Near the end of first quarter, freshman students put their lab design skills to the test as they wrote their own soil testing experiments. In Biology class, students examined several soil samples from a city junkyard near the river, from a forest preserve in the northwest corner of the city, and from the grounds just outside of school. Students chose to conduct a variety of tests to examine soil quality, including a chlorine test, an iron test, and a pH test. Before conducting these tests, students investigated what a “healthy” soil sample would look like, and what types of results such a sample would have. Store-bought soil served as the control for each student’s experiment. Students recorded results and wrote their own conclusions, which they shared with peers during the first week of the second quarter