This soil science for kids activity is part of our ongoing News Spotlight series, where real research, like this 2026 Ig Nobel Prize-winning citizen science project, gets turned into leveled reading, discussion questions, and classroom-ready extensions for grades K through middle school. If your students enjoyed learning how buried underwear can reveal the health of soil, try the extension activity above to run a simplified version of the experiment yourselves, or pair this lesson with the Read Aloud Spotlight on Ode to Underwear by Helaine Becker for a lighthearted follow-up.
