Ag-Bites are bite-sized ways to bring agriculture into your classroom. These one-page sheets explain how to perform hands-on learning activities with students in various grade levels (K-12).
The crops we eat are constantly at risk of harm from pests. But what are these pests? In this activity, students will develop a definition of an agricultural pest that is meaningful to them and identify categories of pests such as insects, rodents, mollusks, weeds, and diseases.
This activity prepares students to interview someone in an agricultural career. Students will gain a greater awareness of the role agriculture plays in the American economy, practice oral and written communication skills, and learn about numerous agricultural careers.
In this activity, students will examine a variety of foods and their ingredients to determine which foods contain ingredients that may have come from genetically engineered plants.
This activity introduces students to a unique and interesting sequence of events related to the nature of scientific discovery. They will explore how scientific discoveries evolve and often lead to unexpected outcomes. While researchers were trying to develop a method of tenderizing beef, they discovered that the process they were researching also decreased the harmful bacteria in meat by 40-60%. This activity teaches students about this process and how it was developed.
This activity details instruction for making butter in a small baby-food sized jar.
“Bringing Biotechnology to Life” is an activity resource for science educators and others interested in learning more about biotechnology and its role in food production. There are seven lessons and activities covering topics such as DNA, selective breeding, agricultural biotechnology, and more.
In this activity students will taste different types of chocolate to determine if price is an indicator of better taste. Chocolate is a New World food that is now beloved by cultures around the globe. Use this activity to engage students with lessons related to the Columbian Exchange, global trade, food ingredients, and food origins and processing.
Farming is a risky business. Droughts and severe storms, equipment problems and outbreaks of animal disease can all occur unexpectedly and impact a farm negatively. This printable classroom board game teaches secondary students about animal disease management. Students take roles as a farmer, accountant, purchaser, or veterinarian to manage a pig farm. They will learn and use methods to prevent disease such as vaccinations and quarantine as they buy and sell animals at the auction.
In addition to selective breeding, genetic engineering tools are used by plant breeders to solve some agricultural challenges such as producing enough food to feed a growing global population or minimizing production impacts on our environment. Some plants have been engineered to be more nutritious, more resistant to pests, or more drought tolerant. In this activity, students will review the process of bacterial transformation and then look at the processes involved in creating genetically engineered plants.
In addition to selective breeding, genetic engineering tools such as transgenics and CRISPR gene editing can be used by plant breeders to solve agricultural challenges. Plants can be engineered to be more nutritious, more resistent to pests, drought tolerant, etc. This activity challenges students to match several crops and the challenges faced in growing them to potential solutions that could be reached with genetic engineering.
Demonstrate proper handwashing technique, proper surface cleaning and how to prevent the spread of germs. This kit includes a gel, lotion, or a powder which glows when exposed to a long wave UV light. This kit can be purchased from a variety of online retailers, search keyword "Glo Germ."
Do you have a complicated issue or problem to discuss with your students? Use a beach ball (or any other type of ball) to demonstrate why a person might have a different "point of view." This activity helps students recognize that every issue can be seen from different points of view.
Use these detailed instructions to add a DNA extraction activity to a science lesson on genetics and DNA.
Through this web quest, students will examine where their food comes from, federal agencies involved in protecting our food supply, how imported foods such as honey present a safety challenge, and what measures are being taken to meet these challenges. This activity can be paired with secondary lessons on food safety.
Paper circuits are an exciting way for students to learn how electrical circuits work. This activity gives students a foundation for what a circuit is and how to create a closed, series, parallel, and open circuit using a few simple supplies. The concepts learned in this introductory activity are a springboard for more complicated electrical projects such as sewing circuits and building prototypes controlled by Arduino boards.
This activity introduces students to food irradiation. Students will work in teams to conduct research on irradiation, analyze public opinion, and discover some of the advantages of this process.
This activity directs students in performing an experiment measuring the growth of beans using too much fertilizer, too little fertilizer, and the right balance of fertilizer. Students will learn how and why farmers use the correct amount and type of fertilizer to grow crops used for our food and fiber.
In this laboratory students will determine the amount of energy released from biodiesel compared to other energy sources.
Pair this activity with lessons on selective breeding. Students will identify desirable genetic traits in apples and use a coin flip to simulate the steps and time involved to breed a new cultivar of apple.
A 20-minute activity to illustrate to students that many of our foods come from around the world. Activity can be added to any lesson on food, food sources, nutrition, etc.
Modeling Selective Breeding with Starburst®
In this activity students will model the process of selective breeding using Starburst® candies to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of this breeding technique.
Move 'N Around—The Nitrogen Cycle Game
This classroom game is made up of eight stations that represent different forms of nitrogen. As players move from station to station, they collect cards that represent the different forms of nitrogen they became and whether they contributed to productive or unproductive outcomes. The interactive format breaks down a complex topic into an easy-to-digest format, allowing players to see how important nitrogen is as a building block of life and how to best optimize it as a critical component of biology.
New Plant Variety Safety Evaluation Project
Students will explore data collection for a hypothetical new potato variety to be evaluated for safety. They will also use a flow chart to evaluate whether the new variety is as safe and nutritious as comparable food or if additional information is needed to make a decision.
Nutrient Supply Activity
In this activity, students will explore the global problem of hunger and nutrient availability along with techniques that are being used to improve nutrient supplies where shortages exist. Students will also exercise their ability to identify credible information sources.
Nutrients for Life eLessons
Browse a library of elessons related to soil science. These videos are ideal for distance learning.
Planet Food Online Game
Have your students discover their own global food network by playing Planet Food—a two-part interactive game that introduces the concepts of interdependence and globalization through the geography of food. In part one, students see the ways food on their plate creates a map that criss-crosses the world. Part two will call on their critical thinking and geographic decision-making skills in an investigative journey as they consider different values and points of view while making a bar of chocolate.
Portion Size Comparison
This activity can supplement any nutrition lesson. Students will identify portion sizes for food and compare them with common every-day items through a "Grab Bag" activity.
Processed Food Breakdown
This 20-minute activity allows students to apply their knowledge of reading food labels and identifying the nutrient content of food. Students work in groups and are challenged to create a nutritious meal with processed foods. This is an ideal capstone activity for a lesson on reading food labels and determining the nutrient content of foods.
