Joan Cartan-Hansen, Host:
There's a lot more to the study

of dirt than just looking
at soil.

It's a job for soil scientists.

But you might be surprised just
who a soil scientist might be.

[MUSIC]
Cartan-Hansen: You don't have to

wait until you're in college to
learn how to become a soil

scientist.

These Kuna High School students
are about to show off their soil

scientist skills.

They're competing in the Idaho
State Land and Soil Evaluation

Career Development Event
contest.

Hal Swenson, NRCS State Soil
Scientist: Kids here today are

involved in a contest of judging
soil and land to help to

determine its best use and to
help determine whether the land

is suitable for agriculture or
how suitable, what kind of crops

and tillage should be here.

We also have two sites that they
judge for a home site to

determine the suitability for
building a home with the

appropriate structures that go
with that.

Cartan-Hansen: In the
competition, the teams of five

people investigate each of six
pits dug into the ground.

They examine the soil by looking
at the soil horizon.

The layers of topsoil and
sub-soil.

Dina Hopson, Kuna High School
Student: I go through, and I'm

checking for the erosion loss.

So I take my soil-picking tool
and you pick through the dirt

until you get where there's a
change in how you feel it or

what's going on.

Cartan-Hansen: They also
classify the soil by doing

something called texturing.

Jeremiah Hellewell, Kuna High
School Student: We grab the

soil.

We're trying to find what the
different sizes are.

And so there's sand, which is
the largest and then silt, which

is the middle one and then clay.

Usually you want a silt because
it's not too big and not too

small.

And so what we do is we get it
wet because you can't really

tell because sometimes the clay
will like build up with each

other and they stick together a
lot, so you have to break it

down using the water.

And then for sands, it will be
gritty and for silt, it will be

smooth and clay will stick
together a lot, so it will be

hard to move around and it will
stick together really well and

that's how we can tell the
difference.

Cartan-Hansen: The students also
determine the slope of the land,

the angle at which the land
falls or climbs.

Knowing the slope helps
determine water runoff and

whether the soils are vulnerable
to erosion.

That's important to know,
especially if you are picking a

place to build a house.

Hellewell: And then the other
things that we do is, they give

us numbers on a placard, which
is a board with a bunch of

information on it, and they are
nutrients that are found in

fertilizers, and they tell you
how much is in the soil.

And so then knowing whether or
not the soil on a PH scale is

below 7 or above 7, you can
determine what types of

nutrients you need, and so they
tell us that how many nutrients

there are and we determine
whether we need to add more or

not.

Swenson: Most of these kids come
from an agricultural background,

so they're interested in
learning this to help them maybe

go back to run their own
operation at some time.

The kids that don't do that,
they're learning about how to

judge a site for suitability for
a home.

Cartan-Hansen: The students mark
all the required information

down for each pit on their own
sheets.

It takes real skill to be able
to answer all the questions and

students from all over the state
compete.

Each team member's sheets are
scored, combined and the top two

scoring teams will go on to
represent Idaho in the national

competition.

Hopson: Yeah, I think it's a
good learning experience.

You get to go out and meet new
people, and you get to

experience things you wouldn't
normally experience.

Hellewell: I'm doing this
because we have a class for it,

but also to gain more knowledge
about agriculture and other

things so that way I can
potentially do things on my own

instead of hiring someone to do
it and also possibly pursuing a

profession in agriculture.

Cartan-Hansen: The team from
Kuna didn't win today's

competition, but they did learn
something important.

Hopson: It's not just dirt.

There's more to it.

Cartan-Hansen: If you want to
learn more about soil, check out

the science trek website.

You'll find it at science trek
dot org.

[MUSIC]
ANNOUNCER: Presentation of

Science Trek on Idaho Public
Television is made possible

through the generous support of
the Laura Moore Cunningham

Foundation, committed to
fulfilling the Moore and Bettis

family legacy of building the
great state of Idaho.

By the Idaho National
Laboratory, mentoring talent and

finding solutions for energy and
security challenges, by The

Friends of Idaho Public
Television and by the

Corporation for Public
Broadcasting.