The Penn State Soil Judging Team has had a long history of success in both competition and student development.  In our recent history, we have had success in both the regional and national competitions, qualifying for the Soil Judging National Contest four times since 1996.  In 2000, our team won the national contest hosted by the University of Idaho.  This was the first national championship in our school's history.  After attending the national contest held at Texas A&M University, the team is eager to qualify for nationals again this year during the regional competition hosted by Rhode Island.

Soil Judging at Penn State is offered in two capacities.  First there is the soil judging class, which meets once a week for the first eight weeks of the fall semester and the last 8 weeks of the spring semester.  During our weekly meetings, we go out to various soil pit locations (please see "pictures" link on home page for examples) throughout the State College and surrounding areas and learn the art of soil description and classification.  These weekly trips usually last around 5 or 6 hours, and are spent with the students getting a "hands on" lesson in soil morphology.  Skills learned during these trips include:

Here at Penn State, we pride ourselves on delivering an undergraduate education in soil science that gets the students out in the field to explore what they read and are taught in lectures.  Soil Judging is one of many courses offered in the Crop and Soil Science Department in the College of Agricultural Sciences that offers this field experience to its students.  The second component of soil judging at Penn State is the previously mentioned Soil Judging Team.  The team is a separate entity from the class, but is usually populated by students who have taken the class.  The Environmental Soil Science faculty's commitment to both the class and team makes it easy to understand why success is a tradition the Penn State soil judging program continues to build upon.