents of soil science to learn the soil morphology and characters ofthe major soil groups in Taiwan. This museum was opened in 2004and has more than 150 different soil monoliths from 10 soil orders.These monoliths represent some 100 major benchmark soils ofTaiwan. A national exhibition of soil monoliths and soil informationsystem is also open in the Department of Agricultural Chemistry,Taiwan Agricultural Research Institute (TARI), at Taichung City.

2.3. The Pennsylvania State University, USA (Patrick Drohan)

I think for any teacher, what drives one to teach is the accomplish-ment felt in conveying an idea that a student understands and perhapsputs into practice. However, I have found that there is another level ateacher of soil science can reach, and this in part comes from the expe-rience of teaching and the greater realization of the importance of soilscience to humanity. When I teach students about the importance ofsoil science, I try to explain it in terms of a science that not only providesunderstanding of what soil is, but also of who we are. For example, tolook at a landscape and interpret its origin from rock, plant, andhuman culture provides one with a glimpse of who we are as a species,and the decisions we have made, good and bad, which have led towhere we are at this point in world history. Perhaps this is soil sciencein its most heady sense, but this is the very reason why soil scientistsare so important today. The joy in being a teacher of soil sciencecomes from seeing a student realize this on their own work; this mo-ment can truly take your breath away. Frankly this moment can alsobe quite reflective because the student is now also aware of the extentof humanity's reach. The hope I have is that the student always remem-bers the excitement of the first discovery, and its resulting new under-standing, so that they then ask the next question, press forward, andshare this knowledge for the better of all.

2.4. The University of Sydney, Australia (Damien Field)

The joy in teaching comes from maintaining the quality of soil sci-ence. To address this, my colleagues Alex McBratney, Balwant Singh,Stephen Cattle and I have integrated a problem-based learning (PBL)course. This follows our more conventional blended learning courses,which involves a combination of fieldwork, scientific and computer lab-oratories, lectures, and on-line activities. This PBL course puts knowl-edge into practice and makes lots of linkages between pedology, soilphysics, chemistry and biology. Students join this knowledge up fromhere and there, and understand how it relates to the real-world. Theneed to be able to talk other people's languages and understand theneeds of others; it is a challenge now we ask of our students.

Industry and community involvement, i.e. a client, is essential in thisPBL course and the student teamsmust negotiate, workwith, and reportto the client. This enables students to put into practice their priorlearning and skills, and also, being given the opportunity to projectmanage and demonstrate professional protocols. This approachinvolves us working with our industry colleagues to identify a numberof ‘real-world’ scenarios for the students to choose from. Once done,student teams negotiate with their selected client, along with us asfacilitators, to determine the status of the problems and develop a con-sultation proposal for the client's approval. In the second stage, analysisof the problem involves developing sampling protocols, using field and

laboratory methods, and appropriate data analysis and interpretation.In the final stage, students report the solution to the client's problem,record the process, and justify financial expenditures. Feedback fromstudents demonstrates to us that this approach enables them to makesense of the theory and create connections and build on familiar soilscience concepts, as well as, different parts of their courses.

In keeping with the problem-based learning ethos, a diversecollection of authentic real-world problems have been employed to betackled by students, industry and community partners, and facilitatingstaff. The problems have been sourced from rural, urban and researchareas, covering a range of topics (Table 1). As evidence of the real-world nature of these problems some of the reports produced by thestudent teams have been used by the clients of the scenarios. Scenarioshave also enabled engagement directly with the international soilscience research community where students produced video documen-taries of themajor issues they identified from attending the 19thWorldCongress of Soil Science in 2010. This allowed them to gauge thesuccesses and limitations of our research and knowledge.

2.5. University of Wisconsin–Madison, USA (Alfred Hartemink)

Oneof the student assignments inmypedology classes is an essay onthe “Soils of your home area”. In this assignment students should de-scribe the soils in the area where they grew up. Of course, that couldbe in a rural, suburban or urban setting. Some students grew up in acity and may choose an area or site that has their particular interest(holiday, research site, family farm). I allow a fair a bit of freedom inthe description of the soils of their home area as long as there is a sortof scientific writing style. Sections that are to be included are: areaand location (motivation), climate and land use, geology and landforms,soils (main soil types, official series description, soil map, Soil SurveyGeographic Database — SSURGO), genesis, factors, processes, mainlimitations, and a set of conclusions. The description should not exceed10 pages includingmaps and appendices. I indicatewhere they can findinformation (e.g. libraries, soils websites, web soil survey) and to theirown observations or memory. In addition to the report, a presentationhas to be given based on the written report (ca. 5–10 min for eachstudent) and I commonly grade 80% for the report and 20% for theoral presentation.

