NAME: ___________________________________________________________

DATE: ____________________________________________________________
TITLE: Soils
AIM: To investigate the movement of water through soil
THEORY:
1. What is soil?
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2. How is soil developed?
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3. What are the three (3) types of soils?
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4. Why is soil important?

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MATERIALS/APPARATUS:
o (3) different soil samples
o (3) plastic funnels
o (3) piece of cotton wool
o (1) stirring rods
o (1) styrofoam cup
o (1) stopwatch
o (1) 500 ml beaker
o (3) 100 ml cylinders
o (2) popsicle sticks
o (1) spatula
DIAGRAM:

FIG 1: SET UP OF APPARATUS TO INVESTIGATE THE MOVEMENT

OF WATER THROUGH SOIL SAMPLES.

PROCEDURE:
1. Place the 100 ml cylinders on a flat surface.
2. Label the cylinder either St (for silt), C (for clay), S (for sand). Place a
plastic funnel in the funnel.
3. Place a piece of cotton wool of identical size inside the funnel to cover the
hole.
4. Cover the cotton wool in the funnel with a sample of the soil.
5. Now pour 100 ml of water from the beaker into the funnel with the soil
sample and cotton.
6. Start the stopwatch and allow the water to soak for 2 minutes
7. Observe and record the amount of water in the cylinder in the table.
RESULTS:
Soil Sample Amount of Water/ml

Silt

Sand

Clay

DISCUSSION:

1. Which type of soil had the most amount of water?

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2. Which type of soil had the least amount of water?

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3. Why did the different types of soils have different amounts of water?
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4. List two (2) variables that were kept the same throughout the experiment.
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CONCLUSION: From the experiment it was found that …………. soil had the
most amount of water, followed by ……………. soil and then ………….. soil.