Soil Judging Contest — Strafford County Conservation District

NH SOIL JUDGING

The NH Soil Judging Contest is a free, hands-on, educational opportunity for high school students.

The Soil Judging Contest provides students with an awareness of the common characteristics of soil, how these characteristics affect selected uses of the soil, and how some land uses may be ‘judged’ to be more useful than others based on soil features. The primary goal of this program is to provide students with a team-based educational opportunity to learn about soils and to demonstrate their understanding; the competitive aspect of the contest is secondary. The Soil Judging Contest is open to teams in grades 9 through 12, and home schooled students of comparable scholastic achievement.

Goals:

Learn about soil science and soils-based land use
Get training for the NH Envirothon
Meet Natural Resource professionals
Work as a team and independently
Get outside and get your hands dirty!

To Prepare:

Read the Soil Judging Manual. Try digging a practice soil pit for students to assess if you can. Contact us if you have any questions!

Download the Soil Judging Manual

Register for the 2024 Contest

Teachers and coaches can sign up here to participate in the 2024 NH Soil Judging Contest.

If you are interested in bringing a team, please let us know ASAP for planning purposes, even if you’re not certain you’ll be able to come or unsure of student numbers yet. Let us know with an email to: Alena@straffordccd.org.

By September 30th, you will need to know the names of the students attending, and organize them into teams of 4 (individuals may participate as well if you have an odd number), and send us this information. Last minute changes of student participants are expected and unavoidable, please just keep us updated.