Developing Middle School Youth’s Understanding of Soil Health through Supplementary Activities and the USDA “Soil Your Undies” Challenge
| dc.contributor.author | Dyer, Meagan | en |
| dc.contributor.committeechair | Scherer, Hannah | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Bendfeldt, Eric | en |
| dc.contributor.committeemember | Milliken, Brett | en |
| dc.contributor.department | Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-12-09T16:02:08Z | en |
| dc.date.available | 2024-12-09T16:02:08Z | en |
| dc.date.issued | 2024-11-15 | en |
| dc.description.abstract | Soil is a critical natural resource that impacts life as crops, livestock, water systems, and ecosystems all rely on it. While conducting a gardening program with a group of youth at a middle school 4-H after school program, the USDA Soil Your Undies Challenge was utilized to teach basic soil science concepts. The Soil Your Undies Challenge requires a pair of cotton underwear to be buried for a minimum of eight weeks. Students are unable to observe the experiment during these eight weeks. Because of this, a need for prolonged student engagement was identified and six weekly soil science lessons were developed. The lessons were developed using the Experiential Learning Theory. Students participated in a 40-minute soil science lesson once a week for eight weeks. The participants were youth in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade at a middle school after-school program. Data was collected to evaluate the effectiveness of the weekly soil science lessons created to supplement the USDA’s Soil Your Undies Challenge. Students took a pretest before the first activity and a posttest following the final lesson. Short free response exit surveys following each lesson and educator observations helped document the students’ learning and engagement. There were nine youth who attended at least 50% of the weekly programs and they on average increased their knowledge of soil science by 80% when comparing pre and post test scores. Based on findings from the data, the lessons have been revised and are ready to be piloted with other 4-H programs. | en |
| dc.description.degree | MALS | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10919/123758 | en |
| dc.language.iso | en | en |
| dc.publisher | Virginia Tech | en |
| dc.rights | Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International | en |
| dc.rights.uri | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/ | en |
| dc.subject | Soil | en |
| dc.subject | Soil Science | en |
| dc.subject | Middle School Education | en |
| dc.subject | Experiential Learning | en |
| dc.subject | 4-H | en |
| dc.title | Developing Middle School Youth’s Understanding of Soil Health through Supplementary Activities and the USDA “Soil Your Undies” Challenge | en |
| dc.type | Master's project | en |
| dc.type.dcmitype | Text | en |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Education | en |
| thesis.degree.grantor | Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University | en |
| thesis.degree.level | masters | en |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Agricultural and Life Sciences | en |