Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences The University of Manitoba COURSE TITLE

The University of Manitoba
Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences
COURSE TITLE
Soil and Water Management
Department
Academic Session
Soil Science
Fall 2015
Course Number SOIL 4510
Credit Hours 3
Prerequisites and how they apply to this course
The prerequisite course for the class is SOIL 3600 (Soils and Landscapes in our Environment). The prerequisite course
provides fundamental knowledge about soil and landscape properties and how they are described and reported. This
knowledge will be applied in laboratory exercises and the term project in SOIL 4510.
Classroom Location
Meeting Days and Class Hours
Ellis Building, Room 245
MWF 8:30-9:20 a.m.
Lab/Seminar Location
Ellis Building, Room 245
Department Office location 362 Ellis Bldg
Lab/Seminar/Hours Wed 2:30-5:30 p.m.
Phone Number 474-8153
Course Web Page (if applicable) D2L
Instructor Information
Name & Title
Office Location
Office Hours
Email Address
Dr. Paul Bullock
362 Ellis Bldg
Office Phone Number 474-8666
Mon-Fri 8:30-4:30; arrange meetings by appointment or send inquiries by email.
[email protected]
Teaching Assistant:
Mike Runzicka ([email protected])
Course Philosophy
Students’ Learning Responsibilities
The lecture slides are available for students on the D2L course page. Each student is expected to download these
slides and have them for reference during class. Students are also expected to supplement the slides with their own notes
from the lectures. The slides are made available to facilitate learning the course material and to provide an opportunity for
interactive class sessions. Class attendance is required to gain a full understanding of the course material. Part of the
grade for the course will be derived from student responses to iClicker questions posed during the lectures. Students must
be present to respond to these questions in order to receive credit for that part of the course. Students who attempt to pass
this course without attending class will lose participation marks and jeopardize their ability to answer questions on exams.
Review questions are provided at the end each section of lecture slides and are intended to assist students by
testing their knowledge of course material prior to the midterm and final exams. Students are expected to study the
review questions on their own and seek clarification prior to the midterm or final exam on any material that they do not
fully understand.
Cell Phones, Tablets and Laptops
Students are requested to maintain a classroom environment that is conducive to learning and be respectful to
classmates and the instructor. Turn your cell phone off for the lecture period; if you are expecting an emergency call,
please notify the instructor at the beginning of the lecture. If you are using a tablet or laptop computer to take notes,
please stay on task (i.e. don’t check emails or surf the internet).
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Why this course is useful?
This course is designed to promote critical thinking about agricultural production practices, agricultural
sustainability, limitations to agricultural production and agricultural impacts on the environment. These topics are
especially relevant with increased public awareness and criticism of agricultural and food production practices and their
environmental impacts.
Who should take this course?
Any person studying agriculture, agroecology, environment or geography will benefit from an improved
understanding of soil and water management issues. Agriculture is a significant industry in Canada. The agricultural
practices employed have both strengths and weaknesses in terms of production potential and environmental impact.
These issues are complex and require detailed knowledge in order to arrive at informed decisions about beneficial
management practices.
How this course fits into the curriculum
SOIL 4510 is a required course in the Agronomy program in the Faculty of Agricultural and Food Sciences and a
restricted elective in several other programs in the faculty.
Course Description/Objectives
Undergraduate Calendar Description
Topics include capability of land for agriculture; storage, movement and use of water; saline and alkaline soils;
soil conservation including erosion; sustainability of soil organic matter; effect and fate of soil amendments.
Instructional Methods
The class is taught lecture-style with student involvement and interaction during class periods. The lab exercises
and the term project are designed to provide opportunity to apply concepts taught in class and a practical perspective to
the subject material.
Course Objectives
At the completion of this course, the student should be able to:
1.
explain relationships among soil, water and air as they relate to environmental quality and agriculture in western
Canada,
2.
interpret soil, landscape and climate data for the purpose of identifying potential environmental impacts of
agricultural practices,
3.
design a manure management plan for a specific livestock operation and explain the rationale for the design both
orally and in written form.
4.
pass the Soil & Water Management section of the Prairie Province Certified Crop Advisor exam.
Description of Examinations
(Note: exam content information below is based on previous material and is subject to change)
Midterm exam (tentative date - 30 October 2015)
- Multiple choice (10 marks), Fill in the blanks (10 marks), Short answer (30 marks)
- 50 minutes duration during the class period
Final exam (will be scheduled during the December final exam period)
- Multiple choice (10 marks), Fill in the blanks (10 marks), Short answer (30 marks), Long answer (50 marks)
- 2 hours duration
Description of Assignments
Laboratory assignments are designed to be completed during the laboratory session and handed in at the end.
They will be graded and returned the following week. Lab exercises involve interpretation of soil and environmental
information. The class notes should be accessible during the lab to facilitate applying the concepts from the lectures.
During the lab period, students will perform calculations and should bring a calculator.
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A term project will be assigned on October 21. Students will work in groups to development a manure
management plan using actual soil and landscape data for a specified location. Students will present their plan to their
peers and a panel of experts. They will also submit an individual report. The term project grade will be a combination of
the grades submitted by the experts, their peers and the instructor for their presentation as well as the grade received by
their group on the calculations and environmental risk in addition to an individual mark for the written report and for
participation as graded by their peers in each group.
Assignment Due Dates
Laboratory sessions are scheduled as follows with assignments for those sessions with exercises due on the same
date. All labs are in Room 245, Ellis Building.