Selectively Breeding Sheep: Punnet Square Practice
This activity can be a companion to a secondary genetics lesson allowing students to practice completing Punnett Squares. Students will learn about sheep production and how sheep breeders can use the Punnett Square to predict the likelihood of lambs in their flock inheriting a disease called Spider Lamb Syndrome or SLS.
Show Them The Germs!
This activity helps students to understand how germs are spread and how they can prevent disease by washing their hands properly.
Skillet Toasted Squash Seeds
Seeds from winter squash are collected, cleaned, and skillet toasted for a unique and tasty snack.
Supply and Demand
A simple activity that demonstrates the principles of supply and demand.
Sweet Slow Cooker Squash
Students have the opportunity to taste winter squash in the classroom with this simple slow cooker recipe.
Targeted Genome Editing
In this activity, high school students develop an understanding of the CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing system and create an infographic (or poster or model) to demonstrate their understanding of the system.
The 12 Most Unwanted Bacteria
Students will divide into teams and select a bacterium from The 12 Most Unwanted Bacteria handout to research. Each team will create a food safety portfolio and conduct an innovative presentation. Each team will be able to recognize the foodborne illness that the bacterium causes and understand how to control that bacterium.
The Making of a New Apple Cultivar
This high school activity introduces students to apple growing and shows them how selective breeding is used to benefit both the apple grower and consumer by producing a new and better-quality apple.
Tootsie Roll Conversation About Conservation Terms
In our efforts to protect the environment we sometimes confuse the terms preserve and conserve. This activity is designed to help students understand the difference between conservation, preservation, and indiscriminate use.
Trading Around the World
Play this game to experience the challenges and excitement of international trade. See if you can get the best price for the goods you sell and the biggest bargains for the goods you buy. Watch how the global economy is doing: the prices you'll be able to get and the deals you can make depend on how healthy the global economy is.
Troubled Waters
In this activity students perform an experiment on plant growth using saline water, acidic water, and alkaline water to determine the effects of water quality on plant growth.
Two Truths and a Lie
You're scrolling through social media and come across a food meme. Is this fact or fiction? Use this activity to help students debunk food and farming misconceptions. Then, put these resources to work by incorporating the agricultural themes into student research projects.
Water Savers
Water Savers is a board game developed for grades 6-12 and designed to support a group of 2-5 students. The game introduces environmental issues and sustainable farming practices to encourage understanding of issues within students' community and/or region.
Book
Agricultural Inventions: At the Top of the Field
Historically, farming was an exhausting, physical task. Bright-minded individuals revolutionized agriculture with inventions that eased tasks and sped up production. The invention of milestone machines, such as Eli Whitney's cotton gin, are explored chronologically.
Agricultural Research Magazine
A scientific magazine with articles generally written in an 'easy-to-understand' fashion. Recommended for secondary science and agricultural educators who are looking to enhance their curriculum with the most recent agricultural research. View the current issue or the archives be visiting the website.
Agronomy - Grow with It!
Agronomy Grow with It! explores the science of agriculture. Agronomy is the science we use to grow the crops that feed us, feed our livestock, and even fuel our cars. It's a science that tackles the big challenge of our future: How can we grow enough food to end world hunger and, at the same time, adapt to a changing climate and protect our environment? This book introduces you to 20 real agronomists who face that challenge every day.
Amelia's Road
Amelia Luisa Martinez hates roads. Los caminos, the roads, take her migrant worker family to fields where they labor all day, to schools where no one knows Amelia's name, and to bleak cabins that are not home. Amelia longs for a beautiful white house with a fine shade tree in the yard, where she can live without worrying about los caminos again. Then one day, Amelia discovers an "accidental road." At its end she finds an amazing old tree reminiscent of the one in her dreams. Its stately sense of permanence inspires her to put her own roots down in a very special way. The richly colored illustrations bring to life the landscape of California's Central Valley farmland. Amelia's Road is an inspirational tale about the importance of home.
Ancient Agriculture
This book shows the progression of technology through history as human civilizations progressed from foraging to farming. Agriculture enabled humans to stop wandering from place to place to find food. This chapter book includes text as well as photographs and reproductions to illustrate the implementation of agriculture in our daily lives.
Careers in Agriculture
A secondary level e-book designed as a guide for students and young people considering their career opportunities by presenting them with a current, in-depth, thorough, and real view of the agricultural industry. Each page is equipped with interactive links to videos, further reading, and more.
Casper Jaggi: Master Swiss Cheese Maker
Have you ever wondered why Swiss cheese has holes? You'll find out in this story about a Swiss cheese maker named Casper Jaggi. Casper Jaggi was only six years old when his father taught him how to make cheese in the Swiss Alps. In 1913, Jaggi left Switzerland in search of new opportunities in the United States. Like many other Swiss, he settled in Green County, Wisconsin, where the rolling hills dotted with grazing cows reminded him of home. And soon, he'd be turning cow's milk into cheese, just as he did in Switzerland. The book opens the doors to Jaggi's Brodhead Swiss Cheese Factory—largest factory of its kind in Wisconsin in the 1950s. Archival photos help illustrate, step-by-step, the process Jaggi and his workers followed to transform 2,000 pounds of milk in a copper kettle into a 200-pound wheel of Swiss cheese. Jaggi was one of the many European immigrants who helped establish Wisconsin's reputation for delicious cheese. The Artisan cheese makers crafting award-winning cheeses today are continuing this rich tradition in America's Dairyland.
Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp
This highly readable portrait is about the Okies driven to California by the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s and the formidable hardships they faced. The desperation of their lives in the Midwest is described and then we follow the Okes on their trek across the western United States to the promise of work in California, where their hopes are dashed. Weedpatch Camp is the farm-labor camp built by the federal government, that educator Leo Hart creates a federal emergency school. The book includes period black and white photographs depicting the hardships and the school.
Cotton Now & Then: Fabric-Making from Boll to Bolt
The text and illustrations follow the process of fabric-making from boll to bolt. This book is a great introduction to cotton processing.
Dirt: The Scoop on Soil
This 24-page book discusses the nature of soil as well as it's uses. It is a great resource to teach students about soil, it's many forms, and the life that it supports.
Dust Bowl Diary
This is the diary of a young girl and includes her true account of the dust bowl. The book provides details and some humor. It would be great literature to accompany "Grapes of Wrath' or a class studying the dust bowl years in American History.
Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin
This graphic novel tells the story of how Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin, and the effects it had on the Southern United States.