I have done that for many years and in different countries and italways works well. Initially, students have a problem finding a site(“…I grew up in suburban Milwaukee, Port Moresby, Kigali,Amsterdam”) but in the end they always find a site from which theywant to know about the soils. It ranges from their home garden, to asite in the park, family farm, community garden, or university farm.

Fig. 1. University of Wisconsin–Madison students on a fieldtrip: multifaceted learning by traditional soil observations (soil auger, soil pit) combined with paper soil maps, and tabletsshowing DEMs and several geographic layers. On top of that: exercises and some explanation and instruction.

4 A.E. Hartemink et al. / Geoderma 217–218 (2014) 1–9

Some students borrow an auger and spade and go digging, others writea poem on their home ground as a preamble, and most find it hard tostay within the 10 pages limit. Some emphasize land use or geology,whereas others dig out the soil classification in detail. Some studentsdescribe just a garden, others take half a county or country. All in all itmildly forces students to dive into the literature, to explore what soilsthey grew up on or learn more about a particular area of interest.

Another exercise that we undertake whilst on a fieldtrip (andwe tryto go to the field as much as possible) is to let students describe the tri-angular relationship between soils–landscape–land use. In a sense it

Fig. 2.A group ofWaikato University students undertaking theirfirst soil profile description (ondominated soil science (or geoscience) classes are generally now the norm (2013). Note differ

teaches them to read the soil and the landscape. We let them use thesoil auger, paper soil maps, and tablets (iPads) that have preloadedDEMs and geographic layers to gain insight and relationships betweenthese different elements (Fig. 1). Formany students being observationaland descriptive is like learning a new language. They often do not seewhat they do know (e.g. Mn concretions, different horizons, concaveslope, rill erosion) and I teach them that the soil profile can be seen asa book, it needs reading and time to understand all that is in it. Studentsthat have learned to observe and describe meticulously tend to do welllater on in advanced soil science courses. That is a joy in itself.

an Aquandic Endoaquept). Tutor at front (in black). Note the gender balance here: female-ent soil (Aquic Hapludand) being examined by the group in the background.

5A.E. Hartemink et al. / Geoderma 217–218 (2014) 1–9

2.6. Lomonosov Moscow State University (Pavel Krasilnikov)

For me teaching soil science sensu stricto means teaching inthe field. All other classes are important indeed, but the essence ofpedology is in the study of a profile and a soilscape in the field.Hudson (1992) called it non-verbal knowledge that can be transferredonly in a “do as I do” manner. We can improve the teaching processby using remote-sensing data and various sensors that facilitate theunderstanding of a local situation, but nobody should avoid the directcontact with soil, the main object of our study. The best way is immer-sion in the landscape. I do not believe in short trips: they are touristic.One should be a very experienced field scientist to understand a newregion in a couple of days; it is not the case for the students, even withour assistance. Much deeper insight is needed.

The Faculty of Soil Science of Lomonosov Moscow State University,like some other soil departments in Russia, has a form of fieldworknamed the “zonal practice”. The zonal practice means that the studentswith their teachers travel from one natural zone to another, observingthe landscapes and soils. The advantage of the Russian Plain is that thenatural zones form a regular latitudinal gradient that has clear links tothe distribution of soils. Students can observe the vegetation and soilsof the southern taiga zone (mixed deciduous and coniferous forest),forest–steppe zone (sparse deciduous forest), steppe, dry steppe,semi-desert, and (eventually) humid subtropical zone. The field triplasts one month in Moscow University (two months in St. PetersburgUniversity that has a similar practice), and all the time the studentslive in a tent camp. They have almost a week for each climatic zone,and they stay inside a natural landscape, and describe the vegetationand make morphological descriptions of soil profiles. For most of thestudents it is an unforgettable experience.

Afterwards, when the students have other classes related topedology, it ismuch easier to explain to them the geographical distribu-tion of soils, soil classification, mapping, etc., because the teacher canaddress their practical field knowledge, and soil names are not justsounds, but are already associated with certain profiles and landscapes.For this kind of practice the crucial factor is the skill and experience ofthe teacher. Even a good professor of soil science with limited fieldexperience or not enthusiastic enough would probably fail to teach ina zonal practice. But that seems to be a common challenge in teaching.

