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Investigation Question 3:
How does water move through soil?

Preparation

• Teaching and learning focus
• What you will need
• Safety
• Setting the scene
• Investigation question
• What do your students already know?

You can help your students investigate the different ways in which water moves through soil particles.

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For each group of four students:

• 5 6-ounce clear plastic cups with four small holes punched in each with a ballpoint pen
• 5 10-ounce clear plastic cups
• 1 graduated kitchen measuring cup or laboratory graduated cylinder
• 1 pitcher of water
• 1 large spoon or scoop for transferring samples to cups
• Clear view of a classroom clock with a second hand

Enough of each of the following materials to fill a 10-ounce cup about 2/3 full:

• garden soil (use natural soil collected outside, not recently soaked with water)
• sand
• pea-size gravel
• dry powdered clay

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This investigation is considered generally safe to do with students. However, please review it for your specific setting, materials, students, and conventional safety precautions.

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Tell the students that they will test four materials for how much water they hold and how much water they allow to drain away in a set amount of time.

© Michael Collier Excess water drains from this field near Hollister, California.

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After the scene is set, introduce your students to the investigation question: “How does water move through soil?”

Tell your students that they will be investigating this question and that at the end of their investigations, they will be able to provide reliable answers.

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If you have a potted plant growing in the classroom, show it to the class. Pick up the pot, and have the students notice that there is a hole in the bottom of the pot. Ask why the hole is there, and why they think you put a saucer under the plant. (Students will probably know that the hole allows water to drain.) Ask the students what would happen if you watered the plant and there was no drainage hole in the pot. (They will say that the soil gets “soggy”, “too wet”, “full of water”. They may even say that this would not be good for the plant.)

Ask a student to water the plant as you hold it above the saucer. Let everyone observe water dripping from the drainage hole. Ask “Did as much water drip out of the plant as we put in the top?” Students will begin to think about soil’s ability to hold water as they watch this occur.

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