Our Soil/Nuestros Suelos: Community Science for Soil Care
Our Soil/Nuestros Suelos: Community Science for Soil Care
Submitter: Abby Kinchy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, kincha@rpi.edu
Abstract:
Our Soil/Nuestros Suelos is an interdisciplinary and community-engaged research effort that looks to develop new ways in which communities can engage with soils, especially regarding the presence of potential pollutants such as arsenic and lead. In August-November 2021, we collaborated with residents of Troy, New York (USA) and Arica, Chile to sample soils in yards, gardens, playgrounds, and other locations of concern and screened them for arsenic and lead, using low-cost field methods. While soil testing was the focal activity, it was contextualized with other methods of participatory research, such as collaborative mapping and exchanging knowledge about gardening and soil care. In this Making and Doing display, we will present how we designed and are working to validate the arsenic and lead field tests, display the handbook of organizing and knowledge-sharing activities that we developed, and give hands-on demonstrations of some activities that help to attune us to the relationships between soil, nutrition, and heavy metals.
Areas of STS Scholarship: Method and Practice, Urban STS, Environmental/Multispecies Studies
Authors/Participants: Abby Kinchy, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Salvatore Engel-Di Mauro, SUNY New Paltz
Kathy High, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Tal Margalit, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Hannah Price, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Mónica Ramírez-Andreotta, University of Arizona
Sebastian Ureta, Universidad Alberto Hurtado
Daniel Valenzuela, Universidad Santo Tomas
Dan Walls, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Chie Xu, Yale University
Caleb Yunis, Universidad Alberto Hurtado
