Highlights of this course include: Major biological, chemical and physical components of the agricultural systems The scientific basis for understanding these systems and their management How has science influenced policies related to agriculture, food safety and environment in the United States? How have the policies evolved over time in the US? What has worked and what has not; what are the reasons and what are the consequences? Beyond science, what other factors influence policies? How do we link what we learn to ecological agriculture? How do we use what we learn for policy analysis?

This is a laboratory course supplemented by lectures that focus on selected analytical facilities that are commonly used to determine the mineralogy, elemental abundance and isotopic ratios of Sr and Pb in rocks, soils, sediments and water.

This USGS Canyonlands Research Station site features a series of web pages focusing on biological soil crusts. Biological soil crusts are the community of organisms living at the surface of desert soils. The site provides a menu of links to biological soil crust pages including Crusts 101: an introduction to biological soil crusts, an advanced page with a downloadable 90-page report on soil crusts, a gallery of biological soil crust images and figures, references, the Canyon Country Ecosystems Research Site (CCERS), and other related links.

This activity is a field investigation where students find out what makes up soil.

This activity is a field investigation where students find out what makes up soil.

The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to the basic elements of our Earth's crust: rocks, soils and minerals. They learn how we categorize rocks, soils and minerals and how they are literally the foundation for our civilization. Students also explore how engineers use rocks, soils and minerals to create the buildings, roads, vehicles, electronics, chemicals, and other objects we use to enhance our lives.

The purpose of this activity is to demonstrate the importance of rocks, soils and minerals in engineering and how using the right material for the right job is important. The students build three different sand castles and test them for strength and resistance to weathering. Then, they discuss how the buildings are different and what engineers need to think about when using rocks, soils and minerals for construction.

Each of the lessons in this program is interdisciplinary, designed to introduce students to plant science and increase their understanding of how foods grow. Activities enhance student's math, science, language arts, social studies, music and art. You have many options in this program. Choose any or all of the suggested activities for your class. Many activities are for students to work independently and some are for group work.

Students observe the decomposition of a pumpkin under controlled circumstances. These observations are used to take notes and develop questions.

This is a field investigation where students will explore and observe sediments within a local gravel pit and from their observation create an investigation that will help to determine the nature of the sediments.

The purpose of this resource is to develop an understanding of how water flows through different soils and how it is transformed when it flows through these soils. Students time the flow of water through different soils and observe the amount of water held and also the filtering ability of the soils. They will also observe the filtering ability of soils by noting the clarity of the water before and after it passes through the soil.

This booklet contains several activities that can be used by students to become more aware of how plants, animals, and humans interact within ecosystems, and how one influences the other. The activities can be used singly with other projects, but completion of all activities should give students an understanding of how ecosystems work and how all aspects of an ecosystem are interrelated.

" This course is a client-based land analysis and site planning project. The primary focus of the course changes from year to year. This year the focus is on Japan's New Towns. Students will review land inventory, analysis, and planning of sites and the infrastructure systems that serve them. They will also examine spatial organization of uses, parcelization, design of roadways, grading, utility systems, stormwater runoff, parking, traffic and off-site impacts, as well as landscaping. Lectures will cover analytical techniques and examples of good site-planning practice. Requirements include a series of Assignments and Labs and a client-based project."

This Guide is designed for soil survey, vegetation, and ecological site or unit inventory work in order to help soil scientists and other inventory specialists collect interpretable data about soil change within the human time scale. This Guide describes a sampling system to measure dynamic soil properties for all major land uses (except urban lands where the land and soil have been significantly reshaped). The Guide includes instructions for project planning, field execution, and data analysis and storage. Procedures for gathering general management history on croplands and vegetation data on other lands are included to verify and validate the management regime or plant community where dynamic soil property data are collected. Vegetation data are also collected to provide context for interpreting dynamic soil properties and contribute to the interpretation of soil-plant-hydrologic interactions.