ENST Professors Highlight Smithsonian Exhibit

Experts design an interactive showcase on soils

Everyone is getting soil savvy at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History and the Department of Environmental Science and Technology (ENST) faculty Dr. Delvin Fanning, Dr. Brian Needelman, Dr. Martin Rabenhorst, Dr. Richard Weismiller and Dr. Ray Weil have something to do with it. These soil experts helped to develop and design a unique soil exhibit, Dig It! The Secrets of Soil, which opened on July 19, 2008 and will run through January 3, 2010.

Soils - The Ingredient of Life

The 5,000-square-foot exhibition features a soil monolith from each state in the nation, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia. Designed to advance public understanding of the diversity, complexity, and importance of soil in daily life, Dig It! transports visitors on a journey through the physical and biological characteristics of soils, the processes that transform rocks to soils, the uses and benefits of soils, the global links of soils to air, water and climate, and the influence of soils on culture.

“Most people think about soil as the plowed zone where crops or ornamental plants are planted, with little grasp of what the real soil profile is or how it functions, ” says Dr. Martin Rabenhorst, Professor in ENST. “This exhibit will help people realize that at the living convergence of geological materials, plants, animals, water and air, is the amazing soil.” Before the exhibit opened, Dr. Rabenhorst along with Dr. Weil and Needelman was invited to examine the drawings and draft exhibits and provided feedback on how to improve the appearance of the soil displays. “The exhibit’s organizers especially wanted to make sure that in the exhibit soil profiles and the soil/geologic column are realistic in appearance, showing appropriate horizons, colors, and structure,” Dr. Rabenhorst explains.

Dig It! - Exhibit for All Ages

The exhibit has seven major features each demonstrating a different aspect of soils. For example, the “Get Soil Savvy!” display has dramatic images and video to explore the importance of soils in land management and conservation. In the “Matters of Life and Death Theater,” visitors can enjoy an edgy detective video story about the micro- and macroscopic soil food web. A “Chef’s Challenge” kitchen features two flamboyant “soil chefs” who create two very different soils from the same ingredients while in “Sizing Up Soils,” visitors can get the dirt on soils in an array of fun interactives and exhibition stations. Visitors can also activate two soil “breathalyzers” (infrared gas analyzers) and detect the amount of carbon dioxide produced by soil organisms in two very different environments.

All three professors devoted large amounts of time to the project, including Dr. Needelman, who served on the Soil Science Society of America's Smithsonian Soils Exhibit Design Committee and the Smithsonian Institution's Soils Exhibit Extended Advisory Team. “I spent a lot of time reviewing, editing, and contributing to exhibit scripts and ideas,” says Dr. Needelman. And their hard work will ultimately pay off in the form of many new soil-saavy fans. “Dig It! will get millions of kids pumped up about soils. And probably a few adults, too,” says Dr. Needelman.

For more information, contact Kintija Eigmina, Web and Communications Coordinator

Last updated: 03/9/2009