Over the winter holidays of 2025, Dr Samuel Hibdige and Dr Emily Guest, both postdoctoral researchers at Cranfield University and Early Career members of the ¿ìè¶ÌÊÓƵ (BSSS), had the pleasure of delivering an interactive soil science lesson to a primary school on Maui, one of the Hawaiian Islands.
Here is what they had to say about the highlights of their experience, and the importance of inspiring a new generation of soil scientists:
“As Sam’s sister-in-law is a teacher at a local school in Maui, whilst we were on holiday to visit them, we were really keen to introduce her students to what soil is made from, why it matters and how we can look after it better. Using real-world examples from the recent flooding in their local town of Kihei, we explored how poor soil structure can increase surface water runoff, possibly leading to the brown flood waters they had seen running through their own classroom. They were also very familiar with the plastic sheeting left behind in local fields which are now mostly unused after decades of pollution and degradation from sugarcane and pineapple production, where plastics for weed control and harvesting through burning were commonplace.
We discussed how soils are different throughout the world, especially as we had travelled from almost the other side of the globe and explored practical ways to care for soils using the five principles of regenerative agriculture as a basis. We explained how improving soil structure and biology can enhance soil functionality for better water holding capacity and drainage.
To bring the learnings to life, we collected local soils from three contrasting managements: a forest floor, a compacted bare walking path, and a sample from their teacher’s garden! The class carried out the ‘Super Sponges’ experiment using content from BSSS’s website (/education/soil-explorers-super-sponges-experiment/), investigating how well each soil absorbed and retained water.
Working in small groups, the children became ‘soil detectives’, using clues such as soil colour, texture, visible plant material and water-holding capacity to match each sample to its original location. The exercise really encouraged them to think about the link between soil management and how it effects soil functions, ecosystem services, and us!
The pupils were very enthusiastic to get their hands dirty, think about how they might use their new knowledge in their own gardens, and ask us lots of questions – even if some were to simply hear us say ‘water bottle’ in an English accent!
‘Mahalo’ (Thank you in Hawaiian) to Mrs Oli and her class for such a warm welcome and for reminding us how inspiring soil can be at any age when we learn more about what lies beneath our feet. We hope we’ve helped to inspire a new generation of soil scientists who might one day help bring agriculture back to the island, this time in a much more sustainable way through managing soils better.
Thank you also to BSSS for supporting us with these resources which were a basis for our lesson, and for gifting some generous materials which we will be sending out to the students to continue their soil learning journey, including more experiments to do in the classroom, classroom posters and soil story books.
