Field Guide of Discovery-based Exercises for - Aseanipm ...

methodology
• Field walks and brainstorming
steps
106
Field Guide of Discovery-based Exercises for Organic Vegetable Production
1. Divide participants in small groups and ask them to conduct field walks and observe soil
organisms’ (e.g., soil flora and fauna) beneficial activities in different soil ecosystem at learning
and adjoining fields as follows:
5 Group I to observe forest soil (e.g., undisturbed forest trees are grown)
5 Group II to observe brush land (e.g., plants grow as tall as 1-2 meters)
5 Group III to observe grassland (e.g., plants grow less than 1 meter tall)
5 Group IV to observe crop land (e.g., organic vegetable crops are grown)
5 Group V to observe barren land (e.g., no crop or other plant is grown)
2. Each group marks a 1-m 2 quadrant of soil surface with the use of pegs and nylon twine to secure
corners of quadrant and perform the activities below:
5 Pull out and ‘de-soil’ (e.g., ipagpag or shake to retain soil in roots) weeds inside the quadrant.
5 Collect soil litters and organisms (e.g., soil flora and fauna) found in soil surface and place
separately in plastic bags.
5 Scrape soil within two inches depth of quadrant
5 Collect soil litters and organisms (e.g., soil flora and fauna) found in soil and place in
separate plastic bag.
5 List down all pertinent observations.
3. Go back to processing area. Brainstorm in small groups to design a suitable matrix to record
observations and do the following activities:
4. For soil organisms, spread soil collected from quadrant in a Manila paper, count number of organisms
and add to initial collections made. The abundance of minute soil flora (e.g., algae, moss) and fauna
(e.g., mites, collembolans) can be described quantitatively, namely: too many (e.g., numbers more
than 100); many (e.g., numbers from 50-100); or few (e.g., numbers less than 50).
5. For soil litters, spread, segregate, and weigh separately all dried or decaying grasses and leaves,
branches and twigs, dead insects and other animals, etc. The presence of mycelia bodies or foul
odor on decaying plant and animal debris should be noted also to indicate probable presence of
fungi and bacteria in soil.