Topic: Soils in Poland

Author: Magdalena Jankun

Target group

7th‑grade student of elementary school

Core curriculum

IX. The natural environment of Poland against the background of Europe: geographical position of Poland; influence of tectonic movements and glaciations on the sculpture of Europe and Poland; transitional climate of Poland; the main rivers of Poland and their systems against the rivers of Europe and their systems; main types of soils in Poland. Pupil:

10 . It distinguishes the most important features of brown soil, podzolic soil, chernozem, mada and rendzina, indicates their distribution on the map of Poland and evaluates agricultural usefulness.

The general aim of education

You will determine the location of the most important soils in Poland and give the characteristics of each of them.

Criteria of success

• you will name soil‑forming factors;

• discuss the soil profiles of basic soils in Poland;

• indicate the differences between basic soil profiles;

• you will indicate on the map soils present in Poland;

• determine the basic features of soils in Poland;

• classify soils in terms of fertility;

• assess the agricultural usefulness of soils in Poland.

Key competences

• communication in the mother tongue;

• communication in a foreign language;

• learning to learn;

• digital competence.

Methods / forms of work

• using ICT tools;

• activity with educational material and multimedia on the epodreczniki.pl platform;

• individual activity, activity in pairs, and collective activity.

Teaching aids

• e‑textbook for teaching geography;

• interactive whiteboard;

• multimedia projector;

• tablets/computers;

• physical map of Poland;

• map of Poland: agriculture;

• geographical atlases.

Lesson plan overview

Before classes

1. The teacher gives the lesson topic and goals in the student's language.

2. Task for the students: using various sources of information, work out the soil‑forming factors. The teacher emphasizes that the result of the soil‑forming process is the formation of soil levels.

Realization

1. Referring the students to the „Soil profiles in Poland” scheme. Joint analysis of soil profiles. Drawing attention to the level of humus in each of them. Making a classification in terms of soil fertility. The teacher explains the terms: rich soil and fertile soil. Richness means the natural ability of the soil to meet vital needs of plants by providing them with nutrients, water and air. Whereas fertility is the ability of the soil to meet the needs of plants, modified by agricultural activity. The measure of fertility is yield.

2. Activity in pairs: take a close look at the above soil profiles and indicate the basic difference between them, which determines the quality of each soil. The teacher indicates the pairs who present their insights on the class forum.

3. Interactive exercise. Sign the elements in the illustration. The figure shows the soil profile of the podzolic soil. The students move appropriate names to the marked places.

4. The whole class team makes an analysis of the scheme entitled „The surface structure of Polish soils”. The students should come to the conclusion that medium‑quality soils and poor‑quality soils are most often found Poland.

5. Activity in pairs: using geographical atlases, search for the place of occurrence of the following soils: chernozems, black earth, fen soils, rendzinas, brown soils, podzolic soils, bog soils, mountainous and anthropogenic soils.

6. The students search for regions and geographic areas in geographic atlases, in which the given soils occur: e.g. chernozems - Lublin Upland, Lesser Poland Upland, Głubczyce Plateau, etc.

Summary

1. At the end of the class, doing an exercise on the interactive whiteboard. Match the right soil with the right description.

2. The teacher assesses the students' activity during the lesson, appreciating their engagement and commitment.

Homework

Homework for all students. Using the map in the abstract or in an atlas, name the types of soils that occur near your place of residence. Additionally, assess their agricultural value.

The following terms and recordings will be used during this lesson

Terms

Texts and recordings

Soils in Poland

The fact that in a given area there is a certain type of soil is determined by not only climate and vegetation. An important role in the soil‑forming process play the following factors: parent rock, water, animals and other organisms, relief and human activities.
Soils are used by man for growing plants. Therefore, an important issue is their good quality so that the yields were high. The quality of soil is affected by humus content – the higher the better. In this respect, the best soil is chernozem. Other really good soils are fen soil and black earth, as well as some brown soils and limestone soils. Whereas the least content of humus is found in mountain soil, podzol and luvisol.

Nearly 80% of Poland's area is covered by brown soils, podzols and luvisols. They occur commonly in lowland areas and lakelands. There is less of them in the highlands and in the mountains (especially podzols). In terms of agricultural suitability, the most valuable of them are brown soils.

There is little soil of the highest quality in our country – chernozem occupies only about 1% of the area. It can be found on the Lublin Upland, Lesser Poland Upland and on the Głubczyce Plateau (Opole Province).
Black earth is characterized by little lower quality but has only about 1% share in the country as well. It occurs mainly in the Kuyavy region, in the Greater Poland Lowland, the Szczecin Lowland and the Silesian Lowland.
A larger percentage (about 5%) falls on fen soil. On a large surface it has formed in the Vistula delta, thanks to which Żuławy Wiślane is one of the most fertile areas in Poland.
Bog soil occupies about 7% of the country's area and outside river valleys it occurs mainly in Podlasie, Polesie and lakelands. This type of soil is quite good, but due to high moistness it is primarily used as meadows and pastures.
Due to the deep profile, limestone soil also is of good quality. Limestone soil has formed on carbonate rocks of the Lesser Poland Upland and the Lublin Upland. They represent a total of approximately 1% of the country's area.
However, for the typical, mountainous initial soil, the percentage is around 6%. You can find it on the slopes of the Carpathians and the Sudetes. It is not very fertile and generally overgrown with grass, which is why animals are most often grazed there.
The last group forms anthropogenic soil, that is soil transformed by man's activity. It occurs in urban areas (the so‑called urbisol), suburban areas (e.g. garden soil – hortisol), and industrialized areas (technosol). Larger complexes can be found in the Upper Silesian Industrial District and other large cities (in Warszawa, Trójmiasto, Łódź, Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, and Szczecin) and in the area of opencast brown coal mines (Bełchatów, Konin, Turoszów).