2.7. University of Waikato, New Zealand (David Lowe)

Setting off at 8 am sharp on a pedological field trip, either in vans ora bus for larger groups, it is always quiet. Not much to be said at thistime of day by the students. During the fieldwork I try to enliven the ex-ercise by introducing students to the idea of the late Prof Francis Holewho noted that “in a sense we [humans] are unique, moist packagesof animated soil” (Hole, 1988), and I tell them about how he wouldget students to remove their shoes and walk over the land in silence,connecting with the underlying soil, whilst he played the violin. I get afew strange looks but these only-slightly-eccentric points seem to bememorable! As we head home, there is a real buzz in the bus or van,with students chatting about the soils and sites we have seen and alsotheir everyday living. It is a real pleasure for me to witness this growthin confidence and interest in soils by many of the students and,especially, to see their personalities and characters emerging. Gettingto knowmy students as they work through to graduate and postgradu-ate levels, and sharing in their triumphs and difficulties, has been veryfulfilling. That sense of achievement, both academic and personal,through mentoring has been very surprising to me because I neverthought about this aspect of soil sciencewhen starting out.My colleaguePeter Singleton refers to it as the beauty of soils—meaning both the soilsthemselves (of course) and the joy of collegiality when working withstudents, both undergrads and postgrads (Fig. 2).

In my first lecture in a course on soils in the landscape, I reallyenjoyed teaching “soils and humanity”, touching on soil degradation

and impacts on civilization, soil-related health and nutritionalproblems, and soil and culture through history. Stories from “Soils andCulture” (Landa and Feller, 2010) seem to resonate, such as geophagy(Abrahams, 2010), and the problem encompassed during SecondWorld War by the tunnellers in “The Great Escape” to dispose ofyellowish spodic-horizon material that “shone like drops of gold”on the surface horizons (Doyle et al., 2010).

2.8. University of Maryland (Martin Rabenhorst)

In a typical two year rotation, I teach four different classes in soilscience, and my goal in every course is to get the students to the field.Some of the classes are field based, but even my upper division classin Wetland Soils includes six 4-hour trips to examine soils in the field.This is my soil teaching passion. Some soil science concepts areaddressed well in the classroom, but others remain only theoreticaland remote abstractions until students encounter them in a personaland tactile way. Students can grasp the idea of soil horizons, and goodphotographs contribute a great deal, but this takes on new meaningwhen they are forced to examine a soil and actually attempt to differen-tiate horizons in a profile. Peds, aggregates and other concepts of soilstructure come to life for students when prisms, blocks and granulesare coaxed from an exposed pit face. Even the matching of soil samplestoMunsell color chips takes on awhole newmeaningwhen, rather thanusing ground and homogenized samples, students are confronted withthe challenge of matrix colors encompassed by redox depletions andconcentrations in peds from a profile. And when students stand in asoil pit only a few meters across and scan the circumferential view,and they start to notice that horizons on one face begin to change,fade or even disappear by the time they view the other face, theybegin to confront a new reality — the magnitude of complexity in thepedological world.

This indeed brings me joy and satisfaction, which is evident to mystudents, although they do not always know quite how to respond orwhat to think, as I extol the beauty of a soil profile. There is a greatdeal of knowledge and inspiration available through books and goodinstruction in the classroom, but inmy opinion there are certain aspectsof the natural world that never can be grasped from a page or even aphoto. “Ok students, prepare yourselves for the encounter. It is myprivilege and pleasure to personally introduce you to one about whomyou have thus far only read.” We now teach in a time when, becauseof economic constraints, field experiences are being excised frommany science programs and curricula. As a soil scientist and pedologist,and for the sake of students, I will always seek to take them to the field.It is my settled opinion that there is no substitute for thementoring andnurturing of observational skills as students actually confront the soil inthe wild.

