Adaptation of Soil Judging to Northeast China

Soil Judging teaches students important skills for field identification of soil types, their properties, and interpretations for use. The adaptation of Soil Judging in China can be beneficial to students as well as government agencies and private sector. The objective of this study was to adapt Soil Judging to northeast region of China by a graduate student from China, who was trained using an undergraduate course in Soil Judging and a regional Soil Judging competition. Unlike the U.S., China has 14 soil orders with six soil orders somewhat similar to the ones found in the Southeast region of the U.S. A Southeastern Region Soil Judging Handbook was used for newly developed teaching materials for Northeast of China (including tables of soil physical and chemical properties, topographic maps, and scorecards). These new teaching materials can significantly improve soil education in China and mitigate problems associated with land use management.