Soil Sciences Education: Global Concepts and Teaching

Who knows, knows of, or even has awareness of soils? If many more people knew about soils, the land surface, which soil, water, flora,fauna and ourselves inhabit, our planet could not have suffered from the variety of global environmental problems that it suffers from today. The International Union of Soil Sciences has identified education and public awareness of soils and soil sciences as one of the most important goals of the International Decade of Soils 2015-2024, which is reflected in this book. The authors address readers primarily involved in teaching soils, geosciences, environment, ecosystems, art, etc., in schools, and who serve at museums,educational or extension organizations, NPOs, NGOs, etc. It's authors provide a basic framework and a collection of good practices currently used in soil and soil sciences education to make students aware of soils and their importance. Specifically, this publication strives to enable readers to learn and share whatever is best suited to fit their particular requirements. This book consists of three parts: Section I comprises concept, philosophy and tenets of soil sciences education for formulating its curricula at diff erent levels from preschool children to adult citizens. Section II is a collection of good practices of soil sciences education which have been indigenously developed, tested and proven to be useful and efficient in countries all over the world, i.e., four from Africa and Asia; three from Europe; seven from North and South America; and two from Oceania. The material presented in the book provides a good start for promoting soil and soil sciences to children, students, the general public and policy and decision makers globally. Section III is dedicated to guiding the future of soil sciences education based on past and current experiences. Readers are encouraged to further improve the methods and contents of soil sciences education for the future, and to provide new knowledge and innovative tools for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, and beyond. von Kosaki, Takashi und Lal, Rattan und Reyes Sanchez, Laura Bertha