2.9. University of Saskatchewan, Canada (Ken Van Rees)

For the past 10 years, I have been on a journey of how to makeexperiential learning for soil science field courses a more enrichedexperience for the students and instructors. The field experience of dig-ging soil pits, then describing and classifying the profile based onhorizon, color, texture and structure is an experience they never forget,especially when immersed in a field setting for more than a few days.But is there more to this experience that we can give to our studentsin soil science and related disciplines? Can we add a measure of playand creativity that will engage them at a different level and increase agreater connectedness to the landscape? For me this journey has in-volved the incorporation of art into my field courses. This process canoccur through a variety of mediums, at its simplest level, drawingwith charcoal, to more involved options such as painting with acrylicsand even more recently the use of soils to make pigments for painting.Interpreting soils artistically has added an extra dimension of learningand realization for students (Fig. 3). They have found it refreshing and

Fig. 3. Student from the University of Saskatchewan painting a soil-vegetation continuum with pigments made from soil.

6 A.E. Hartemink et al. / Geoderma 217–218 (2014) 1–9

fun and different than the traditional way of learning and doing science.The end result is not to obtain masterpieces, but an opportunity forstudents to express themselves, play and be creative. Regrettably,fun and creativity have in many ways been largely removed fromlearning experiences for science students. Not only have the studentsgained a different tool for interpreting what they see but I am hopingthat this merging of art and soil science will captivate them to exploreother possibilities for creativity when they leave, as well as open doorsfor other disciplines to see what soil scientists do. This journey ofusing art has forced soil science students to step outside of their comfortzone in a safe environment, hopefully allowing them to see that takingrisks can be very positive for their future career and life. This journey,however, has not only benefitted the students, but it also has givenme great joy in exploring the world of art and painting and how it canbe used in a creative way to promote soil science.

2.10. Technische Universität München (Peter Schad)

Teaching soil science starts in the lecture hall. It is unavoidable toprovide the students with facts. But from the beginning, we also haveto call for understanding, to show the students, how the characteristicsin soil are interconnected. Teaching soil processes and dynamics makesthem able to understandwhat happens andwhat has happened in a soiland, most important, what will happen if a soil is subjected to humanactions.

Teaching soil science starts in the lecture hall, but understandingsoil and the joy of teaching soil science start in the field. For beginners,we offer a series of one-day excursions showing the variety of soilsin southern Bavaria from the low mountain ranges through thePleistocene landscape to the Alps. They must see and touch the soil,learn to distinguish texture, structure, color, organic matter content,redox morphology, gravel content etc. If they detect a sandy textureand a prismatic structure in one horizon, well, that means thatsomething is wrong, and I like to see their faces when they realizethat. Traditionally, the teaching of soil science in Germany emphasizesthe understanding of soil genesis, especially if there are strata ofdifferent parent materials in one soil profile. This brings the soilinto the context of the landscape. For advanced students, we offer afour-day excursion to various places in Central Europe, every yearsomewhere else.

What is determining the success of our teaching? The enemy ofteaching success is the student's short-term memory. Unfortunately,the current exam regulations at our university support a student'sstrategy to prepare themselves for exams by hammering facts intotheir short-term memory instead of seeking a thorough understandingof the subject. We have to counteract that with the quality of ourteaching.

Public awareness on the importance of soil is still weak. Knowing therole of soil in the global carbon cycle is not common. Especially incountries which are blessed with fertile soils, many people cannotimagine that infertile soils are dominant in other parts of the worldand that they need specific care to put them into production. In countieswith a surplus of food, even agronomy students seem to ignore thepoint that soil is a limited resource that can easily be destroyed butthat it is not easily remediated. I think, it is our task to make studentsunderstand the relevance of soil, and sometimes we are successful.Last year, a student, after having passed his last exam in soil science,told me: “Your lectures totally changed my mind.”

2.11. University of Waikato, New Zealand (Louis Schipper)

At the University of Waikato, we have a 1st-year course on environ-mental science that includes introductory aspects of soil science. One ofthe labs includes soil texturing by hand and a discussion of wheredifferent soil are in the landscape and across New Zealand. Duringthese labs, I spend about 5 min showing the students 'Dorodango' thatI have made using several soils from around the North Island (Fig. 4).Dorodango is a Japanese art form where saturated soil is rolled into aball and slowly dried by hand into a sphere. Lastly, a thin outer coatingof finely sieved soil is layered on the outside before polishingwith a softcloth. The beauty of different soil layers is immediately evident tomanyof these fresh students. The shape and stability of these Dorodangocaptures their imagination and raises several questions: What sort ofsoils are these, where do they come from, why do they stay intact, andcan I make one? Some questions are easier to answer than others butby then you have started a discussion.

