Section 1
Soil Sustains Life on Earth
Soil supports plant growth, purifies water, provides homes for organisms, and recycles nutrients through decomposition. Almost everything we eat and many products we use depend on healthy soil.
In this Grade 6 Earth Science lesson from Chapter 4, students explore why soil is a necessary resource and examine how land-use practices such as farming, overgrazing, construction, and mining contribute to soil loss and desertification. Students learn how fertilizers, erosion, and the removal of plant cover degrade soil quality, and they investigate methods people use to conserve soil. The lesson connects directly to the chapter's broader focus on weathering and soil formation, building on students' prior knowledge of soil horizons and organic matter.
Section 1
Soil Sustains Life on Earth
Soil supports plant growth, purifies water, provides homes for organisms, and recycles nutrients through decomposition. Almost everything we eat and many products we use depend on healthy soil.
Section 2
Human Activities Damage Soil Resources
Farming, construction, and mining remove protective plant cover, allowing wind and water to carry soil away. These activities can also pollute soil and lead to desertification in dry regions.
Section 3
Farmers Implement Conservation Methods
Farmers protect soil through crop rotation to maintain fertility, conservation tillage to reduce disturbance, terracing to prevent runoff on hillsides, and contour plowing to channel water safely.
Section 4
Earth Maintains Limited Fertile Soil
Only a tiny fraction of Earth's surface contains fertile soil suitable for growing crops. This vital resource takes hundreds of thousands of years to form but can be lost quickly.
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Section 1
Soil Sustains Life on Earth
Soil supports plant growth, purifies water, provides homes for organisms, and recycles nutrients through decomposition. Almost everything we eat and many products we use depend on healthy soil.
Section 2
Human Activities Damage Soil Resources
Farming, construction, and mining remove protective plant cover, allowing wind and water to carry soil away. These activities can also pollute soil and lead to desertification in dry regions.
Section 3
Farmers Implement Conservation Methods
Farmers protect soil through crop rotation to maintain fertility, conservation tillage to reduce disturbance, terracing to prevent runoff on hillsides, and contour plowing to channel water safely.
Section 4
Earth Maintains Limited Fertile Soil
Only a tiny fraction of Earth's surface contains fertile soil suitable for growing crops. This vital resource takes hundreds of thousands of years to form but can be lost quickly.
Book overview
Jump across lessons in the current chapter without opening the full course modal.
Continue this chapter