The Soil Science Society of America played an integral part the success of the 2015 International Year of Soils! We worked on raising awareness of and promoting the sustainability of our limited soil resources. SSSA members, recognizing that we all have a valuable role in communicating vital information on soils, came together to develop new activities and pull together already developed resources to assist everyone interested in learning more about soils. And, our work is ongoing. All of the resources on our site are available for you to use - in your community and classrooms to continue educating about our MOST important natural resource - Soil!
Activities and Videos
The following activities and videos were developed for members to take to classrooms and for educators to use in their classrooms. The twelve monthly themes also have a corresponding video - for either viewing on YouTube or downloading.
The IYS Educational Materials Kit was created for teachers and designed to assist with soils education. Key materials included:
Also in the kit, an IYS Coloring and Activity Book has been developed, based on the twelve themes. Each theme has a coloring page and an accompanying activity - a word search, connect the dots, crosswords, and more. It's a fun way to introduce the topic of soils to kids at the K-2 grade level. The book may be downloaded at no charge.
*All education materials within the kit are the property of SSSA and are available as downloads for individual/educational use. Materials should be credited to the Soil Science Society of America. In addition, these materials may be linked from other sites but not downloaded and placed on other sites.
IYS Celebration Wins Award!
SSSA's International Year of Soils year-long program of activities was awarded the American Society of Association Executives 2016 Gold Circle Award in the Media/Public Relations/Advocacy category. This competition signifies excellence, innovation, and achievement in association/nonprofit marketing, membership, and communications programs. ASAE is a membership organization of more than 21,000 association and professional society executives and industry partners representing 9,300 organizations.
