Send your students on a secret agent mission to learn about the most basic components of our natural world – soil. They will go deep undercover to learn about soil types, erosion, run-off, and key conservation concepts. Their secret code words are "Stop the drops" and "Slow the flow."

Lesson objectives include:

• Comparing soil types and soil particles.
• Identifying the relationship between soil texture and soil erosion.
• Demonstrate how water can dislodge soil particles and cause erosion.
• Identify ways to reduce erosion.
• Analyze how soil is layered.

Materials Available: Extension Youth Development Educator will visit your classroom to present your group with their mission (should you accept it). Teacher's guide, handout masters, and a check-out supply kit will enable you to complete your detective assignment.

Duration: The entire mission can be completed in 2 to 3 hours, usually over a 2-3 day period.

Illinois Learning Standards: Mathematics: 7B – Estimate measurements and determine acceptable levels of accuracy. 10A – Organize, describe and make predictions from existing data. 10B – Formulate questions, design data collection methods, gather and analyze data and communicate findings. Science: 11A – Know and apply the concepts, principles and processes of scientific inquiry. 11B – Know and apply the concepts, principles and processes of technological design. 12B – Know and apply concepts that describe how living things interact with each other and with their environment. 12D – Know and apply concepts that describe force and motion and the principles that explain them. 12E – Know and apply concepts that describe the features and processes of the Earth and its resources. 13A – Know and apply the accepted practices of science. 13B – Know and apply concepts that describe the interaction between science, technology and society.