Soil Formation - thinking like Darwin

2009 is the year of Charles Darwin's 200th birthday and so our first Earthlearningidea of the year is Darwin's 'big soil idea': can you work out how Charles Darwin 'discovered' how soil formed?
Pupils are asked to think through how soil forms, as Darwin did in the 1830s, and then to suggest how he could have tested his ideas. They are then invited to either build their own wormery or observe one that a teacher has built.
Soil formation is an example of the complex relationships between the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere and biosphere necessary for maintaining life on our planet.
We should really like to hear how you get on with this activity.