The Mind of Soil: Soil Chemistry with The Soil Keepers

This is hands-on chemistry as it can be applied to the soils you already work with or are curious about.

Our class will be in real time and supported by demonstration films. You can expect 1-3 hours of field work/kitchen table lab work per week which you will be sharing with your instructor and cohort. Attending all four classes is recommended for course certification.

In the Mind of Soil: Soil Chemistry we will cover:

• elements and the Periodic Table
• compounds and bonding
• carbon and hydrocarbons

• water and other solvents
• phase change
• acids, bases and pH
• oxidation and reduction
• alcohol and salts

• soil testing

Prerequisites:

1. Completion of either our soil biology or soil geology courses or demonstrated equivalent of solid working understanding of either or both.
2. Two cups of correctly sampled soil to submit for lab testing.

We meet online Sunday afternoons in February 2025

**Only 15 spots available**

Deadline to register: January 20, 2025

$325 standard ticket

$500 pay-it-forward to allow others who are met by financial challenge

(prior Soil Keepers students receive $25 discount)

Limited supported tickets are available for those who have financial constraints and do

wish to study with us. Contact: [email protected]

Classes within this course are participatory, dense and built on each other. We encourage you to attend all four classes.

You can expect completing another 2-3 hours per week of independently paced work including viewing specially created short films, selected background readings and conducting independent field work. There will be no opportunity for make ups.

Graduates will receive a certificate of completion of The Mind of Soil from Social Ecologies. All four classes must be attended to receive this certificate.

Meet your instructor

Nance Klehm is the founder and director of Social Ecologies, which consults and trains others to build capacities of communities, organization and institutions on issues of soil restoration, soil remediation, regenerative soil health, waste-to-nutrient systems and water systems around the world.

Nance’s work demonstrates her lifelong commitment to redefining the way human populations coexist with plant and animal systems on this planet. She is based in Chicago and the Driftless region of NW IL.

Host or Publisher Social Ecologies