Students will explore strategies that can decrease food waste at home and school, design solutions for schoolwide food waste reduction efforts, and participate in food waste challenges that encourage sustainable shopping, correct food storage practices, and meal planning.
Students estimate the size and weight of pumpkins, sprout pumpkin seeds, and make pumpkin pie in a bag.
Students estimate the size and weight of pumpkins, sprout pumpkin seeds, and make pumpkin pie in a bag.
Students investigate the phenomenon of decomposing pumpkins as a part of the plant's life cycle.
Students discover that topsoil is a nonrenewable resource and use an apple to represent how Earth’s land resources are used. Through critical thinking, students study agricultural land use and consider the sustainability of current land use practices including the use of land to feed and graze livestock animals.
Students will evaluate the USDA grading system for whole cuts of beef and discuss consumer preferences and nutritional differences between grain-finished and grass-finished beef. Students will also distinguish various labels on beef products and discuss reasons for the government’s involvement in agricultural production, processing and distribution of food.
Students investigate the growth and production of citrus fruits and use observation and mathematical computation to compare and contrast grapefruits and lemons.
Students investigate the importance of light to plants by creating a desktop greenhouse investigation and exploring the process of photosynthesis.
Students explore the history of the Christmas tree, explain the life cycle of a conifer, identify types of trees and how they adapt, discover what it's like to work on a Christmas tree farm, and examine the ecology of conifer trees.
Students explain why people have different opinions regarding soil management and identify cause and effect relationships relating to agriculture and the environment.
While many view bioengineered crops (GMOs) as a promising innovation, there is controversy about their use. This lesson provides students with a brief overview of the technology, equipping them with the ability to evaluate the social, environmental, and economic arguments for and against bioengineered crops (GMOs). 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.
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.