In the second year, I bring these Dorodango back into myintroductory soils course just before giving a lecture on soil mineralogy.Before and during the lecture, I am able to show them very differentDorodango made from soils containing allophane, iron oxides,

1:1 clay subsoil Subsoil iron oxide Allophanic topsoil

Fig. 4. Dorodango from different soils (diameter about 5 cm).

7A.E. Hartemink et al. / Geoderma 217–218 (2014) 1–9

1:1 clays and topsoils. These Dorodango start a conversation in a verydifferent way about soil and their composition and structures. Thereare videos on the internet that show how to make Dorodango.

2.12. Wageningen University, The Netherlands (Marthijn Sonneveld)

At Wageningen University, the introduction to soil science course isgiven to students from various disciplines including Soil Science,Hydrology, Spatial Planning, International Land and Water manage-ment, and Forest and Nature management. We try to emphasize thelinkage between what is observed or measured to what that meansfor soil functioning and management. Not only beautiful ‘natural’ soilprofiles are shown to learn about soil forming processes, but also soilprofiles that show the effects of degradation as a result of poormanage-ment. In subsequent lectures, almost 200 students each year aretaken to the field to learn about the relationships between geology,geomorphology, soil formation, hydrology and (historical) land use.It is a genuine privilege to train students in the field in discovering thelandscape and explaining what they see. Especially in a country liketheNetherlands, where human impact on the landscape is considerable,understanding the evolving relationships between natural patterns andprocesses and land use is important. The emphasis on the co-productivenature of our soil-landscapes provides a historical perspective on con-temporary landscapes and frames the challenges of today within thepossibilities and limitations of given soil-landscape properties. Or, inother words: we try to show that working with nature makes a lotmore sense than working against it. It is a joy when you hear a studentsay that he or she can never look out of the train window again asbefore. After various field excursions, some hidden treasures of thelandscape have then been unlocked forever.

In the book “Landscapes of the Netherlands”, Jongmans et al. (2013)recently documented and structured the geological and pedologicalknowledge gained in numerous soil surveys and experimental studies.Such an updated systematic overview, to be used for teaching, waslargely lacking, despite the fact that Dutch soil maps were alreadybeingmade for overmore than 150 years. Togetherwith the experiencegained in field excursions, students have a rich source of information onDutch soil-landscapes that may assist them in the future to make wisedecisions on land related challenges.

2.13. Agrocampus Ouest, France (Christian Walter)

At our faculty of agriculture, soil science has been taught to studentsfrom all disciplines since the beginning of the 1970s. Alain Ruellan,former president of the IUSS, was the first to introduce a specific curric-ulum on this subject when he was hired to replace geology and agricul-tural chemistry teachers. Forty years later, our soil-science team is stillinvolved in training agronomists and soil scientists, but the focus haschanged completely, since the main goal is now to conserve naturalresources while ensuring viable agricultural production.

We have developed several approaches to increase interest in thesoil and knowledge about its underlying processes, but basically, fieldtraining with a small group of students that already have basicknowledge about soil science is by far the approach that I prefer.These steps seem the most efficient. First select an unmapped complexlandscape with agricultural and natural areas and ask students to mapits soil diversity collectively under your supervision. Keep some timefor discussion with local farmers and residents. Provide access to allexisting information, use new techniques for proximal soil sensing(Fig. 5), and explore digital soil mapping approaches, but ensure thatthe basic work remains soil sampling and description in contrastingsituations. Also make sure that the final map can be tested by indepen-dent observations. I have always found this an effective way to increaseenthusiasm for soil studies, greatly improve knowledge and skills in awide range of subjects, and still remain conscious of just howincomplete our knowledge is.

3. Discussion and conclusions

In the previous section, a wide array of soil science teaching ideasand practices was shared by 15 soil scientists that collectively haveover 300 years of teaching experience in nine countries at fourcontinents. That may sound considerable but it is a snap shot of whatis going on globally and we could have easily quadrupled the numberof case studies. There are some cultural and personal aspects in whathas been presented but there are also some similarities and here weshall endeavor to synthesize the information.

Firstly, it should be noted that the cases presented here reflect agreat joy in the teaching of soil science. This may sound logical giventhat we are hired to do so, but apparently the past dwindling numberof students, reduced funding and relabeling of soil science departmentshas not affected the joy of teaching soil science. In fact, it has probablyencouraged some creativity in our teaching. Satisfaction comes fromstudents having gained understanding of the soil and, no matter howour teaching methods evolves, that will continue to motivate peopleto teach. For many of us the gap between what we research and whatwe teach is widening. Thus, the natural connection between teachingand research – the foundation of university principles – has lost someof its strength. It still exists at the graduate (MSc, PhD) education levelbut the disconnect between research and teaching is probably largestat the undergraduate level. That is where most of the innovation andcreativity are needed.