From Cane to Sugar
This book illustrates the production of sugar, following the process from the farms where sugarcane is grown to the factories where the sugar is extracted to the stores where the sugar is sold.
Germ Stories
"I told my three sons stories about germs more than fifty years ago as fanciful bedtime tales." So begins this charming collection of poems written by Nobel Prize-winning scientist Arthur Kornberg to help us learn about the germs that help and harm us. These rollicking, entertaining, and informative poems have been illustrated with witty and amusing watercolors and the book also contains electron micrographs and a glossary for the student who wants to go deeper into the world of microbiology.
How Food gets from Farms to Store Shelves
Grocery stores are full of delicious food, but how did that food get there? This book uses easy to understand text to explain how food gets from farms to stores and introduces the workers who make it all possible.
Hungry Planet
In 2000, the author began research for this book on the world's eating habits. Each family was asked to purchase a typical week's groceries, which were artfully arrayed—whether sacks of grain and potatoes and overripe bananas, or rows of packaged cereals, sodas and take-out pizzas—for a full-page family portrait. A detailed listing of the goods, broken down by food groups and expenditures are shown, then a more general discussion of how the food is raised and used, illustrated with a variety of photos and a family recipe. While the photos are extraordinary—fine enough for a stand-alone volume—it's the questions these photos ask that make this volume so gripping. This is a beautiful, quietly provocative volume.
If the World Were a Village
Imagine if the entire world's population were compiled into a village of 100 people. What would the demographics of that village be? This book helps students understand the similarities and differences of a global society. Comprehend the languages they speak, where they live, how much money they earn daily, and if they can read and write.
Johnny Appleseed
John Chapman—better known as Johnny Appleseed—had wilderness adventures that became larger-than-life legends. Pioneering west from Massachusetts after the American Revolution, John cleared land and planted orchards for the settlers who followed, leaving apple trees and tall tales in his wake. In this glorious picture book retelling, Steven Kellogg brings one of America's favorite heroes—and the stories that surrounded him—to life.
Lazy B: Growing Up on a Cattle Ranch in the American Southwest
Deep in the granite hills of eastern Arizona in 1880, H.C. Day founded the Lazy B Ranch, where US Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and her brother Alan spent their youth, a time they recall in this affectionate joint memoir. "We belonged to the Lazy B, and it belonged to each of us," write O'Connor and Day. This fascinating glimpse of life in the Southwest in the last century recounts an important time in American history, and provides an enduring portrait of an independent young woman on the brink of becoming one of the most prominent figures in America.
Levi Strauss and Blue Jeans
Levi Strauss and Blue Jeans tells the story of the man who made the first pair of blue jeans and changed the way the world dressed! In the mid-1880s, while adventurers rushed off to California to find gold, Levi Strauss followed with an idea of his own. In dramatic, graphic novel format, this book follows Strauss as he works to create a pair of pants sturdy enough for gold miners. Readers will learn how Levi found that not just gold miners, but hard-working people everywhere wanted the durable pants with the pocket rivets.
Louis Pasteur and Pasteurization
In the early 1880s, people did not understand why food spoiled. Louis Pasteur discovered that small germs cause spoilage. He began working on a process that would help food last longer. Inside this graphic novel, the reader learns about the experiments Pasteur conducted and the process of pasteurization.
Midday Meals Around the World
Discover what children around the world eat for their midday meals. Menus include one or two meals from North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Kid-friendly recipes are also included.
Out of the Dust
This intimate novel, written in stanza form, poetically conveys the head dust and wind of Oklahoma along with the discontent of narrator Billie Jo who relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during Dust Bowl years of the Depression. ALA notable children's book, ALA best book for Young Adults, SLJ best book of the year.
Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry
This book tells the story of one African American family, fighting to stay together and strong in the face of brutal racist attacks, illness, poverty, and betrayal in the Deep South of the 1930s. Nine-year-old Cassie Logan, growing up protected by her loving family, has never had reason to suspect that any white person could consider her inferior or wish her harm. But during the course of one devastating year when her community begins to be ripped apart by angry night riders threatening African Americans, she and her three brothers come to understand why the land they own means so much to their Papa. "Look out there, Cassie girl. All that belongs to you. You ain't never had to live on nobody's place but your own and long as I live and the family survives, you'll never have to. That's important. You may not understand that now but one day you will. Then you'll see."
Say Cheese! A Kid's Guide to Cheese Making
A mother-daughter team bring easy cheese making right into your kitchen with this fun guide for kids and families. Step-by-step photos take kids ages 8–12 through the cheese making process, then teach them how to make 12 classic favorites, including mozzarella, feta, ricotta, and cream cheese. A hearty helping of kitchen chemistry and math along with bits of international cheese making history add to the education.
Survival in the Storm
In this Dear America series book, Grace Edwards uses her journal to tell the story of a year (1935) in the Texas Panhandle town of Dalhart during the days of the Dust Bowl. Centered on a 12-year-old's perspective of home and school, chores and friends, Grace's diary reveals in graphic detail what life was like when farms failed, families went hungry, and children died from dust pneumonia because no rain fell.
The Book of Chocolate: The Amazing Story of the World's Favorite Candy
Join science author HP Newquist as he explores chocolate's fascinating history. Along the way, you'll meet colorful characters like the feathered-serpent god Quentzalcoatl, who gave chocolate trees to the Aztecs; Henri Nestlé, who invented milk chocolate while trying to save the lives of babies who couldn't nurse; and the quarrelsome Mars family, who split into two warring factions, one selling Milky Way, Snickers, and 3 Musketeers, the other Mars Bars and M&M's. From its origin as the sacred, bitter drink of South American rulers to the the familiar candy bars sold by today's multimillion dollar businesses, people everywhere have fallen in love with chocolate, the world's favorite flavor.
The Grapes of Wrath
*Recommended Common Core Reading First published in 1939, Steinbeck’s Pulitzer Prize-winning epic of the Great Depression chronicles the Dust Bowl migration of the 1930s and tells the story of one Oklahoma farm family, the Joads-driven from their homestead and forced to travel west to the promised land of California. Out of their trials and their repeated collisions against the hard realities of an America divided into Haves and Have-Nots evolves a drama that is intensely human yet majestic in its scale and moral vision, elemental yet plainspoken, tragic but ultimately stirring in its human dignity.
