Exhibition Interactives

Find Your Home Earth
A playful postcard interactive where visitors take a trip to visit the soils from 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, and Guam.

Chips Off the Old Block
Visitors will get a close-up view of soil parent materials. These will include both primary (those minerals that have not changed chemically since they first crystallized) and secondary minerals (formed when primary minerals dissolve chemically and re-form as new particles).

Texture Matters
Visitors will invert three tumbler tubes to contrast how water moves through sand, silt, clay and loam.

Size Up This Soil
Visitors study model profile of three “mystery” soils, from bottom to top, with the aid of text clues and graphic pointers at key features to deduce what kind of environment each soil supports.  The answer is revealed when the visitor peers into a “soil periscope” to discover what is at the surface.

Color It Wet or Dry
The color of soils tell a lot about their mineral compositions and how they formed.  Six samples of modeled “soils” are part of an exhibit activity in which visitors can use portable color test cards based on the Munsell Color System to match soil samples to color indicators.

The Big Picture
A world map showing the distribution of twelve soil types is the backdrop for 3 touch-screen stations where visitors will learn the surprising connections between soil and life on our planet.