Reference no: EM133876119

Assignment:

In this activity, you will examine soil composition. Place one cup of your soil sample in a glass. Slowly add water to the glass until the water comes to the top. Stir the soil and water thoroughly.

let the glass stand for an hour, and then observe the soil. What do you notice? Record your observations. Dump the soil and water from the first experiment into a small bucket. Rinse the glass, and get out a second glass. In this experiment, you will test the acidity of the soil. Pour ½ cup of soil into each glass. Slowly pour vinegar onto the soil in one glass, stopping when the glass is full. Slowly pour the baking soda solution onto the soil in the other glass until that glass is full. Record any reaction you see. If there is no reaction, write that down. It's time to save your soil and clean the glasses for the next experiment. Working over the sink, carefully pour the contents of one glass into a fine mesh strainer or a colander lined with a large paper coffee filter. Rinse the soil under running water, and then dump the damp soil into the small bucket with the soil from the earlier experiment. Repeat with the soil in the other glass.

You will now test the porosity (the space between the particles) of the soil. You'll compare the porosity of the soil with the porosity of sand and pebbles by measuring how much water fits in a glass with the same amount of each material. Note that the sand will be made up of a combination of fine and coarse sand particles. All of the pebbles, on the other hand, will be of roughly equal sizes.

Set three identical glasses on the counter or table. Put the half cup of sand in one glass, the half cup of pebbles in the second glass, and a half cup of your soil sample in the third glass.

Make a prediction about how much water can fit in each glass. Which sample will hold the most water? Write down your predictions on the porosity of all three samples.