As global issues continue to place increasing demands on soil resources, the need to provide soil science education to the next generation of soil scientists and the general public is becoming more imminent. In many countries around the world, including Canada, soil is either not included in the high school curriculum or it is not covered in depth. To address this need for better integration of soil science into high school programs in Canada, a national collaborative program entitled Soil 4 Youth (soilweb.landfood.ubc.ca/youth/), was established in 2009. The goals of the Soil 4 Youth program are to: (1) promote the discipline of soil science to high school students and teachers, (2) create open access soil education resources that can be directly implemented in high school curricula in Canada, and (3) raise awareness about the importance of soil. During the initial 4 years of the Soil 4 Youth program, we developed a variety of soil education resources, struck collaboration with several provincial high school teachers’ associations and not‐for‐profit organizations focused on promotion of science, and focused our efforts toward reaching a broader group of high school teachers and students. Our initial efforts of building the Soil 4 Youth program indicate that it is a viable platform through which collaboration among Canadian soil scientists and high school teachers can take place to ensure that high school students are better informed about the importance of soil. Impact Statement The Canadian collaborative program, Soil 4 Youth, was established to promote the discipline of soil science to high school students and teachers. The program provides a platform for collaboration among soil scientists and high school teachers to ensure that high school students are better informed about the importance of soil. This article describes the development of the Soil 4 Youth program, offering insights into the challenges and potential solutions to advance soil science education for youth.

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Core Ideas Through instructional scaffolding, students move toward independent learning. The forest floor is an important bridge between aboveground living vegetation and soil. The topic of forest floor is not typically covered in the university curriculum. Instructional scaffolding employs a variety of instructional techniques that move students progressively toward stronger understanding and greater independence in the learning process. The objective of this study was to develop a scaffolding instructional module focused on forest floor for the second‐year Introduction to Soil Science course at the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada. The scaffolding module included a campus‐based lecture; online multimedia material in the Forest Floor educational resource; campus‐based, instructor‐led demonstrations of forest floor description and classification; campus‐based, collaborative, hands‐on activity; written instructions provided in the laboratory manual; an individual written assignment; and a self‐guided activity (or quest) performed on the university campus aided by a mobile game application. These forms of support were gradually removed as students developed independent learning strategies, culminating in the self‐guided activity that led students to a forest on the university campus to practice their newly developed skills in forest floor description and classification. The scaffolding components were developed to foster intellectual inquiry and analysis, group problem‐solving, and the application of knowledge to complex issues in a real‐life setting. This could serve as a model for future educational design in post‐secondary courses in the natural sciences.

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