Each group needs:

• 6 10-oz. cups; cup sizes may vary, but must be large enough to hold 1 cup (8 oz.) of soil and be able to be punctured to create drainage holes in three of them; consider using plastic cups so that you can reuse them for activity Parts 1 and 2 as well as to run the activity with a different group of students
• scissors, or other cutting tool, to poke holes in the bottoms of three cups
• measuring cup, 8-oz. size
• natural clay, loam and sand, 12 oz. of each soil type per group; available at hardware and garden stores
• microscope with a minimum of 20x magnification
• spoon, or similar tool, to add biochar to soil (biochar tends to leave a black residue on hands)
• science notebook, one per student; alternative: numerous sheets of paper
• clear tape or white glue
• 100-ml graduated cylinder
• 600-ml beaker or other container to hold 600 ml of water for students to pour into graduated cylinders in 100-ml increments
• Soil and Biochar Mixture Lab Sheet, one per student

To share with the entire class:

• access to tap water
• ~3 quarts of biochar; typically, biochar is sold online or in gardening stores in larger quantities such as this 10-quart box at https://www.amazon.com/CoolTerra-Biochar-Improvement-10-Quarts/dp/B00WHB8AY8/ref=sr_1_1?s=lawn-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1463079619&sr=1-1&keywords=biochar; 10 quarts is enough to run the activity a few times
• bucket or tub, to hold dirty water
• bucket or tub, to hold wet soil and soil/biochar mixtures