Globalization and global environmental issues, as well as unification of scientific researches and teaching on EU level necessitate harmonization and correlation of technical languages, such as the one used in soil science. Despite the passage of years and the development of unified European system of soil description it is still not used in a satisfactory manner among teaching staff at EU universities. National bias in soil teaching still dominate and seriously complicates exchange of information and teaching process. Existing national or cross-border projects are limited either territorially or as a result of the use of national methods of description and classification. International projects overcome these limitations but usually refer to one or a few selected environmental aspects. Another drawback of these projects from didactical point of view is a typical scientific approach, which results in a low availability of raw data and complicated manner of their presentation. Therefore, they are nearly useless for teaching purposes. The consortium brings together specialists from 9 Institutions from 8 countries (Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) having expertise in soils of different regions of Central Europe. Each partner is an renowned expert in the study of soils within particular region. Individual members of the consortium also participated in a number of works related to the adaptation of the WRB in regional research (national scale), as well as international (testing WRB for improvement of next editions) and its use in the context of learning and teaching at the higher education level. Such experience is essential to reach the project objectives. The Freely Accessible Central European Soil (FACES) project will create a student fieldwork manual, course curriculum and soil database of Central Europe, covering the Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. The product will be extensive and offered in unified format. Moreover it will be user-friendly. International system of the characteristics of soils adopted by the FAO will be used for the presentation of the data. Interpretation of the origin and systematic position of soils will be based on the international classification of soils WRB (World Reference Base for Soil Resources), which the new (third) edition was published in 2014 (and update in 2015). Development of extensive database applying the new version is thus essential from didactic point of view. Project will allow to prepare state of the art teaching resources. Since next edition of WRB will not be published before 2026, produced materials will be up-to-date didactical tools for many years. Among project activities will be meetings dedicated to collection of soil data necessary to prepare teaching materials. Soil samples will be collected to carry necessary laboratory analysis. On the basis of obtained field and laboratory soil data will be prepared online database and chapters for soil atlases. There are also planned two Intensive Courses. These IP meetings will take place in 2017 (Lithuania) and 2018 (North Poland). The main objectives of these activities will be testing and evaluation of pilot educational module. Elaborated data base (and other outcomes) will be freely accessible as a web site throughout European Union and whole world as well. The obtained product, due to its modern form will be powerful tool in teaching at universities. It will also improve cooperation between European institutions dealing with soil science, environmental issues, geoinformation systems etc. The use of developed product will be resulting in raising of theoretical and practical qualifications and skills of students and soil science professionals, which will last also many years after end of founding period of FACES.
Globalization and global environmental issues, as well as unification of scientific investigation and teaching on EU level necessitate the harmonization and correlation of technical languages, such as the terminology used by soil scientists. Despite the passage of years and the unification of many European laws, the system of soil description it is still not unified on a satisfactory level among teaching staff of European universities. The consortium brought together the experts from 9 Institutions from 8 countries (Czechia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia) all having experience in soil classification of different regions of Central Europe. Each partner has advanced knowledge on soils of particular region. Individual members of the consortium also participated in numerous activities related to the adaptation of the WRB on a regional (national) scale, translations of this system into national languages, international correlation and testing of WRB, and its use in the context of learning and teaching at higher education level. Such experience was essential to reach the project objectives. Cooperation during project lifetime proved, that it was the optimal choice of partners. All involved have worked in a timely and effective manner, which enabled all of the objectives to be achieved and even expanded. Among the project activities were the meetings (7) dedicated to management of project and collection of soil data necessary to prepare the teaching materials. Soil samples were collected to carry necessary laboratory analysis. On this basis Freely Accessible Central European Soil (FACES) project consortium created numerous products: student fieldwork manual, course curriculum, 3 volumes of Soil Sequences Atlases and soil database for Central Europe, covering Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. International system of soil description by UN-FAO was used for the presentation of the data. Interpretation of the origin and systematic position of soils is based on the international soil classification WRB (World Reference Base for Soil Resources), those recent edition was published in 2014/2015. Development of extensive database applying the new version is thus essential from educational point of view. State of the art teaching resources were elaborated during FACES lifetime (2015-2018). Produced materials are and will be up-to-date educational tools for many years. Project partners encourage for wide use of unified methods for soil diagnosis and description (FAO Guidelines, 2006). Therefore introduction of this system in students’ training is very important. Publication of Students’ version Guidelines, where both activities are integrated, e.g. soil diagnosis and WRB classification, offers a better opportunity for the non-professional users to better understand these systems, and to see its contiguity. Two 5 days long Intensive Courses in Kaunas, Lithuania (2017) and Toruń, Poland, (2018) were attended by 79 students taught by 10 professors. The main objectives of these activities was testing and evaluation of the pilot educational module and accompanying educational tools. An equally important goal was to educate groups of students from partner countries in the field of soil description and classification. Students rated the workshops very highly in terms of education (95% of students were very satisfied/satisfied) and organization. The obtained product, due to its modern form, is a powerful tool in teaching at universities. It also improves cooperation between European institutions dealing with soil science, environmental issues, geoinformation systems etc. The use of developed product results in raising of theoretical and practical qualifications and skills of students and soil science professionals, which will last also many years after end of founding period of FACES. The "Soil Education and Classification" dissemination conference took place on 18th-20th May in Toruń and was great success. The event gathered nearly 90 soil experts and students from more than 20 countries from 4 continents. FACES products are easily accessible from various websites (NCU depository, Academia.edu, ResearchGate) and its popularity extended our expectations. In 4,5 months Guidelines was downloaded 315 times from Academia.edu and 239 times from NCU repository, got 3120 views on ResearchGate. Soil Sequences Atlas II was downloaded more than one thousand times from NCU repository and ResearchGate. Good reception of FACES products encourages consortium members to further cooperation to change soil education and introduce gamization approach in next project.