Get to Know Your Soils!

For this program the SBCC is delighted to host Dr. Perl Egendorf, Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies and Science at Pace University, and their Mobile Soil Lab!

The Mobile Soil Lab was created for the scientific laboratory to exist as a public space. The lab seeks to make the concepts, methods, procedures, insights, and applications of science transparent and accessible to people of all ages and backgrounds, particularly people who have been systemically and historically excluded from academic science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). While the lab can focus on any media, we choose to focus on soils. Soils are the skin of the Earth, the vital interface between living and nonliving systems, and a (literally) fertile medium for engaging with biogeochemistry, systems science, and environmental justice. While soils are vital, they are often under-appreciated and over-exploited. Urban soils are particularly degraded, contaminated, and deserving of far more attention and care. As such, the Mobile Soil Lab focuses on urban soils and composts and can be used to analyze these media on site for a range of biological (color, nutrients, respiration), chemical (metals, pH, salinity), and physical (texture, structure, bulk density) properties. Come put on a lab coat and conduct these analyses with us! No prior background is needed – in fact, no prior background is preferred.