As part of our rock topic, we investigated different types of soil. We collected top soil from the ton bag, clay type soil from the playground, and naturally made soil from under the trees. We labelled them 1, 2 and 3 and then began our experiments.
First we placed a spoonful of each soil on a piece of paper and recorded everything we could see.
Next we half filled a bottle with soil, topped it up with water and then gave it a very good shake. We waited for the soil to settle into layers and then recorded how much sand, silt, clay and humus (organic matter)each soil contained. We could see that the clay like soil had very little organic matter. The soil from under the tree had the most organic matter.
We wanted to know which soil was the best drainer (letting the most water through) and which was the best soaker (absorbing the most water). This experiment can let us know which soil would be best for planting our food and flowers and absorbing water during flooding.