The Great American Dust Bowl
A speck of dust is a tiny thing. In fact, five of them could fit into the period at the end of this sentence. On a clear, warm Sunday, April 14, 1935, a wild wind whipped up millions upon millions of these specks of dust to form a duster—a savage storm—on America's high southern plains. The sky turned black, sand-filled winds scoured the paint off houses and cars, trains derailed, and electricity coursed through the air. Sand and dirt fell like snow. People got lost in the gloom and suffocated...and that was just the beginning. Don Brown brings the dirty thirties to life with kinetic, highly saturated, and lively artwork in this graphic novel about one of America's most catastrophic natural events: the Dust Bowl.
The Story of Food: An Illustrated History of Everything We Eat
This glorious visual celebration of food in all its forms reveals the extraordinary cultural impact of the foods we eat, explores the early efforts of humans in their quest for sustenance, and tells the fascinating stories behind individual foods. With profiles of the most culturally and historically interesting foods of all types, from nuts and grains, fruits and vegetables, and meat and fish, to herbs and spices, this fascinating culinary historical reference provides the facts on all aspects of each food's unique story. Feature spreads shine a spotlight on influential international cuisines and the local foods that built them. The Story of Food explains how foods have become the cornerstone of our culture, from their origins to how they are eaten and their place in world cuisine.
The Story of Seeds
This nonfiction chapter book follows seeds from Mendel's garden to our plate. Discover how something as small as a seed can have a world-wide impact. From Iraq to India to an impenetrable seed vault in a Norwegian mountainside, this book speaks to the current ways we think about our food and how it is grown. Readers will discover just how important seeds are to the functioning of our global economy--and how much power we as a world-wide community have to keep seeds around, because once a seed disappears, it's gone forever. With both text and color photos, this book touches on subjects such as seed genetics, the development of new seed varieties, heirloom seeds, and GMO seeds. It also introduces readers to seed scientists such as Gregor Mendel, Luther Burbank, and Nikolai Vavilov.
Tomatoes, Potatoes, Corn and Beans
This excellent book describes how foods from North and South America changed eating around the world. It focuses on corn, beans, peppers, peanuts, potatoes, tomatoes, and chocolate but also includes other foods that originated in the Americas. Can you imagine Italian food without the tomato? Indian curries without the pepper? German or Irish food without the potato? Corn is now the most widely grown grain in the world. This book details the history of those transitions and is illustrated with historic artwork and modern photos. For anyone wishing to understand the real gold found in America, this book is an essential read.
Booklet/Reader
Biotech in Focus
Use this monthly bulletin as a companion resource for secondary lessons about DNA, biotechnology, genetic engineering, and many other related topics. Each 2-page bulletin addresses current topics in biotechnology including the development and safety of GM crops, GMO product labeling, plant breeding, GMOs and human healthy, and many more.
Climate Change Phenomena e-Magazine
This digital e-magazine gives students the ability to explore the connections carbon, climate, and weather have to our food supply. With interactive links, students can discover how climate and weather impact our food supply, where carbon is found and how it is cycled, what climate change is, and how adaptations and mitigations can help as we face climate change.
Cotton Reader
A four-page student reader examines how cotton is grown, its agricultural importance, product evolution, and economic importance. It can be easily printed for individual or small group use in the classroom.
Farming for Energy e-magazine
A 5-page interactive magazine to help students study the science of energy and energy conversion. What is energy? Where can we collect energy and how? Can farms produce energy? What is biomass energy? These questions and more are answered.
Food and Farm Facts Booklet
The 2021 Food and Farm Facts series features interesting and educational facts about food in America - how and where it is grown, and who produces it. Color photographs and USA Today-style graphics illustrate the many fascinating facets of today’s agriculture. The series includes a 32-page book with map insert.
Nutrition Ag Mag
The Nutrition Ag Mag is an agricultural magazine for students. This issue focuses on nutrition with segments highlighting physical fitness, career options, making healthy dietary choices, and how to read a food label. The entire publication can be viewed online.
Oh, Scrap
A digital agricultural reader for 6th-8th grade students to investigate the global impacts of food waste. Students will discover the difference between food waste and food loss, understand where food waste and loss occurs along the food commodity chain, and recognize the economic, social, and environmental impacts of food waste.
Renewable vs Nonrenewable vs Inexhaustible Resources e-magazine
An interactive digital e-magazine describing the differences between renewable, nonrenewable, and inexhaustible resources.
Strawberry Ag Mag
The Strawberry Ag Mag was written for elementary and middle school students. In this issue, students learn about the history of the strawberry, hybridization, the life cycle and anatomy of the strawberry plant, careers, and more. The reader can be viewed by students electronically on individual devices, as a class with a projector, or printed.
Sweetpotato Ag Mag
The Sweetpotato Ag Mag is an agricultural magazine written for elementary and middle school students. In this issue, students will learn that North Carolina is the #1 producer of sweetpotatoes in the United States and how the root vegetable was introduced to the nation. They will also explore the life cycle of the sweetpotato plant, its health benefits to humans, the STEM-focused processes for growing, harvesting, and curing sweetpotatoes, visit a fourth-generation sweetpotato farm, and investigate three careers that involve sweetpotato production. The reader can be viewed by students electronically on individual devices, as a class with a projector, or printed.
Kit
Aeroponic Garden Kit
Aeroponics' is a plant cultivation technique where plant roots are suspended in the air and misted with a nutrient and water solution. The
Aeroponic Garden Kit provides everything except a 5-gallon bucket for students to create their own aeroponic garden.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Apple Land Use Model
New version! Imagine the Earth as an apple. Use this large,
16.5"x17.5" apple model to demonstrate the distribution of the Earth's water and land resources. The model is two layers of durable styrene board with a handle on the back of the bottom layer. The top layer is cut into sections and held to the bottom layer by magnets. Remove the top layer of the apple to reveal the image underneath.
Order this model online at agclassroomstore.com.
