Soils Animated: A Tool to Leverage Teaching and Learning in Soil Science

The objective is to develop an integrated teaching and learning tool (Soils Animated) for SOIL 200 – Introduction to Soil Science course. The proposed tool will include a set of unique teaching materials that will enhance the connectivity of course topics and allow an in-class presentation style that effectively integrates visual, audio, and test material. Specifically, the project will build upon the current SOIL 200 lecture material (PowerPoint presentations and notes) and the SoilWeb teaching tool. Developed during 2003/2004 by TLEF funding acquire material including (1) written course resource material, i.e. a booklet, (2) concept maps for each lecture, and (3) visual presentations for each of these concept maps using images, text, illustrations, and animations. This will allow the instructor to move away from a traditional, linear presentation model as dictated by software such as Power Point.

Rationale: Material covered in SOIL 200 is extremely diverse and interconnected, ranging from basic principles of physics, chemistry, and biology to management applications in agriculture, forestry, and environmental protection. The Soils Animated tool will be used to support the lecture-based teaching methods helping students to learn how to make connections among a large number of concepts. The interconnectivity is the key to understanding of the subject and the proposed tool will provide a new way to present material and explain topics. The Soils Animated tool will strengthen initiatives originating at UBC to integrate information technology into teaching and develop interactive learning components.

Development methodology (expected completion date in parenthesis):

1. Dr. Krzic prepares material (early July 2005, assuming that project starts in early May 2005).
2. Development of Soils Animated tool – preparation of concept maps and visual presentations for each lecture and a draft of the booklet. Feedback from student review team #1 (Sep 2005).
3. Improvement of the material developed based on feedback provided by student review team #1 (Oct 2005).
4. Inclusion of student review team #2 to provide unbiased feedback (Nov 2005)
   5)Soils Animated prototype – feedback from both student review teams (early Dec 2005).
5. Soils Animated ready to be used in SOIL 200 course (Jan 2006).
6. Follow-up improvements based on feedback from students enrolled in SOIL 200 during 2005/06 (May 2006).

Maja Krzic, Agroecology (Soil Science), Faculty of Agricultural Sciences