Lessons

Students design a board game that reinforces how rangelands provide habitat for livestock and wildlife while benefiting humans, animals, and plants and explore the responsibilities of a range manager.

Students recognize the names of different fruits and vegetables and describe why they are important.

Students measure the weight and length or circumference of various vegetables, classify the vegetables based on plant parts, explore chemical reactions from cooking colored vegetables in acidic and basic water, and use a variety of vegetables to prepare soup.

Students taste test four different milks while comparing color, texture, taste, and cost. In addition, students examine four milk food labels and complete a table comparing calories, fat, and calcium found in the milks. Students make cottage cheese by heating milk to the proper temperature and adding an acid (vinegar) to speed up the separation of curds and whey.

Students discover where the ingredients in a cookie are made and make chocolate chip oatmeal cookies to practice their measurement skills and fractional mathematics.

Students examine the process of egg production from the hen to our homes, explore the parts of an egg, perform measurements of circumference and height, compare raw egg whites to egg white foams, and prepare meringue cookies.

The students examine the functions of flowers and determine that some flowers are edible.

Students read the novel Esperanza Rising written by Pam Munoz Ryan to examine the lives of migrant workers, agricultural economics, the impact of agriculture to rural communities, agricultural history, and how fruits and vegetables have been harvested historically and are harvested currently.

Students investigate the functions of roots, recognize the difference between a tap and fibrous root system, and identify the roots of some plants as edible.

Students use food and farming as a basis for exploring the concepts of estimating and measuring using customary and metric units of measurements.