Arduino Controlled Relay
Using a relay allows an Arduino microcontroller to power a high voltage object. This kit contains what you need to build a relay that can be used to control a grow light or a sprinkler in an aeroponics system. Use this system to replace the timer included in the
SpaceLite (Plant Light) Kit and the
Classroom Aquaponics Kit.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Biotech Cheese Kit
Make cheese in your classroom using the same fast methods as industry. This kit includes the recipe to make cheese (also
available to download), cheesecloth, and two different types of rennet - one from an organic animal source and one from a genetically modified yeast source. You add water, powdered milk, and buttermilk. This is a great activity for exploring enzymes and chemistry as well as the benefits and concerns surrounding genetic modification.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Blue's the Clue
We're spoiling milk for science! This kit provides your students with the chance to experiment with different variables that affect something most of them drink every day. This experiment can be used to model the scientific process or to get kids thinking about how scientists and quality control workers keep them safe and healthy every day. The kit includes six test tubes with caps, one test tube stand, a bottle of methylene blue, a carton of UHT milk, and instructions.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Cotton Boll Kit
Help your students understand how the fiber in their clothing, towels, and sheets comes from cotton plants. The seeds must be removed from the cotton fibers to make cloth. This process is called ginning (after Eli Whitney's cotton gin; gin is short for engine). The cotton bolls in this kit may be hand ginned, or dissected, allowing students to experience the process of hand ginning, understand the significance of the cotton gin, and explain how machines help us today to be more productive. Each kit contains a classroom set of individually wrapped cotton bolls. Each cotton boll can easily be pulled apart into four distinct sections so that a group of four students may use one cotton boll. Teacher Note: The purpose of this activity is to investigate cotton, the process of hand ginning cotton, and the impacts of the cotton gin. Adjusting this investigation into a role-play or simulation of a slave activity is absolutely discouraged. In addition, no student should be required to participate in hand ginning cotton. We recommend consulting your administrator and/or communicating with parents prior to presenting this lesson. You may want to consider ginning as a teacher demonstration if you anticipate tension or uncomfortable feelings. For more information concerning teaching about the history of African Enslavement, refer to research conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center Teaching Hard History: American Slavery. Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Cotton Education Kit
This Cotton Education Kit is designed for students, teachers and anyone who is interested in learning about cotton. This kit can be used by educators as a companion to any lesson about cotton in the subjects of science, geography, history, or agriculture science. The kit includes cotton seed with planting instructions, cotton boll from the farm, cottonseed separated from raw cotton, cotton lint separated by removing seeds, cotton bale that is sent to mills, cotton sliver that makes yarn, cotton yarn used to make cloth, denim representing the final product, and the Cotton in the Classroom brochure with lesson plan ideas.
Farm Profile Cards
Enhance students' understanding of farms with our Farm Profile Cards, which enable them to visualize farms of various sizes, ownership structures, types, and locations. Inside this kit, you'll discover six sets of 21 cards, totaling 126 Farm Profile cards. The cards are color-coded to facilitate group organization and cohesion.
Food Models
These full-color, life-size cardboard photographs of 200 commonly eaten foods are pictured in portion sizes with nutrition information presented in label format on the back. A perfect hands-on tool for teaching food and nutrition concepts! Included with your purchase are the Food Models and Leader Guide.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Food Supply Chain Dominoes
Use a demonstration with dominos to explore the complexity of global food supply chains that connect the production and consumption of agricultural products. This kit includes a set of colorful domino blocks, descriptive stickers to explore factors that impact the success or failure of the food supply chain, and cards describing examples of events or circumstances that can break the food supply chain.
GM Leaf Test Kit
This laboratory activity demonstrates the difference between a conventional soybean plant and a genetically modified Roundup Ready® soybean plant. Students will use a leaf sample from both plant varieties to test for the presence of the
CP4 EPSPS protein.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
GM Soybean Seed Kit
Provide a hands-on experience for students to compare conventional soybean seeds to genetically modified Roundup Ready® soybean seeds. This kit includes conventional soybean seeds, GM soybean seeds, and the testing materials to indicate which seed contains the protein responsible for making Roundup Ready® soybeans tolerant to the herbicide glyphosate.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Hen House Prototype
Creating a prototype is an important part of the engineering process. Adding paper circuits and fans to a cardboard model can be a cost effective way for students to build a prototype. The Hen House Prototype Kit contains copper tape, white LEDs, 3V coin cell batteries, hobby motors, and propellers. The kit contains enough materials for 12 small groups of students.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Living Science Careers Equipment Bags
This is a great resource to help your students better understand the exciting and diverse array of STEM employment opportunities in food, agriculture, and natural resources. Each kit comes with yarn, signs, and seven Living Science Careers Equipment Bags, all in a sturdy plastic storage container.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Mozzarella Cheese Kit
Making mozzarella cheese in the classroom can provide an engaging opportunity to discuss food processing, the science of enzymes and proteins, careers, and more. This kit includes rennet (enzymes), and citric acid (acid), two of the components used in the cheesemaking process.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Paper Circuits
Paper circuits are an exciting way for students to learn how electrical circuits work. The concepts learned in this activity are a springboard for more complicated electrical projects such as sewing circuits and building prototypes controlled by Arduino boards. This kit includes 3mm LEDs, copper tape, 3V coin cell batteries, and activity sheet masters. The kit contains enough supplies for a classroom of students.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Planet Zorcon
This interactive group activity will help your students understand the limited resources available for consumption on earth. Students will work in groups to explore the connection between individual behavior and resource use, explain the differences between renewable and nonrenewable resources, and identify careers related to natural resource management.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Popcorn on the Cob
Pop popcorn right off the cob! Place the cob in a paper bag, fold the top of the bag down twice to secure the top, place in the center of a microwave, and heat on high power for 1-1/2 to 3-1/2 minutes. Kit includes a popcorn cob and a brown paper bag.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.Ranch Starter Kit
Need a great way to connect students to rangeland? Have them start their own ranch! This kit includes a classroom set of jiffy peat pellet pots and enough grass seed to fill each pot. As your class learns about cattle grazing throughout our history, each student will be able to see how grazing can help - or hurt - rangeland, and will understand the importance of keeping our lands healthy. Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Serious Cereal Science Kit
Use this kit to introduce students to careers that keep cereal on grocery store shelves. Just as grains were foundational in the advent of agriculture thousands of years ago, they continue to play a central role in agriculture and food security today. Corn, rice, and wheat provide more than half of the calories consumed by people worldwide. The science of cereal science is serious business!
