CONTEST IS GOOD DIRTY FUN A.V. STUDENTS LEARN SOIL COMPOSITION, LAND SUITABILITY.

Byline: Peggy Hager Staff Writer

LANCASTER - Nearly 80 teenagers got to play with dirt Tuesday as part of a contest sponsored by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service and Antelope Valley Resource Conservation District.

At a home in Lake Los Angeles, at farms on 50th Street East and at St. Andrew's Abbey in Valyermo, agriculture and science classes at Littlerock, Rosamond and Quartz Hill competed in testing soils to determine the soil composition and its suitability for various land uses.

``They're going to be able to say, Yeah, you can't put a building on this site because it has these limitations, Yeah, you can grow crops on this land,'' said Sharon Weisenberger, a Quartz Hill High teacher.

Weisenberger said she's been teaching about the physical science of soils to both her physical science and agricultural classes.

Answering questions on test papers they carried with them from site to site, the teens were to turn in their work at the end of the trip.

Teachers will grade the tests and then send in each school's top five scores to the Resource Conservation District. At the district's meeting next month, the five highest-scoring individuals will get cash prizes.

The school with the highest total from the top five students will receive a trophy.

At Calandri Farms on 50th Street East, the teens climbed down into a 5-foot-deep pit to check the soil's consistency. They took samples of the soil, mixed it with water and crumbled it with their fingers to decide whether it was clay, sand or silt.

Carolyn LoFreso, soil conservationist with the USDA Conservation Service, assisted the students.

``The teachers work with the kids on their soil units all throughout the year, so we try to provide them a hands-on experience, actually seeing the soil, looking at the profile and taking what they've learned in the classroom to an applied level,'' explained LoFreso. ``Just to give them a better awareness of the importance of soils and the makeup of soils and how it relates to the area that they're looking at.''

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) USDA Conservation Service soil conservationist Carolyn LoFreso tells Quartz Hill students a few things about the hole they'll climb into as part of a soil analysis competition Tuesday among several Antelope Valley high schools.

(2 -- color) Erica Davis, 15, tests the soil at a farm Tuesday. She and the other students were to answer questions on test papers they carried with them from site to site and turn them in at the end of the trip.

(3 -- color) Quartz Hill High School students assay soil at a 50th Street East farm on Tuesday, one of three sites around the Antelope Valley they visited as part of a competition with other A.V. high schools to analyze soil and set land usage.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer