T E
A C H E R ’ S
N O T E S
Focus:
Students explore soil: how it is
made, what it is made of, and how different
soils sustain life. Students will also learn
that soil is important for many living things,
and that living things, including humans,
interact with soil and can cause positive or
negative changes in soil.
Learning Goals:
Students will have opportunities to learn
• how to correctly use the terms humus,
lichen, soil, weathering, clay, grain,
nutrient, organic matter, sand, silt,
bacteria, burrow, fungi, erosion, landslide,
mudslide, landfill, mineral, pesticide, toxic
• that there are many different kinds of soil
• that water is an important part of soil
• that many things live in soil and use soil to live
• how soil erodes and what happens when people
move soil
• how mudslides and landslides occur
• how people help and harm soil
Discussion Prompts:
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
• What is soil made of?
• How is soil created?
• What different kinds of soil are there?
• How does soil help plants, animals, and people?
• What happens when soil erodes? What are the
effects of erosion?
• How can people help to preserve soil and keep it
free of pollution?
Assessment Prompts:
• Do students demonstrate, in their discussions and
answers to questions, understanding of the science
vocabulary used in the cards for this unit?
• Are students able to carry out the skills of scientific
inquiry, following activity safety procedure steps
safely and accurately and making observations
when appropriate?
• Assess students’ responses during discussions.
- Do students understand that soil is made from
rock?
- Do they understand that soils have varied colour
and compositions and that this helps us to sort
soils into different types?
- Do they know that many plants and animals live
in soil and use soil to survive?
- Can students explain how soil is important in
their daily life?
- Can students identify and explain how people can
help or hurt soil?
- Can students suggest ways to preserve soil in their
own school community or home?
Links to PCSP Student Book Down Under:
Card 1: see lessons 1 and 3
Card 2: see lessons 2, 3, and 7-9
Card 3: see lessons 5, 6, and 12
Card 4: see lessons 11 and 13
Card 5: see lessons 4, 10, 13, and 14
Focus:
Students explore how rocks become soil
and what can grow on rocks.
Activity Description: A new screen called “Break it Up!” allows the students
to click on each picture to answer the Think question.
Learning Goal: Students clarify their understanding of different factors that
make cracks in rocks to create soil. (Water, wind).
Ask Students: How do rocks become soil?
Assessment: Do students understand the environmental factors that break
down rocks to create soil?
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Activity Description: A new screen called “Hidden
Layers” appears. The text answers the Think question.
Students click on the “continue” button to click on each
layer and learn more about its composition. After clicking
the orange button, students can test their knowledge in a
timed task in which they click and drag the labels to the
correct layer.
Introduce students
to the topic with
the video of a
person walking
over a rocky
surface. Discuss
the video and
any comments or
questions students
may have.
Activity Description: A new screen called “Rock to
Rock” explains the Think question in graphic form. The
students click on the orange icon to do a timed activity,
dragging and dropping the pictures into the labels of the
same graphic from the previous screen.
Learning Goal: Students clarify their understanding
of the process of lava eventually turning into soil.
Learning Goal: Students discover the different layers of
soil.
Ask Students: What happens in each part of the
process?
Ask Students: What are the layers of soil and what is
unique about each one?
Assessment: Are students able to name each part of
this process and explain how it happens? Can students
draw a simple graphic explaining this process?
Assessment: Are students able to place the soil labels
correctly and explain what makes each layer unique?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
2
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Activity Description: A new screen called “Soil Shake” shows a labelled photograph of garden soil and its
contents in a jar of water. When students click “continue”, the picture of forest soil is compared to garden soil and
answers the Think question.
Learning Goal: Students understand that soil from two distinct areas has unique characteristics.
Ask Students: How are these two soil samples the same and different?
Assessment: Can students explain/draw their observations and conclusions about the two types of soil?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
3
Focus:
Students explore what sorts of
soils there are and how water changes soil.
Introduce students
to the topic with the
video of the plow.
Discuss the video
and any comments
or questions students
may have.
Activity Description: The
screen “A Soil Map” answers the
Think question. The orange icon
allows the students to click on
different colours on the map of
Canada to learn about different
types of soil.
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Learning Goal: Students
discover that different types of
soil are found in different areas of
Canada.
Ask Students: What are the
different types of soil found? Can
you explain why the soil might
be different in different areas of
Canada?
Assessment: Are students able
to discuss and understand why the
soil is unique in different parts of
Canada?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
Activity Description: In
the new screen that appears,
the Think question is answered.
Students drag and drop pictures
of plants into a wheelbarrow
where they are sorted into
“sandy” or “clay” soil to show
the best soil type for optimum
growing conditions.
Learning Goal: Students
understand that plants need the
proper type of soil to grow.
Ask Students: Why do
plants need different kinds of
soil?
Assessment: Are students
able to describe a plant that
needs a unique type of soil for
best growing conditions and
explain why?
Activity Description: In the
new screen that appears, the Think
question is answered. Students click
“continue” and then click on each
soil picture to learn more about the
characteristics of clay, sand, and
silt. The last orange icon leads the
students to the screen “Water on the
Move”. By clicking the orange “Start”
icon, students can see how water
moves through each kind of soil.
Learning Goal: Students enhance
their understanding of how water
moves through the different types of
soil.
Ask Students: How is each type of
soil different?
Assessment: Are students able
to describe how water goes through
each soil type differently?
4
Activity Description: On the page “Soil by Numbers,” the Think question is answered.
Students click on the orange icon and can click on each soil type and try to match the colourcoded sand, silt, and clay in each test tube to the composition of the soil chosen.
Learning Goal: Students will extend their understanding of the variation in composition in
different types of soil.
Ask Students: Can you describe what makes each type of soil different?