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.Source Search Kit
This kit complements the
Source Search lesson providing all the supplies to teach the
source of the items we rely on every day. The activity helps students discover what items come from farms, factories, stores, or natural resources.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Strawberry DNA Necklace
This kit allows students to take home visible proof that plants have DNA. Each kit contains enough supplies for 100 students to make their own DNA necklace. The kit contains cheesecloth, funnels, pipettes, test tubes, flasks, microcentrifuge tubes, and yarn, all in a sturdy plastic storage container. Refill kits are also available.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.VR Viewer
Experience Virtual Reality (VR) in agriculture with these collapsible viewers. The VR Viewers fit most Android and Apple phones. The
360 Agriculture webpage contains a collection of virtual reality (VR) agricultural tours and farm field trips.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Wheat Germ DNA Necklace
Is there DNA in my food? Absolutely! Each variety of wheat has DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) that gives it certain genetic traits or characteristics. Use this kit to extract and observe strands of DNA from wheat germ. Kit includes test tubes, stir sticks, pipettes, microcentrifuge tubes, and yarn with enough supplies for a classroom of students. The
Wheat Germ DNA Necklace kit complements the lesson
Wheat Germ DNA.
Refill kits are also available.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Wheat Kernel Samples
This kit contains kernels of the six classes of wheat grown in the United States. Samples of Hard Red Winter, Hard Red Spring, Soft Red Winter, Soft White, Hard White, and Durum are included. Use these samples to discuss the different characteristics of wheat. Wheat kernel samples complement the lesson Wheat Germ DNA.
Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
40 Maps that Explain Food in America
A collection of maps and graphs that represent farms, food production, and many other statistics in the United States. These maps provide excellent illustrations for students to understand how climate and geography affects the production of food as well as to provide statistics about the economics of food production through the years and across the United States.
Ag Census Web Maps
This interactive map allows users to select specific agricultural crops from a drop-down menu and see where those crops are grown in the United States. This map provides an excellent illustration for students to see how climate and geography impacts food production.
Crop Intensity Maps
The images on this site show crop intensity data (regions that produce the most crops), followed by the cropland products of 26 countries that produce 82% of the world's food. The final image shows the the population density in 2002 and the projected population in 2050.
Food & Farm Sky Tour
Soar with Google Earth to explore farms and food processing across the United States. Use the state agricultural information, videos, and satellite map to investigate connections between geography, climate, and the crops and livestock grown and raised in each state.
How America Uses Its Land
A series of interactive maps illustrating how land is used in America.
Interactive Map Project
Use this interactive map to help students see how geography and climate affects the production of agricultural crops. The map has USDA statistics built in to allow your students to answer questions such as, "Which state(s) produce the most cattle?" "Where does [my state] rank nationally in corn production?" "What region of the United States produces the most cotton?" etc. There are many agricultural maps available including field crops such as corn, wheat, barley, and alfalfa in addition to fruit and vegetable crops, ornamental nursery crops, and livestock.
Live Hunger Map
The World Food Programme (WFP) Live Hunger Map monitors food security in more than 90 countries and issues predictions where data is limited. The live map aims to identify areas that are currently food insecure or are sliding towards food insecurity. A static hunger map can be found if you click on "undernourishment" at the bottom of the page. It includes data from 2017-2019.
Map: The Most Common Job in Every State
Use this interactive map of the United States to see which job is most common in each state. Statistics can be viewed and compared from 1978 until 2014.
Mapped: Where Does Our Food Come From?
Maps that show the historical origins of major agricultural crops before they were domesticated across the globe as well as graphics representing current global producers of common commodities.
SoilWeb Interactive Map
This interactive map allows you to explore USDA-NCSS soil survey data for locations throughout most of the U.S. It is compatible with smartphones, tablets, and desktop computers. Zoom into an area of interest and discover the soil composition.
The Complexities of our Global Food System
The global food system is balanced between the supply and demand of food and tethered to our environment. These
high resolution PDFs demonstrate visually the complexity of agriculture. These maps highlight how the global food system is the balance between supply and demand of food as governed by geography and politics. These elements are divided into natural systems and human systems.
Visualized: The World's Population at 8 Billion
Around November 2022, the world will reach a pivotal milestone—8 billion global population. Use this infographic to visualize the distribution of the world's population by region and country.
World Fabric Map
This fabric map is an excellent resource for "hands-on" geography activities. The cotton fabric washes well and can be taken outside. Countries and their capitals, and major bodies of water are identified. Each map has been serged around the edges. Order the map individually, or add on a set of Herbs and Spices Cards, Where in the World Food Cards, or Lunch Cards. Students will use the cards to identify where in the world each of the foods come from.
Order this map online from agclassroomstore.com.
"Cheese Science-As Gouda as TV Gets" Video Series
The Utah Education Network (UEN) website has a series of 25 three minute video clips about cheese and food science. The videos teach science, chemistry, and physics principles in addition to highlighting many careers in related fields.
360 Agriculture Virtual Reality
Engage students in virtual agricultural experiences. The
360 Agriculture webpage contains a collection of virtual reality (VR) agricultural tours and farm field trips.
Order VR Viewers online from agclassroomstore.com.
9 Billion Mouths to Feed: Leading the Way to Abundance and Sustainability
30-minute video segment giving an overview of how programs at the University of California are striving to meet the challenge of feeding an ever-growing global population with sustainable practices.
Ag States of America
Farms across America are like the patchwork of a quilt that binds our nation together. Comedian Charlie Berens takes you on a tour of America's farm production in the Ag States of America, a new show from Pivot Bio.
Agricultural Careers Prezi
This Agricultural Career Prezi can supplement a secondary lesson on careers by showing a variety of agriculturally related careers organized by career pathways. Explore careers in plant and animal science, business, science and engineering, education, communication, service, and natural resources.
Agricultural Engineering Video
Use this 8-minute video clip to profile a career in Agricultural Engineering. Learn how agricultural engineers apply engineering technology and science to help farmers be more productive, reduce environmental impacts, and keep our food affordable, safe, healthy and delicious.
Agriculture Technology Advancements Video Playlist
Robots, drones, and lasers...oh my! Western growers has produced a series of one-minute videos highlighting the newest technologies in agriculture. From flying autonomous robots working alongside harvest crews to AI-directed blades and lasers that zap weeds with ruthless efficiency, the next generation of farmers have access to cutting-edge technologies that will help them meet the challenges of the future.
Agriculture and the Sustainable Development Goals
In 2015, the world came together to identify some of the greatest challenges of our time, and set 17 Sustainable Development Goals to respond to them. The challenges are formidable, but they’re interrelated, in that progress in one area (like agriculture!) can cause a ripple effect of change in other areas (like health and education). Watch this video to see how agriculture can help transform our world.