Secondly, it can be noted that a considerable part of our teachingtakes place for non-soil science majors; that is, for students fromdifferent disciplines as was also noted by Brevik (2009). For many ofthese students soil science may be a mandatory course. There arefewer agricultural students and also fewer students who have anagricultural background, which provided a natural bond between soilsand agriculture (Hartemink and Bouma, 2012; Kemper, 1970). Sincewe live in an increasing urbanized world, for many students the

Fig. 5. Students in France using the EM31 during a field class.

8 A.E. Hartemink et al. / Geoderma 217–218 (2014) 1–9

connection to the land is limited. At the same time, there is an influx ofstudents of other disciplines (e.g. environment, earth and geosciences,hydrology) to which previously little or no educational connectionexisted. These all requires extra efforts to create students' interest andengagement in the subject. In this paper, examples are shared howthat is done in different parts of the world ranging from artistic engage-ment and observational excitement to large scale mapping. In all thesecases, efforts are being made to create a sense of wonder about thesoil and its utilitarian and scientific value.

Soil scientists are now increasingly linked to other scientific disci-plines and less to the agriculture discipline per se (Havlin et al., 2010),and they play a role not only in thematic issues around food production,water quality, biodiversity loss, bioenergy generation, climate change,and human health (Janzen et al., 2011; McBratney et al., 2013) butalso in forensics (e.g. Fitzpatrick et al., 2012). Whilst much of our ad-vanced teaching is disciplinary, a considerable part of our research ismultidisciplinary (Bouma, 2010). Finding the balance between educat-ing competent and creative soil scientists who also have deep under-standing of the applications of knowledge is a challenging task for allsoil science educators.

The pattern emerging from the presented case studies is that theinitial attention is geared towards creating interest, and this is followedby courses that deepen the knowledge. Such deepening could beundertaken through problem-based learning as the case study of TheUniversity of Sydney showed. Teaching methods rapidly evolve withblended learning models and online efforts gaining ground. Theexamples given show that a field component remains vital in ourteaching — both in the beginning and advanced courses. Studentsstrongly favor the field component of our discipline, and also like thebigger picture and the role of soils in global issues including climatechange, food production, or environmental risk management whereasmany students also fancy advanced technologies by which we observeor map soils. Our teaching has to deepen the students' knowledge ofthe soil whilst at the same time should aim to help guarantee thatsuch knowledge is of use for current and future jobs. A recent surveyin the USA showed that most job opportunities for students with a de-gree or background in soil science include environmental sciencefollowed by landmanagement, soil science, agronomy, and engineering(Havlin et al., 2010). The UK study showed that there is a specific needfor soil scientists who have expertise in soil carbon monitoring and

modeling, soil system functions, or impact of land use on soils (NERC,2012). This seem to suggest that there is a need for soil science special-ists with a broad set of skills — preparing those is a joyous job for usteachers of soil science.

Acknowledgments

We are thankful to two anonymous reviewers for their promptreview and suggestions to improve this paper.

References

Abrahams, P.W., 2010. “Earth eaters”: ancient and modern perspectives on humangeophagy. In: Landa, E.R., Feller, C. (Eds.), Soil and Culture. Springer, Dordrecht,pp. 369–398.

Basher, R., 1997. Is pedology dead and buried? Aust. J. Soil Res. 35, 979–994.Baveye, P., Jacobson, A.R., Allaire, S.E., Tandarich, J.P., Bryant, R.B., 2006. Whither goes soil

science in the United States and Canada? Soil Sci. 171, 501–518.Bouma, J., 2001. The new role of soil science in a network society. Soil Sci. 166, 874–879.Bouma, J., 2010. Implications of the knowledge paradox for soil science. Adv. Agron. 106

(106), 143–171.Brevik, E.C., 2009. The teaching of soil science in geology, geography, environmental

science, and agricultural programs. Soil Surv. Horiz. 50, 120–123.Brevik, E.C., Hartemink, A.E., 2010. Early soil knowledge and the birth and development of

soil science. Catena 83, 23–33.Churchman, G.J., 2010. The philosophical status of soil science. Geoderma 157, 214–221.Daud, A.M., Omar, J., Turiman, P., Osman, K., 2012. Creativity in science education.

