Student Preconceptions
Students often come with misconceptions about soil. The writing they do in Lesson 1 around what they know and what they want to find out about soil is a good way to assess these misconceptions. Continuous embedded assessment in the form of teacher observation is a way to monitor misunderstandings and then correct them.
Students often think soil is alive. While living things live in soil and organic soil is composed of once-living things they need to understand that soil itself is not alive.
Students often think of only the brown, loamy type soil found in the flower bed as true soil. Soil is, however, the whole top layer of earth and is composed of various particle sizes both organic and inorganic.
Students may think soil type is determined by color. Soil type is actually determined based on particle size. Color is dependent upon the rock type from which the soil is formed over time.