All About Eggs
Experience the miracle of baby chicks hatching and follow their development into mature hens. This 17-minute video also shows how eggs are processed after leaving the farm, including inspection, washing, drying, and packaging.
Order this DVD online from agclassroomstore.com.All About the Pumpkin Video
In two minutes, this video engagingly delivers a host of facts about pumpkins. Students will learn that each pumpkin has about 500 seeds, pumpkins originated in Central America, 19th century New Englanders thought that pumpkins could cure snake bites, and much more.
Amazing BREAD Processing- How It's Made Inside a Factory
Watch how wheat is processed into bread at a factory. Beginning with the harvest of the wheat on a farm and ending with slicing and bagging loaves of bread, see the automated machinery that makes bread processing on a large scale possible.
Amazing Time-Lapse: Bees Hatch Before Your Eyes
This one-minute time-lapse video captures the fascinating transformation of larvae into bees. Witness this mesmerizing life cycle with close-up footage from photographer Anand Varma.
America's Heartland: Cotton Episodes
Watch all or part of these episodes to learn about cotton. Follow the production of cotton from field to fabric and learn about the genetic improvement of cotton plants, their harvesting, history, use as cattle feed, and more.
America's Heartland: Maine-ly Apples
A little band of bakers is busy turning out 32 hundred apple pies a day. But the Kroitzsh (pronounced “Kroich”) family doesn’t mind. These sweet treats have been the salvation for their Valley View Apple orchard in south central Maine for the past 15 years.
America's Heartland: Riding the Range on a Utah Cattle Drive
Give students a peek into the lives of the Heaton's— a cattle ranching family from Alton, Utah. Follow them on their 30-mile journey from Rush Meadow to Dixie National Forest and learn more about the challenges these hardworking cowboys face.
Ancient Recipes - Foods of Bible Times
Take your students on a culinary journey to learn how bread, olives, fish, and other foods were and are now produced. This 40-minute DVD explores foods from Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Hebrew cultures, detailing how these foods shaped culture, religion and the development of civilizations. Can be shown in segments.
Order this DVD online from agclassroomstore.com.Animal Biotechnology video
Animal biotechnology encompasses a broad range of techniques for the genetic improvement of domesticated animal species including selective breeding, artificial insemination, cloning, and genetic engineering. Learn about both biomedical and agricultural applications of animal biotechnology and some of the science-based and ethical concerns that are engendered by certain applications.
Beef Cattle PowerPoint
This PowerPoint includes basic profile information about the major beef cattle breeds in the United States. It includes the name and basic characteristics of each breed including frame size, breed origin, size, coat colors, etc.
Black Blizzard
On May 9th, 1934 a giant storm rose up out of the great plains. A menacing wall of soil and dust headed east across the land, thick enough to block out the sun. This 4-minute video gives a good account of this disaster through video footage and photographs.
Bon a la Beef Videos
Four professional video clips featuring elementary through high school students preparing recipes to educate students, teachers, and the public about beef, its nutritional value, and its proper handling and preparation. The student-developed recipes use easy techniques and readily available ingredients.
Brittlelactica: Planet in Need
The "Brittlelactica" integrated campaign tells the story of a race of calcium deficient aliens who discover the health benefits of milk and begin abducting cows, whom they dub "The Supreme Ones."
CRISPR: A Word Processor for Editing the Genome Video
Since the discovery of DNA’s fundamental role in building and sustaining life, scientists have dreamed of having the ability to easily edit DNA in very precise ways. This video explores how a group of scientists made a major breakthrough in understanding the bacterial immune response, called the CRISPR/Cas system, and discovered a way to utilize this system to create a new technique to specifically change the DNA sequence of any organism with great ease. This video can be used with an advanced lesson on DNA to help students begin to see how science is advancing and how this knowledge can potentially be used.
CRISPR: Gene Editing and Beyond
The CRISPR-Cas9 system has revolutionised gene-editing, but cutting DNA isn’t all it can do. From turning gene expression on and off to fluorescently tagging particular sequences, this animation explores some of the exciting possibilities of CRISPR.
Career Profile Video: Educator & Agronomist
Learn from Catherine Swoboda about being an educator and agronomist. Discover how she became interested in the field and how she has used her education to help alleviate hunger by increasing education on the production of food.
Careers in Agriculture Videos
This collection of 40 short videos highlights a wide variety of careers in agriculture and natural resources. Each video is one to four minutes long and features an interview with a professional working in an agricultural field. Give your students time to explore these videos on their own or select a few to show in class. Allow students to hear directly from a plant scientist, a cheese production manager, an algae farmer, or a GIS specialist and learn how these professionals chose the career paths that got them where they are today.
Chocolate: How It's Made
Solid chocolates have only been around since the 1800s. 70% of the world's cocoa beans are grown in West Africa. See how raw ingredients are expertly combined to create delicious milk chocolate.
Climate Change: The Water Paradigm
This video explores why maintaining a healthy water cycle may be much more important for the health of the climate than people realize. In case you are wondering, it's not suggesting that the greenhouse effect due to CO2 or methane is insignificant. But prompts a consideration that the importance of the water cycle has been grossly under-emphasized, and should occupy a more central position in environmental discourse.
Colonial House
Colonial House is a reality-style show that was filmed over a 5-month period on an isolated stretch of the Maine coast. The adventurers arrived in their New World on a period tall ship and struggled to create a functioning and profitable colony using only the tools and technology of the era. Provides a glimpse into the daily life and experiences that helped shape our national character.
Connecting to Agriculture
This 17-minute video is a great way for students to learn about how agriculture connects to their lives. Animation, fun facts, and farmers tell the story of agriculture and how it relates to economics, science, and business. Interwoven through the commodity stories of corn, cotton, apples, dairy, and soybeans are important concepts such as: biodegradable properties, renewable resources, biotechnology, foreign trade, pest management, conservation practices, and food quality.
Order this DVD online from agclassroomstore.com.
Cotton Gin Animation
View an animation of Ely Whitney's Cotton Gin. Separating the cotton seeds from the cotton fiber was a very labor-intensive task before the invention of the cotton gin. This animation can help students visualize how the cotton gin worked and see the impact of labor-saving technology.
Cotton... From Field to Fabric
Explore how cotton is produced "from field to fabric" and processed into cotton cloth on a modern farm and in a modern textile mill.