Procedia Soc. Behav. Sci. 59, 467–474.Doyle, P., Babits, L., Pringle, J., 2010. Yellow sands and penguins: the soil of “The Great

Escape”. In: Landa, E.R., Feller, C. (Eds.), Soil and Culture. Springer, Dordrecht,pp. 417–429.

Ferris, D.R., Hattey, J.A., Mullen, M.D., 2010. Growing the soil science profession throughinvestment, vestment, and validation. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 74, 453–460.

Field, D.J., Koppi, A.J., Jarrett, L.E., Abbott, L.K., Cattle, S.R., Grant, C.D., McBratney, A.B.,Menzies, N.W., Weatherley, A.J., 2011. Soil science teaching principles. Geoderma167–68, 9–14.

Fitzpatrick, R., Raven, M., Self, P., 2012. Using forensics to inspire the next generation ofregolith, soil and clay scientists. In: Churchman, G.J., Cresswell, R., Singh, B. (Eds.),Proceedings, Combined Australian Regolith Geoscientists Association and AustralianClay Minerals Society Conference, Mildura (Victoria, Australia), 7–9 February 2012,pp. 25–28.

Hartemink, A.E., Bouma, J., 2012. Reconnecting soils and agriculture. Outlook Agr. 41,225–227.

Hartemink, A.E., McBratney, A., 2008. A soil science renaissance. Geoderma 148, 123–129.Hartemink, A.E., McBratney, A., Minasny, B., 2008. Trends in soil science education:

Looking beyond the number of students. J. Soil Water Conserv. 63, 76–83.Havlin, J., Balster, N., Chapman, S., Ferris, D., Thompson, T., Smith, T., 2010. Trends in soil

science education and employment. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 74, 1429–1432.Hole, F.D., 1988. The pleasures of soil watching. Orion Nat. Q. (Spring, 6 pp.).

9A.E. Hartemink et al. / Geoderma 217–218 (2014) 1–9

Hudson, B.D., 1992. Soil survey as a paradigm-based science. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 56,836–841.

Janzen, H.H., Fixen, P.E., Franzluebbers, A.J., Hattey, J., Izaurralde, R.C., Ketterings, Q.M.,Lobb, D.A., Schlesinger, W.H., 2011. Global prospects rooted in soil science. Soil Sci.Soc. Am. J. 75, 1–8.

Jongmans, A.G., Van den Berg, M.W., Sonneveld, M.P.W., Peek, G.W.C., Van den Bergvan Saparoea, R., 2013. De landschappen van Nederland; Geologie, Bodem enLandgebruik. Wageningen Academic Publisher, Wageningen.

Kang, N.-H., 2008. Learning to teach science: personal epistemologies, teaching goals,and practices of teaching. Teach. Teach. Educ. 24, 478–498.

Kemper, W.D., 1970. Environment and its role in the development of a scientist. Soil Sci.Soc. Am. Proc. 34, 365–368.

Landa, E.R., Feller, C. (Eds.), 2010. Soil and Culture. Springer, Dordrecht (524 pp.).McBratney, A.B., Odeh, I.O.A., Bishop, T.F.A., Dunbar, M.S., Shatar, T.M., 2000. An overview

of pedometric techniques for use in soil survey. Geoderma 97, 293–327.

McBratney, A.B., Minasny, B., Rossel, R.V., 2006. Spectral soil analysis and inferencesystems: a powerful combination for solving the soil data crisis. Geoderma 136,272–278.

McBratney, A.B., Field, D.J., Koch, A., 2013. The dimensions of soil security. Geoderma 213,203–213.

Mermut, A.R., Eswaran, H., 2001. Some major developments in soil science since themid-1960s. Geoderma 100, 403–426.

Nachtergaele, F.O., 1990. Soil surveyors: an endangered species. Soil Surv. Horiz. 31, 83–84.NERC, 2012. Most Wanted Postgraduate and Professional Skill Needed in the

Environment Sector. National Environment Research Council, Swindon, UK.Philip, J.R., 1991. Soils, natural science, and models. Soil Sci. 151, 91–98.Ruellan, A., 1997. Some reflections on the scientific basis of soil science. Eurasian Soil Sci.

30, 347–349.Young, A., 1991. Soil monitoring: a basic task for soil survey organizations. Soil Use

Manag. 7, 126–130.