For my practicum project, I assisted my professor and a fellow undergraduate in completing a first draft version of a new contest manual for the Intercollegiate Soil Judging Competition. My site was asynchronous in the Needelman Lab within the soil science department. My tasks included reviewing past contest materials, taking notes on which materials provided the best definitions and regulations, and compiling this information onto a shared document. As a student member of the Soil Judging team, this project allowed me to view the contest from the inside, thus allowing me to engage with the contest at a deeper level, which ultimately improved my performance as a contestant.
I became a member of the Needelman Lab Fall 2024. Prior to the academic year, Dr. Brian Needelman sent a job application to those in the Environmental Science and Technology department. At this point I was vaguely familiar with Dr. Needelman, as I was registered for one of his classes, and I knew he was going to be the soil judging coach for the upcoming semester. I had a lot of anxiety applying for the position- I lacked experience and I had yet to take the courses that would have given me priority in my application. However, I pushed past this and applied anyway. I was desperate to gain experience in my field. After a mostly uneventful freshman year, I was feeling a little behind, and so I was ready to jump at any opportunity that came my way. By the end of the summer, I heard back from Dr. Needelman, and we scheduled an interview for the first week of classes.
My interview was mostly non-conventional. I was extremely nervous going into it, knowing that he was both my professor and potentially my new boss. As soon as I walked in my nerves left me though, as the interview was very casual, and more akin to an onboarding meeting. We discussed some of the projects that he would need assistance with. These included a literature review on blue carbon, which refers to the sequestration of carbon in coastal ecosystems, as well as more menial tasks such as creating a digital archive of his course materials and assisting his graduate student in field work from time to time. It was during this meeting that he introduced me to the standardization project. His goal was to start working on a standardized national soil judging contest manual, so that less time is spent each year revising contest materials, and more time can be spent preparing students and running the contest. At the time, this seemed like simple busywork, and I was prepared to set it aside. It wasn’t until after participating in the regional competition that I realized how important this project was, as there were many hiccups that could have been avoided had the rules been more concrete. By the end of the fall semester, I was on board with the project, and began putting more of my time towards assisting with standardization.
For those who are unfamiliar with soil science, it is important to keep in mind that outside the lab, soil science is a highly qualitative field. This leads to numerous disagreements between soil scientists on how to describe what is seen during field work. Soil judging is a contest that helps to prepare students for field work by asking them to describe the texture, color, and structure of a soil profile in order to interpret the hydraulic, engineering, and agricultural capabilities of a given plot of land. These skills are important to students looking for jobs in soil consulting, and furthering soil research after undergrad. For schools who have been participating for years, minor changes to a manual year to year seem menial- they already have accumulated tips and tricks that allow their incoming students to perform well. However, soil judging is up and coming, and for schools who have never participated before, these disagreements can be very confusing and can pose challenges early on that discourage participation. Thus, the goal with standardizing was both to save time and to encourage broader participation for the contest.
A soil judging manual is divided into six sections - morphology, profile characteristics, site characteristics, soil classification, and interpretations. These sections correlate with the scorecard that contestants must fill out. Each correct description within these categories corresponds with a different number of points, and whoever is the most correct compared to how the judges described the soil wins the contest. These subdivisions aided in dividing the work for myself and the other undergraduate working on the project. I was tasked with reviewing the manual for the site characteristics, soil classification, and interpretation sections. In order to complete this, I had to review both past contest materials as well as descriptions provided by the Natural Resources Conservation Service. I provided definitions for various landforms and soil types, as well as ecological site descriptions, which use a letter abbreviation system to quickly describe the position, wetness, and acidity of the land, as well as the depth of the soil. By providing the most detailed definitions, my goal was to reduce the number of questions a new student would have about the manual upon their first time reading it in order to boost student interest and participation.
As previously mentioned, this experience taught me a lot about the soil judging contest from the inside. I reviewed specific details on how the contest is scored, and reviewed definitions for the same topics multiple times, which allowed me to memorize some of the content. These are skills that I hope to retain in the following years, as I continue to participate in soil judging. Beyond honing my field skills though, I highly value the experience of getting to know one of my professors at a deeper level and to work with him on a project. Everyone says that college is not just what you know, but rather who you know. This experience taught me the true meaning of this phrase, as building this personal relationship with my professor allowed me to gain a new internship for this summer through the detailed letter of recommendation he was able to provide.
This project is very much still in the works, and time is still being spent working on further drafts that will eventually become official contest materials. It is an honor to have my name attached to something that will affect students with interests similar to mine at a national level, and I am thrilled to see where this project can go. To incoming freshmen, I want to encourage you to jump at the opportunities you see, and to take special care in curating the relationships you have with your professors. Obviously getting letters of recommendation can be important, but beyond that, having someone in your field to give you advice on where to go is a priceless resource. Post grad life is intimidating enough as it is, but having someone there to give insight can make it seem much less daunting. I want to take this opportunity to thank Dr. Brian Needelman for assisting me on this project, and for helping me in advancing my career after I graduate.