On completion of this module, students should understand the nature of soil, its constituents and how they are organised, the main terms used to describe soil, and the major physical and chemical processes that have occurred during its formation and continue today. Students will have been introduced to the role of soils in productive agriculture and other land management systems, and the contribution of soil management to sustainable production systems. Practical skills in observing soil materials, and in describing them from a constrained technical vocabulary will have been gained.

Pedology: how soils are observed and described.
Soil components: mineral material, organic material, soil water, soil air, and pores, roots and soil organisms.
Soil formation, classification and survey.
Soil chemistry and fertility.
Soil husbandry for agronomic and environmental objectives.

Since a chemistry module is a prerequisite for this course, students are expected to be familiar with the requirements of safe practice in a laboratory environment, the need for compliance with use of personal protective equipment (lab coats and protective eye wear), and handling of glassware with hazardous substances.

• Group/class feedback, post-assessment
• Online automated feedback

During 10 hours of practicals, students have opportunities to discuss the practicals and broader topics with staff. Automated feedback is given, with individual feedback for both correct and incorrect answers, for formative multiple-choice quizzes in Brightspace. A grading guide will be given following grading of each practical, showing example answers, and the range of possible answers, on each task in the practical answer-sheets.