Knowledge type: declarative, procedural

Learning outcomes: To understand what soil is and its composition, knowing: on one hand, some minerals and rocks and where they are extracted (mines) and what they are used for, and on the other hand, the importance of soil for plants and living things, as well as the concepts of erosion and desertification.

Prerequisite knowledge: Before working on this teaching sequence, the students must understand the concept of soil as the earth's natural surface, under which there are rocks and minerals. It would be interesting to ask the students to bring "rocks" to class to study them and classify them. We could even bring a mini-collection ourselves, if we have one, and if we do not, find some good photos and the characteristics of different rocks and minerals over the Internet. Before working with this Learning Object, it would be interesting to look for/locate/identify in the classroom, at home or on the street rocks and minerals so that they really observe that both form part of our daily life. (Examples: (mica in microwaves, bricks or granite in our houses, cement made with calcite, clay tiles or slate roofs or the classroom chalkboard, chalk made with gypsum, the lead in a pencil (graphite) etc.)