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.
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Living the hive life: honey bees and pollinators
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 …
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Bioeconomy and soybeans: investigating challenges and exploring solutions
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 …
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Water Windmill Challenge
How do engineers build strong support structures? This unit asks students to create a windmill structure using the Engineering Design Process. A farmer has hired your company, Wind Power Technologies, to engineer a derrick to support a …
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Smart farming: using data to make decisions
What kind of data do farmers use to make decisions? Where does that data come from? Become a "farmer" on a journey from pre-planting to harvest to see what decisions farmers are making every year as they farm. Growers across the country are gaining access to more and more data about …
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Stick a fork in it: biodegradable products
Which biobased substrate will create a durable form of bio-plastic? Which biobased material has the least effect on the composition of compost and runoff through degradation? Compostable plastics are a new generation of plastics that are biodegradable through composting. They are derived generally from renewable raw materials like starch (e.g. corn, potato, tapioca etc), …
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Future of food
How has agriculture changed? What is a GMO? What is the future of food? Society and cultures revolve around food. There are television networks solely focused on food and it is almost impossible to take a drive without passing a fast food chain. Billions of dollars are …
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Water quality and human impacts
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 …
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Dinner and data and drones, oh my!: technology in agriculture
What technologies are used to help farmers become more productive and more sustainable? Drones (or UAVs-unmanned aerial vehicles) are taking to the skies. What are they doing up there? What other technologies are there that help growers become more productive, yet more thoughtful about …
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AFNR natural resources
How do we impact natural resources by our activities? This unit helps meet some of the AFNR curriculum standards for natural resources. Students will learn how to test texture and other physical characteristics of soil, conduct water quality tests, …
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Nitrogen fixation and legumes: say what?
How do legumes fix nitrogen? If the atmosphere is about 80% Nitrogen (N2), but plants cannot use that form, how do they get nitrogen? In this unit, students plant and care for soybeans under one of five different …
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Managing nutrient and pesticide needs in agriculture
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 …
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Where does our food come from, anyway? Sustainable ag systems
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 …