This article can enrich a lesson on food safety, transportation, food packaging, or food science with a real-life example. Illustrate how food scientists are researching the mandarin orange to protect the flavor of the fruit after it is harvested.
This engaging curriculum uses a mathematical lens to take children on an education-filled exploration of the garden. Dozens of hands-on activities hone math skills and promote inquiry, language arts, and nutrition. All were developed to support mathematics and science standards and were extensively trial-tested by educators and youth leaders nationwide.
With a bit of knowledge and creative thinking, meadowscaping allows us to transform lawns, playgrounds, empty lots, unused paved spaces, and patios into havens for plants and animals. This guide provides information and inspiration for creating meadow plantings anywhere—even in containers—and features six fun, hands-on projects to delight and inform your young gardeners.
With a bit of knowledge and creative thinking, meadowscaping allows us to transform lawns, playgrounds, empty lots, unused paved spaces, and patios into havens for plants and animals. This guide for caregivers and educators lifts up the benefits of meadows, meadowscaping, and ways to incorporate kids in meadowscaping. The guide also includes key tips for the success of your meadowscape.
Read about the research for a mobile system designed to remove phosphorus from cow manure. This technology may offer dairy farmers greater flexibility in where, when, and how they use the nutrient to fertilize crops.
Help students identify the "Corn Belt" region of the United States with an image taken from space which shows the agricultural productivity of the region.
This book provides stories, projects, and recipes that can easily be adapted for use in the classroom. Native American Gardening brings the magical world of stories together with the nurturing experience of gardening. Native stories lay the groundwork for understanding, while hands-on activities show readers how to continue the work of generations of Native farmers.
Genetically modified crops have specific genes transferred from one genome to another. Typically it is believed that this could not happen naturally without human assistance. However, this article reports on the evidence that the sweet potato has a gene originally found in a bacterium.
See a collection of articles reporting the results of various research projects carried out by the United States Department of Agriculture. These articles can help secondary students make connections with topics such as food, nutrition, and overall health.
Precision agriculture technologies are playing an increasing role in farm production. Examples include GPS tractor guidance systems and GPS soil and yield mapping for variable-rate applications. This USDA report discusses adoption rates for using these technologies and factors impacting adoption of use.
On the cramped urban campus of Boston Latin School, students grow an acre’s worth of vegetables in an old shipping container that’s been transformed into a computer-controlled hydroponic farm. Using a wall-mounted keyboard or a mobile app, the student farmers can monitor their crops, tweak the climate, make it rain and schedule sunrise. Use this article to illustrate an example of hydroponics, the use of technology in agriculture, and/or urban farming.
Use this article when talking about alternative sources for creating a biodegradable plastic. Scientists working at the United States Department of Agriculture have created a type of plastic safer for the environment which is made from sugar beet pulp that is added to a biodegradable polymer.