In Year 3 today, children did three experiments to look at soil permeability as our science unit of rocks and soils came to an end after two weeks of super science in our new block curriculum approach. Children used three different types of soil – sandy, top, and chalk, and did tests for each.
First, we looked at how to make our test a fair one, so we kept all factors the same apart from the soil type.
50ml of water for each type of soil and measure the water drained, set against a 5 minute time limit.
Equal amount of soil for each experiment.
Type and size of paper filter for each.
The results were marginal, but showed that the top soil had the best overall drainage when compared to the others, although they too, had 90-100% drainage. As a class, we discussed how this is relevant and discussed the drainage needed for living plants. We also looked at areas of the experiment that we could alter to give a more accurate result and children decided on more water used for drainage and a larger quantity of soil.
