Lessons

Investigate the importance of nutrients to support plant growth and discover how plants grow without soil by growing and observing plants in a test tube hydroponic system.

Explore the farm-to-fork process of food through the lens of careers. Students will make a career web to see the variety of careers and skill sets necessary to our food system. They will check their understanding by playing Career Trek—a board game that requires students to identify careers in agriculture and natural resources.

Students observe the anatomical structures of flowers and explain a flower's role in plant growth and reproduction as well as their connection to our food supply.

Students will explore milk production in the United States and explain the benefits of homogenization, pasteurization, and fortification of milk.

Students will explore the steps and processes that create a food system and gain an understanding of hunger as it relates to the physical well-being, culture, and geographic location of all people. Students will learn what a food system encompasses, create a "food system chain," and discuss why hunger still exists despite modern advances that have made the US food system highly efficient.

Students will explore hunger, satiety, and mindful eating to discover how our eating habits are impacted by our awareness to physiological signals of hunger or fullness. Students will also practice mindful eating practices and explore portion sizes as they sort foods, create meals using portion-size food models, and track their food using mindful eating practices.

In this lesson students will learn that agriculture provides nearly all of the products we rely on in any given day by participating in a relay where they match an everyday item with its "source."

Students discover the variety of agricultural careers available and consider their career paths in terms of economics, interests, and suitability to their personal talents and characteristics.

Students investigate the importance of light to plants by creating a desktop greenhouse investigation and exploring the process of photosynthesis.

Students will observe the difference in bacterial count between a hamburger that’s left out at room temperature and a hamburger that’s kept refrigerated. The lab reinforces the concept that food must be properly chilled in order for it to remain safe to eat. This lab will be conducted as a teacher demonstration.

Explore agricultural career pathways from a lens of problem solving to recognize the challenges that will need to be addressed in the next generation of careers.

Students identify technologies that have changed the way humans affect the inheritance of desired traits in organisms; compare and contrast selective breeding methods to bioengineering techniques; and analyze data to determine the best solution for cultivating desired traits in organisms.