Curriculum

Explore, download and share these proven real-world educational resources to help bring science and agriculture to life in your classroom. Relevant and engaging, you’ll find useful, easy-to-implement lesson plans and activities.

unit
unit

Living the hive life: honey bees and pollinators

4 lessons, 9 files
How important are honey bees to our food supply? What’s happening to honey bees? This unit contains three different ways to learn about honey bees and pollinators: a video for all to learn more about bees and how to successfully keep them, a …
unit
unit

Bioeconomy and soybeans: investigating challenges and exploring solutions

5 lessons, 17 files
What is a bioeconomy? What is the role of soybeans in the development of bioeconomies in Spanish-speaking countries? International markets are very important to soybean farmers across the globe. In this unit, students in a Spanish language class will explore the idea of a bioeconomy and research case studies of …
unit
unit

Water quality and human impacts

3 lessons, 9 files
Why is water quality important? How is water quality measured? The US EPA has set water quality standards in accordance with the Clean Water Act: Water quality standards are important because they help to protect and restore the quality of the Nation's surface …
unit
unit

Global trade in agriculture

4 lessons, 13 files
Where did your food come from? How far did it travel? Many people are thinking about these questions prompted by the mantra “Buy Local.” But much of our food has been shipped by barge, ridden on rails and rolled on the road in trucks. Without …
unit
unit

GMOs go global: should they be labeled?

5 lessons, 11 files
Should labeling of GMOs be mandatory? What do you know about genetic modification? Is genetic modification helpful or harmful? This unit will help to develop student thinking about genetic modification and food security issues around the …
unit
unit

Managing nutrient and pesticide needs in agriculture

7 lessons, 12 files
Why do farmers spend time and money to apply chemicals to their fields? In this threaded PBL*, (an effort to integrate agricultural understandings into the normal sequence of an Environmental Science classroom) students will conduct several “close reads” (reading for …
unit
unit

Where does our food come from, anyway? Sustainable ag systems

3 lessons, 7 files
How do growers’ decisions affect the sustainability of agricultural systems? Understand and appreciate food producers through this case study and determine what decisions must be made on a yearly, monthly, or daily basis to maintain an environmental system that will continue …