2025
Amber Anderson
Amber is receiving this award in the supplemental materials category, for additional learning materials targeting high school soil judging. As the state contest organizer, she wanted to provide additional interactive and high quality materials to help high schoolers and their instructors better understand soil features. Soil pits (excavated areas to view soil features) are not easily accessible by all soils learners, but demonstrates soil features that can’t be seen from the surface, so pictures and videos have been included along with additional materials on topics challenging to students.
Amber’s Other Work with OER
In addition to her work supporting high school soil judging contests, Amber has also written an introductory soil science textbook for her course, AGRON 1820, and collaborates with other faculty in the Agronomy department at Iowa State University to curate and develop original OER.
Finally, Amber is currently collaborating on the development of open educational resources for a very different audience: Iowa septic installers and county sanitarians. This is a vital project, as it is important for this population to understand soil properties for the health of citizens of Iowa.
Link to Resources:
- Soil Judging in Iowa
- Soil Basics for Iowa On-site Wastewater Evaluation
- Introduction to Soil Science
Bio:
Dr. Amber Anderson is an associate teaching professor at Iowa State University in the Agronomy Department as well as coach of Iowa State University’s soil judging team.
Originally from a farm in Northwest Iowa, she has continued that passion through the learning and teaching of soils in Iowa and abroad.