Grade 3
What is soil?
Soil is the upper layer of
the earth’s surface and is
a mix of organic material,
broken rock and minerals
Name 3 reasons soil is important.
Answers may vary
What are the three kinds of rocks?
Igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary
What is a rock?
A rock is a solid material that is a lump of minerals that grow or are fused together.
What is paleontology?
Paleontology is the study of the history of the earth based on fossils.
What is soil made of?
Soil is made up of
non-living things, like rock,
minerals, air, and water,
and organic material, like
dead (decaying) plants.
What is bedrock? Why are animals not found here?
Solid rock. No space
What is an igneous rock?
Igneous rocks have formed through the cooling and hardening of lava and magma.
What is the rock cycle?
The rock cycle is used to describe how rocks are formed, how they break apart, and how they reform into other rocks.
What are three things harmful to soil?
Salt, pesticides, erosion
What are the five soil horizons in order (top to bottom)?
humus, topsoil, subsoil, parent material, bedrock
What are the three soil parciles?
Sand, silt, clay
What is a sedimentary rock?
Sedimentary rocks are made when sand, mud and pebbles get compressed in layers, which eventually turn to rock.
What is a mineral?
A mineral is created by nature and forms the Earth’s rocks, and soils.
Water, plant trees, worms
What is organic material?
Decaying plant and animal remains.
What is the biggest soil partcile?
Sand
What is a metamorphic rock?
Metamorphic rocks are formed when other rocks are exposed to high temperature and pressure.
What is the hardest mineral and what number on the MOH scale is it? What is the softest and the number?
Hardest: diamond at a 10
softest: talc at a 1
What are pesticides
Substance used to kill pests
What would you find in subsoil?
Clay, iron, and organic matter.
What is the smallest soil particle?
Clay
What is an example of a metamorphic rock?
Marble
What is a fossil?
Fossils are the preserved remains of plants and
animals that were once living on Earth.
What are the physical properties of minerals?
Magnetism, transparency, hardness, lustre, streak