16 Sep 🩲 Soil Your Undies Challenge


We Want You to Soil Your Undies!
The 2020 Soil Your Undies Challenge is a collaboration between Dr Oliver Knox, CottonInfo, UNE SMART Farms and UNE Discovery, and aims to create broadscale engagement of school age children Australia wide.
‘Soil Your Undies’ is a fun and engaging citizen science project, originally conceived and established by the University of New England (UNE)’s Dr Oliver Knox and CottonInfo. It aims to increase awareness and understanding of soil health, exploring soil health concepts in a novel and fun way, and encouraging participants to share their experiences.
This challenge is an opportunity for citizens to become scientists, and not only collect data themselves, but to learn about soil acidity and alkalinity (pH), temperature, moisture, and the processes whereby the soil breaks down cotton underpants. For Term 4, 2020, Australians can contribute to a broader research project by Dr Oliver Knox and CottonInfo, and engage with UNE for a fun and educational experience. Previously, the campaign has not been run extensively in schools, and we aim to provide educators with the tools to do so.
UNE SMART Farms will drive the technology side of challenge, developing a telemetry system to observe a buried pair of underpants at the UNE SMART Farm, Kirby, via a live stream. This provides an opportunity for challenge participants to view how their underpants might be degrading over time, while also discovering the technology utilised in current research.