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The University of Maryland Soil Judging Team at Work
Soil
Judging is a National Intercollegiate Contest which occurs
every year in Colleges across the country. Schools first
compete at the regional level in the fall and the top
winning teams, in each of the regions of the United States,
go on to compete in the National contest in the spring.
The location of the regional and national contests rotate
every year. During a Soil Judging Contest, students are
asked to describe the characteristics of a soil profile
in four different pits. Students take turns going in and
out of each pit under a strict time limit. While they
are in the pit they describe the color, texture, consistence,
structure, and other properties of each soil horizon.
Then, they make interpretations about the soil such as
its classification, its parent material, its suitability
for different land uses, and its water holding properties.
At the end of the time limit, students rotate to the next
pit until they have characterized the horizons in each
of the four different soil pits. The student's soil descriptions
are scored and the participants that come the closest
to the descriptions of the official judges win the contest.
The
students below were members of the University of Maryland
College Park Soil Judging Team (Northeast region).
New York, 1987 (99K)
Soil Judging (83K)
(photos
courtesy of Dr. Marty Rabenhorst, College of Agriculture
and Natural Resources, University of Maryland, College
Park, MD.)