Students will explore the importance of wheat in the development of culture by learning about the advent of agriculture, discussing wheat cultivation in ancient Egypt, threshing a head of wheat with their hands, and making a corn dolly out of wheat stems.
Students investigate US crop and livestock production and analyze the relevance of land use models in contemporary agricultural production.
Students identify the basic needs of plants and fish and engineer, assemble, maintain, and observe a small-scale aquaponics system that meets plant and fish needs.
Students will determine the presence of DNA in their food by extracting it from a strawberry. Then, students will compare and contrast GMOs and organic foods in order to evaluate the nutrition, safety, economic, geographic, and environmental impacts of these agricultural production practices.
Students explore the difference between inherited and acquired traits and discover why knowledge of inherited and acquired traits is important to agriculture.
Using wheat as an example, students explore how DNA determines the genetic traits of a plant and how plant breeders change the DNA of a plant to produce desired characteristics.
Students design a green bean planter and explore planting specifications for green bean seeds.
Students explore how genes affect important traits such as growth, reproduction, disease resistance, and behavior and discover the responsibilities of an animal geneticist.
Students explore how dominant and recessive traits are expressed and discover how knowledge of heredity is important to agriculture.
Students pursue a process of inquiry to profile George Washington, evaluating the personal characteristics that made him a great leader while also exploring historical and modern food systems.
Students investigate the physical change that occurs as milk is turned into butter.
Students compare agricultural inventors and inventions by creating a timeline of important dates, explore cattle flight zones, and work as agricultural engineers to design a corral system that uses the research of Dr. Temple Grandin.