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Hen with eggs on engineering plan with pencil

Hen House Engineering (Grades 6-8)

  • Lesson
  • Grades 6 – 8

Students will use the Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning model to evaluate styles of housing used for hens that lay eggs. Using critical thinking skills, students will compare housing styles, determine which system meets their animal welfare standards, and engineer their own hen house model to meet the needs of laying hens. This lesson covers a socioscientific issue and aims to provide students with tools to evaluate science within the context of social and economic points of view.

black angus cattle in field chewing cud

The Remarkable Ruminant

  • Lesson
  • Grades 6 – 8

In this lesson, students will follow the farm to fork process of producing beef, learn how cattle and other ruminants convert grass into nutrient-rich foods such as milk and meat, discover ways cattle recycle food waste, and identify careers in the beef cattle industry.

white sheep standing in tall grass

Sheep See, Sheep Do (Grades 6-8)

  • Lesson
  • Grades 6 – 8

Students explore the difference between inherited and acquired traits and understand why knowledge of inherited and acquired traits is important to agriculture. Activities in this lesson include trait sorting, two video clips, a PTC taste test, and student presentations.

Surrounded by Plants

  • Lesson
  • Grades 9 – 12

Students identify the importance of plants to human life by surveying their home and neighborhood for plant products used for medicine, aesthetics, fuel products, fiber, and food.

Apples and the Science of Genetic Selection

  • Lesson
  • Grades 9 – 12

Students will distinguish between natural and artificial selection and use a student-centered learning activity to see how science and genetics have been used to artificially select apples for specific traits like color, texture, taste, and crispness.

Deficiency of minerals in plant. lack of nitrogen, potassium. Sick yellow currant leaves.

Plant Nutrient Deficiencies (Grades 9-12)

  • Lesson
  • Grades 9 – 12

Students will recognize that plants, like people, require essential nutrients to be present in the right amounts in order to be healthy, use reference materials to diagnose plant nutrient deficiencies, define fertilizer as a type of “food” for plants, and appreciate that fertilizers are used to replenish nutrients in agricultural soils.

Know Your Nitrogen

  • Lesson
  • Grades 9 – 12

In this lesson, students will test for plant-available soil nitrogen and learn how farmers use this test to precisely match fertilizer application to meet crop needs and reduce the amount of nitrogen left in the soil.

What's Your pH?

  • Lesson
  • Grades 9 – 12

In this lesson students will measure the pH of a soil sample and learn how pH affects the availability of nutrient uptake by plants. Students will determine if and how their soil pH should be modified through the application of soil amendments.

Concentrate on the Solution

  • Lesson
  • Grades 9 – 12

In this lesson, students will use their knowledge of solutes, solvents, and parts per million to analyze fertilizer options that meet plant nutrient requirements while evaluating costs associated with managing plant nutrients.

hand holding soil

Properties of Soils (Grades 9-12)

  • Lesson
  • Grades 9 – 12

Students examine different types of soil that have been mixed with water and allowed to settle. Next, they work with a soil model to investigate its components (sand, silt, and clay) and learn how the properties of these components affect the passage or retention of water through the soil and the amount of air in the soil.

roots of a plant growing in the soil

Plant-Soil Interactions (Grades 9-12)

  • Lesson
  • Grades 9 – 12

Students will explain the roles of diffusion and active transport in moving nutrients from the soil to the plant, describe the formation of soil and soil horizons; and describe the events in the Great Dust Bowl, how they relate to soil horizons, and how those events affected agricultural practices.

Hen with eggs on engineering plan with pencil

Hen House Engineering (Grades 9-12)

  • Lesson
  • Grades 9 – 12

Students use the Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning model to evaluate styles of housing used for hens that lay eggs. Using critical thinking and scientific investigation skills, students will compare housing styles, determine which system meets their animal welfare standards, and engineer their own hen house model to meet the needs of laying hens. This lesson covers a socioscientific issue and aims to provide students with tools to evaluate science within the context of social and economic points of view.