September 16
No Lab
September 23
No Lab
September 30
Lab 1 Calculation and Interpretation of Climatic Risk
October 7
Lab 2 Interpreting Land Resource Information
October 14
Lab 3 Land Use Planning
October 21
Term Project – Target Yield and Manure Nutrient Calculations
October 28
Term Project – Environmental Risks
November 4
Term Project – Manure application techniques
November 11
No lab
November 18
Term Project Presentation preparations
November 25
Term Project presentations
December 2
Lab 4 Irrigation Suitability
December 9
Lab 5 Soil and Water Quality Issues
The term project presentations will be 25 November 2015 at 2:30 p.m. in Room 245 Ellis Building. The individual
written reports are due on 9 December 2015 at 2:30 p.m.
iClicker Questions
Student responses to iClicker questions will be worth 5% of the grade in the course. The iClicker will be used in
2 different ways during class. There will be a “Pre-Section Quiz” questions used to set up the content for a specific topic.
These will not be used in the calculation of student grades. There will also be “iClicker Questions” that follow specific
sections and these will be used to calculate the grade. There will be approximately 25 to 30 of the latter over the duration
of the course during class lecture periods. The iClicker grade will rely solely on the number of times that each student
responds correctly to the “iClicker Questions”. Students who provide at least 20 correct responses over the duration of the
course will receive a full mark on this section (5%). For students with less than 20 correct responses, the mark will be
discounted proportionally according to the number of correct responses provided (e.g. 16 correct responses = [(16 / 20) x
5%] = 4%).
Students will require an iClicker remote. These are available to purchase at the U of M Bookstore at a cost of
$44.95 for new or $29.95 for used. They can also be rented from UMSU at a cost of $6.30 for the term, plus a refundable
$20 deposit. To receive credit, you must register your iClicker. There will be one roll-call registration during class, web
registration or students can send their iClicker registration via an email message to the instructor.
Grade Evaluation
Midterm Exam – 20%
Laboratory Assignments – 15%
Term Project – 20%
Final Exam – 40%
iClicker questions – 5%
Results for the midterm and the grade for
at least two laboratories will be returned
prior to the final date for voluntary withdrawal.
Numeric Grade
90 – 100
80 – 89
75 – 79
70 – 74
65 – 69
60 – 64
50 – 59
< 50
Letter Grade
A+
A
B+
B
C+
C
D
F
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Texts, Readings, Materials
Textbook(s) – Authors, Titles, Edition
No textbook is required. The Powerpoint slides used in class and available for download constitute the study material for
the class.
Course Policies
Late Assignments
Laboratories must be submitted at the end of the laboratory period in order to accommodate timely feedback of
grades and comments. If students know beforehand that they will not be able to attend a laboratory session, they should
contact the instructor to make alternate arrangements.
Students must be present for the term project presentations on 25 November 2015. Those students who are not in
attendance will receive a grade of zero on the presentation portion of the project. Individual reports handed in after the
due date and time will lose 10% of the grade for each day late.
Missed Assignments
Students who do not submit a laboratory assignment will receive a grade of zero. Missed laboratory exercises
cannot be made up after the graded reports have been returned. Those students who do not submit an individual term
project report will receive a grade of zero for that portion of the term project.
Missed Exams
If students know beforehand that they will not be able to attend an exam, they must contact the instructor to make
alternate arrangements. Students who miss an exam without notice will receive a grade of zero on the exam. Students
who miss the final exam will receive a grade of “Incomplete – Fail” on the course.
Academic Integrity
Plagiarism or any other form of cheating in examinations, term tests or academic work is subject to serious
academic penalty. Cheating in examinations or tests may take the form of copying from another student or bringing
unauthorized materials into the exam room. Exam cheating can also include exam impersonation. A student found guilty
of contributing to cheating in examinations or term assignments is also subject to serious academic penalty. Students
should acquaint themselves with the University’s policy on plagiarism, cheating, exam impersonation and duplicate
submission (see Section 8, under General Academic Regulations in the University of Manitoba Undergraduate Calendar,
http://crscalprod1.cc.umanitoba.ca/Catalog/ViewCatalog.aspx).
Use of Third Party Detection and Submission Tools
Electronic detection tools may be used to screen assignments in cases of suspected plagiarism.
Group Work Policies
Laboratory assignments will utilize resource material compiled specifically for each exercise. There are a number
of packages of resource material for the lab exercises. Students should work in groups and share the resource material but
each student should prepare and submit their own individual laboratory assignment.
The term project is a group work assignment, for which all students in a group will receive the same grade for
some portions (environmental risks, yield and rate calculations, presentation). The project also includes an individual
written report which each student will prepare and submit separately. Students within each group will submit a
participation grade for all persons within their group and that grade will form part of each individual’s overall grade for
the term project.
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Course Content
Topic
_______________________________________________________________________
Approximate
Number of Lectures
Introduction – Global Ag Challenge
1
Section 1. The Agricultural Climate Resource
- climatic limitations for crop production in western Canada
- frost-free days, growing degree days, crop heat units,
- precipitation, climate probability and risk
- soil moisture, evapotranspiration, soil water balance
4
Section 2. The Agricultural Land Resource
- agricultural land in Canada
- soil maps and reports, map scale
- prairie soil orders and agriculture
- soil capability classification for agriculture
5
Section 3. Nutrient Management
- nutrient movement, nutrient cycling
- fertilizer use, nutrient balance
- nutrient uptake and removal
- management of nutrients in manure
- agricultural productivity, target yield
- crop yield-moisture-N interaction
- landscape impacts on productivity
6
Section 4. Water Management
- prairie water quality issues
- surface water, riparian zones
- management for moisture stress and surplus
- subsurface water
Section 5. Soil and Water Issues
- soil salinity/sodicity – causes and management
- irrigation suitability
- irrigation water quality
- drainage of agricultural land
- water, wind and tillage erosion risk factors and management
- soil acidity, lime requirement
- trace elements
- soil organic mattter
- soil structure
3
14
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