Welcome to the Soil Your Undies Challenge, run in collaboration with UNE SMART Farms, CottonInfo and UNE Discovery. Check out our challenge journey below.
Welcome to the Soil Your Undies Challenge, run in collaboration with UNE SMART Farms, CottonInfo and UNE Discovery. Check out our challenge journey below.
‘Soil Your Undies’ is a fun and engaging citizen science campaign run by UNE’s Dr Oliver Knox and CottonInfo that explores soil health and allows participants to share their experiences.
For the challenge, participants receive a pair of 100% white cotton undies to bury in topsoil for two months. After this time, the undies are retrieved, photographed and the level of decomposition recorded. If the undies have decomposed significantly, there is good biological activity. This indicates healthy soil! These same soil organisms that break down the cotton can break down plant materials in much the same way.
Working with UNE SMART Farms, we will be live streaming the degradation of our undies from one of the University’s rural properties, Kirby, so you’ll be able to see what is potentially happening to your undies underground – we know it’s hard not to take a sneak peek!
The challenge will also incorporate educational checkpoints, providing teachers with the resources to explore soil health with their students further. This is a fantastic opportunity for those at home or at school to learn about soils pH, temperature and moisture profiles, and how your soil breaks down cotton underpants!
For more information on the Soil Your Undies Campaign click here to head to their website.
Each challenge participant will be sent:
There is no cost for participants to enter the challenge.
All challenge participants will go in the draw to win a participation prize, being a complimentary full-day visit from UNE Discovery Voyager and/or the UNE SMART Farms education team. Depending on the location of the winning individual/s, this may be a physical visit or an interactive virtual visit. Please see the Terms and Conditions below for a full description of the participation prize.
Students from Kindergarten to Year 12, Australia wide! Homeschoolers are also invited to participate. Registration for the challenge must be made by the teachers, parents or guardians of participating students.
Registrations for the challenge will open on Friday 2 July 2021 at 9am and will close on Friday 23 July 2021 at 5pm. The Soil Your Undies Challenge will run from the Monday 16 August 2021 until Friday 8 October 2021. Throughout this time there will be educational checkpoints for students to undertake. The results of the challenge will be released on Friday 12 November 2021. The prize, which will take the form of a virtual/physical visit to the winning entrant’s class or home, will be organised and undertaken during the week of 6-10 December 2021.
Click the link below to see the Challenge Calendar and key dates.
No, you must use the undies supplied by UNE. If any other undies are used in the challenge, your entry will be void. This is to ensure participants entries are standardised, and allows results to be used for research.
No, each challenge participant must bury their undies for a total of 8 weeks.
No, you only have to participate in two of three educational checkpoints, and ensure you have photographs of your students undertaking these checkpoints for submission. Please see Terms and Conditions for further details.
Yes, but the burial site of your undies must be different to that of your classes.
Students from Kindergarten to Year 12 are able to participate in the challenge. Home schooled children are also eligible to participate.
Yes. By undertaking this experiment, our soil scientists are able to compare soil health across different locations around Australia.
Yes, your undies must be returned to UNE by Friday 29 October 2021. This is to ensure undies can be analysed and results collated for research.
You can register as many times as you like, however each undie burial site must be at a different address. Duplicated submissions from the same address will be void.
Teachers and parents will act as registration representatives for their students and children, although they are also encouraged to play along and participate in the educational checkpoints with their young ones along the way!
Maximum file size is allowed 64MB.
Supported file types are .jpg, .png, and PDF.
No, entries are open to students from Kindergarten to Year 12, Australia wide!
2 July 2021 | Challenge launch | Registration portal opens |
23 July 2021 | Registrations close | Registration portal closes |
19 August 2021 | All undies to be buried by this date. | Participants take Photo#1 and Photo#2 |
2 September 2021 | Educational checkpoint #1: Clothing Fibres | Participants take Photo#3 |
9 September 2021 | Educational checkpoint #2: Soil pH Testing | Participants take Photo#4 |
16 September 2021 | Educational checkpoint #3: Collecting Data | Participants take Photo#5 |
14 October 2021 | Dig up undies by this date, take photo and return undies to UNE in reply paid envelope | Participants take Photo#6 |
1 November 2021 | Last day for receiving undies at UNE | |
7 November 2021 | Participation prize winners announced | |
6-10 December 2021 | Final results and prize delivery |
Challenge details will be announced via:
Depending of the location of the participant prize winners, the prize may take the form of a virtual immersive workshop or physical visit to participants home or school. For locations less than three hours travel from Armidale, NSW, the prize will be in the form of a physical visit. For locations more than three hours travel from Armidale, NSW, the prize will be a virtual immersive workshop. Prizes will be awarded as follows:
The total value of all prizes is $8,000 AUD. Prizes cannot be redeemed for cash.
Winners will be notified by email and/or phone on Friday 7 November 2021. Winners will then be publicly announced via the UNE Discovery Facebook page, UNE Discovery Newsletter/email to all those on the UNE Discovery mailing list, UNE Discovery Voyager website, UNE Life Facebook page, other means deemed appropriate by UNE Discovery. The prize, which will take the form of a virtual/physical visit to the winning entrant’s class or home, will be organised and undertaken during the week of 6 December 2021.