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Assessment: Are students able to determine the possible composition of a sample of soil
through investigation and observation?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
5
Focus:
Students explore how seeds
grow and how plants make seeds.
Introduce students to the
topic with the video that
shows a potato tuber.
Discuss the video and any
comments or questions
students may have.
Activity Description: A new
screen called “Nature’s Recyclers”
appears. The text answers the Think
question. Students click “continue”
to do a timed activity where they
drag and drop the pictures into the
correct position of The Nutrient Cycle
graphic. Students click “continue” to
reach a screen called “Soil Science,”
which explains how nitrogen cycles
between living things and soil.
Students can click on each number of
the picture to learn more about the
process.
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Learning Goal: Students explore
how living things and soil are
connected.
Ask Students: How are living
things and soil connected?
Assessment: Are students able
to draw a labelled diagram of the
nitrogen cycle to demonstrate their
understanding of this connection?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
Activity Description: A
new screen called “Soil and
Animals” answers the Think
question. Students click the
orange icon to do a timed
activity where they can drag
and drop animals into the
area where they live—above
ground, or below ground.
This is a self-checking
activity.
Learning Goal: Students
discover how animals use soil
to live.
Ask Students: How do
animals use soil to live?
Assessment: Are students
able to describe an animal
that lives above ground and
an animal that lives under the
soil?
Activity Description: A new
screen called “A Soil Trap” answers
the Think question. Students click
on the orange icon to discover
how prairie dogs use soil in their
burrows. After clicking “continue”,
students can click on the blue dots
to discover how the water-holding
frog uses soil and demonstrates a
further example of an animal that
lives underground. The next screen
answers the Think question by
showing how the platypus uses soil
to nest.
Learning Goal: Students
explore other animals that use soil.
Ask Students: How do animals
use soil for their homes?
Assessment: Are students able
to describe/draw several examples
of how animals use soil for their
homes?
6
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Activity Description: The screen “Moulding Mud” answers the Think question. Students click on the
orange icon to drop the correct label of nest type onto the bird it belongs to in a timed activity. After the
self-checking is complete, students click “continue” to learn more about the nest of each bird from the
previous screen.
Learning Goal: Students discover other birds that use mud to make their nests.
Ask Students: How do birds use mud to make their nests?
Assessment: Can students give several example of how mud is used to make a nest in different ways?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
7
Focus:
Students explore how we use plants
for food and other important uses.
Activity Description: A new screen called “Water Overflow” appears. The
text in all of these screens answers the Think question. Students click on the
orange icon for information on droughts and dust clouds.
Learning Goal: Students will understand how floods and droughts affect soil.
Ask Students: How do floods and droughts change/move soil?
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Assessment: Are students able to describe/draw how floods and droughts
affect soil?
Introduce students to
the topic with the video
that shows the wind
causing rocks and soil
to fall down a cliff.
Activity Description: Students are to drag the sentences
to the correct part of the picture to answer the Think question.
This timed activity is self-checking.
Activity Description:
A new screen called “Soil
Shifters” appears. Clicking
on the pictures answers the
Think question. Students
can then continue to click
on the orange icon to play
a timed word scramble
activity. Students drag the
letters to the correct place
to unscramble the words
based on the clues given,
then click on “continue” to unscramble all
of the words. This activity is self-checking.
Learning Goal: Students will explore what happens to soil
when trees are destroyed.
Learning Goal: Students will review
the factors that move soil.
Ask Students: How does erosion happen when trees are
cut down?
Ask Students: What are some of the
things that affect soil?
Assessment: Do students understand how trees and soil
work together? Can students describe or make a labelled
diagram of how erosion occurs from tree destruction?
Assessment: Are students able to give
several examples of how soil is affected by
wind? Water? Weather?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
8
Activity Description: Students click on pictures to learn more about mudslides and
landslides. Each article is written in newspaper format.
Learning Goal: Students will extend their understanding of environmental factors
affecting soil.
Ask Students: How do these factors move/change soil?
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Assessment: Are students able to explain/draw and label several examples of how
soil is affected by environmental factors (flood, drought, wind, weather, and shifts in
movement)?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
9
Focus:
Students explore how humans
harm and help soil.
Activity Description: A new screen called “Destroying Dirt”
appears. Students can click on the photos to learn more and answer
the Think question. Students can then click on the orange icon and
drag and drop pictures into categories (soil pollution or air pollution)
in this timed, self-checking activity.
Learning Goal: Students will investigate what happens when
forests are destroyed.
Ask Students: What are examples of soil and air pollution? Ask
the students to describe/draw several examples.
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Assessment: Do students understand how soil and air pollution
are created? Can they make the connection to human actions?
Introduce students to
the topic with the video
of a girl planting a tree.
Discuss the video and any
comments or questions
students may have.
Activity Description: A new screen called “Soil Supplies” appears. The text answers the Think
question. Students can then continue to click on the orange icon to sort pictures by dragging and dropping
them into “good for compost/not good for compost” containers.
Learning Goal: Students review what can be composted to help make rich soil.
Ask Students: What items can be used as compost to help to make rich soil?
Assessment: Are students able to explain what items might be good compost material and why?
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
10
© Scholastic Canada Ltd., 2010
Activity Description: A new screen called “Helping Soil” appears. Students click on pairs of items in this
self-correcting, timed activity to show what helps/hurts soil and water. Students can then click “continue” to
reach the screen that answers the Think question and explains how the pairs in the previous activity help and
hurt soil.
Learning Goal: Students will explore how human activities can both help and hurt soil and water.
Ask Students: How do humans help and hurt soil and water?
Assessment: Can students do anything to help soil in their environment? Ask them to create a sign/poster
to teach others about how to preserve our soil and water.
PCSP Interactive Science Teacher’s Notes
11