Salinity-Activities

	Published by Australian Academy of Science
Activities \| Salinity – the awakening monster from the deep

Salinity – Australia's silent flood (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
- Educational activities – provides a variety of activities and case studies for each of the four episodes of the 2002 documentary series, The Silent Flood. There is also a glossary of commonly used terms, a list of relevant websites and a series of fact sheets to assist with student research.
New South Wales Higher School Certificate Online (Charles Sturt University, Australia)
- Caring for the country: Salinity of soils and water – provides resources and activities for this aspect of the Earth and Environmental Science syllabus.
Waterwatch Victoria, Australia
- Saltwatch: A resource book for schools – provides teaching resources related to salinity – background information, catchment activities, experiments (eg, 'Capillary rise', 'Sampling surface water', 'Testing for soil salinity'), quizzes and overhead masters.
Queensland Department of Natural Resources and Mines (Australia)
- Effects of soil salinisation – students investigate the effects of soil salinity on seed germination and plant growth.
- Threshold levels for cultivated crops – students use salinity-monitoring equipment to determine the effect of salinity in irrigation water on the productivity of crops.
Country Areas Program (New South Wales Department of Education and Training, Australia)
- Sad, salty pot plants – students design and perform an experiment to determine the effect of different concentrations of fertiliser on plants, and how it relates to salinisation. Helpful hints and useful internet links are provided.
- Multiple intelligences and Bloom's taxonomy for 'Living with salt' – provides many ideas about how salinity can be used with the six thinking levels of Bloom's taxonomy and the different ways of learning in the classroom
University of Adelaide (Australia)
- Effect of salinity on beans
- Determining soil texture
Agriculture in the Classroom (United States Department of Agriculture)
- Exploring soils – students find out about physical properties of soils (eg, texture, water-holding capacity)
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center (USA)
- Interpreting satellite images – students identify differences between photography and satellite imagery and identify features in a satellite image.
- Interpreting remotely sensed images: What does this mean? – students interpret visible features from five Landsat images of North America, using an atlas as a guide.
Science NetLinks (Marco Polo Education Foundation, USA)
- An introduction to remote sensing – combines several resources from NASA's Observatorium to teach students about remote sensing. (For years 6-8.)
- Remote sensing – this lesson also uses NASA resources. Students participate in an activity in which they use sheets of green, red or blue acetate to simulate the different sensors on a remote sensing satellite and read an article. (For years 9-12.)
Geoscience Australia
- Image processing online – students can view simple images of different Landsat data for the Murwillumbah area on the east coast of Australia.
Journal of Natural Resources and Life Science Education (USA)
- Laboratory exercises to demonstrate effects of salts on plants and soils – one demonstration illustrates the effects of salt on different plants, the other illustrates the effects of salts on the hydraulic conductivity of soils. (Note: These demonstrations were developed for university students.)

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Page updated April 2006.

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This topic is sponsored by the CRC for Landscape Environments and Mineral Exploration.