Dunedin Soils

Written by Jessica Murphy

On Thursday we were in the science lab learning about soils. We learned about the five factors that influence soil form: parent material (what it starts from), climate/weather, living organisms and topography (where it is located).

We looked at soils from 3 different places. We had a look at soil taken from Tahuna,Taieri Planes And Kettle Park. 

Did you know that Kettle Park use to be a landfill? 

We had turns at going up and having a look at the soils. We got to touch them and feels if they were wet or dry and record our observations.

Some people described Tahuna soil as dark, more packed together and dense. For Taieri it was wet, bumpy and thick. And finally Kettle Park was very sandy, dry and a little rocky.

Now we have put the soils in our classroom and are going to see which soils are able to grow plants and which are not.

I learned about what you can find in soil such as worms, rocks and lots of living things. We learned about Contaminants like the things in the Kettle Park soil.

Here are some pictures of our plants that we have planted in each soil.