Order this DVD online from agclassroomstore.com.Cows and Climate
Watch a series of video clips by Dr. Frank Mitloehner as he explains livestock's role in the global food system and our environment. Dr. Mitloehner is a professor and air quality scientist in the area of animal science at UC Davis. These videos help answer questions about our diet and climate change, the environmental footprint of cars vs cows, methane from livestock, food waste, and solutions for a sustainable future.
Crash Course Geography
Crash Course Geography has 50 episodes to support geography courses. The first half of the collection focuses on physical geography, processes, and phenomena. The second half focuses on human geography and explores the ways people occupy the Earth's surface.
Dairy Tour 360
Milk, leche, lait. No matter what you call it, real milk offers tons of nutrition and is sustainably produced—and we've got the receipts. Come behind the scenes on a few dairy farms: see the cow care and learn the real science. Oh, and did we mention you'll be flying around on a butterfly? Available for
desktop or
VR headset use.
Dairy in the Mountain West: Our Family of Farmers
This video highlights dairy farmers and their families. See many different dairy farms, learn about how they care for animals, dairy farmer's priorities in animal welfare, and how dairy farms utilize their resources to increase their sustainability and decrease their environmental footprint.
Drones and the Future of Farming Video
This 3-minute video highlights how drones can be used to identify specific plants in a farmer's field that are diseased or infested with bugs. A great illustration of a technology that is improving agricultural production and efficiency.
Dust Bowl: CBS 1955 Documentary
This newsreel-style documentary chronicles the Dust Bowl with interviews from people (primary sources) who lived through the "dirty thirties." The images linger well after the film ends. An excellent resource to use when studying the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, or the
Grapes of Wrath by Steinbeck. The renowned Walter Cronkite narrates the 23-minute film available on DVD or
YouTube.
Order this DVD online from agclassroomstore.com.
Dust Bowl: Grantsville, Utah
This 14-minute documentary includes interviews from Utah residents (primary sources) about the "dirty" Grantsville Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Yes, Utah did experience its own dust bowl, not from the turn of the plow like the Midwest, but from overgrazing. Learn about how residents responded to what was one of the nation's worst environmental disasters. This video is available on DVD or
YouTube.
Order this DVD online from agclassroomstore.com.Eat Happy Project video series
The "Eat Happy Project" is a British YouTube channel aimed to help children to understand more about food; where it comes from and how to cook it. Online Field Trips have taken schoolchildren from their classrooms to citrus groves in Valencia, Paddy fields in Thailand and banana plantations in Costa Rica, allowing them to interact with food growers and suppliers from all over the world. Browse the entire
YouTube Channel or go directly to topic-specific playlists including Healthy Eating (
ages 5-7) or (
ages 7-11),
Online Field Trips,
Food Around the World,
How Does Your Food Grow, and
From Farm to Fork.
Eggs 101: An Egg's Journey from the Farm to Our Tables
Designed for the classroom, this collection of short videos showcases an egg’s journey from the hen house to our plates. This flexible series includes seven videos that give an in-depth explanation of an egg’s journey; from the barn experience to environmental management and from the egg itself to the homes of families nationwide.
Everything is Chemical
A 4-minute video clip teaching that everything, including plants and animals is made of chemical elements. See how chemistry relates to agriculture to balance feed rations, calculate fertilizer application rates, and digestion.
FARMLAND
The documentary, FARMLAND was created to educate the public about farms and the source of their food. This documentary highlights six farmers and addresses organic vs conventional farming, risks involved with farming, the public perception of animal welfare, farming stereotypes, and the steps involved in producing an abundant supply of safe and nutritious food for a growing population. This film can be used to supplement secondary lessons.
FDR's Fireside Chat: Dust Bowl
On September 6, 1936, in one of his famous fireside chat radio broadcasts, President Franklin Roosevelt describes the conditions he observed firsthand on a tour of the many states devastated by drought.
Field Robots of the Future
How could robots impact agriculture? Use this video to engage students in discussion about how robots could change food production as we know it. Discuss topics such as efficiency, food production, sustainability, and farm labor.
Field to Film Career Snapshots
Explore more than 20 agriculture-related careers with these "snapshot" videos. The video playlist features careers on the farm as well as many others in sales, technology, education, and more.
Food Facts: 7 Reasons to Eat Insects
When discussing world food supply, hunger, or agricultural sustainability discuss the idea of eating bugs as an alternative protein source. How does it compare to other forms of nutrition in terms of protein, vitamins, minerals, and amino acids?
Food Machine
This video is the first episode of the PBS series, "America Revealed." Show host Yul Kwon explores how the "Food Machine" (agriculture) feeds nearly 300 million Americans every day. The video highlights farm practices, machines which make the production of our food easier and more productive, and the requirements of nature and our natural resources in order to produce our food. This secondary resource addresses topics such as sustainability, GMOs, pests and pesticides, global food trade, and food marketing.
Give it a Minute: Organic & Conventional Farming
Do you know the difference between organic and conventional (non-organic) foods? In one minute this video explains the differences and similarities in how these foods are produced on the farm.
Growing Today for Tomorrow
Farmers have the biggest job on earth. The population is increasing — yet farmland isn't — so farmers have taken on the responsibility of producing more high-quality crops with fewer resources. This 3.5-minute video illustrates the remarkable improvements that have been made in agricultural efficiency and productivity while bringing home the challenges that the future holds. The attention-grabbing message makes for a great introduction to any lesson on agricultural production or careers in agriculture.
Have We Engineered the Perfect Apple? video
It took over 30 years to create the perfect apple. Find out how scientists designed the Honeycrisp to be the best.
Hilmar Cheese Company Virtual Video Tour
10-minute video for elementary students to learn about the dairy industry. They visit the dairy farm and the processing plant where they learn about pasteurization and cheese making.
How Are GMOs Created?
Use this 5-minute video to illustrate the complete process for developing a GMO through the scientific method and research. The Hawaiian papaya story is used as an example for resolving the papaya ring spot virus that had devastated the crop until a GMO variety was developed. Researchers and farmers turned to the development of GMOs as early as 1985 to improve the quality of plants to resist insects and disease while battling problems in production.
How CRISPR Lets You Edit DNA
Explore the science of the groundbreaking technology for editing genes, called CRISPR- Cas9. Discover how the tool could be used to cure diseases.
How Can CRISPR Improve Food?
Learn how CRISPR gene editing is being studied and implemented to improve food. This form of gene editing holds promising applications to cure diseases and improve food. Can allergenic proteins in foods be removed? Can cassava be engineered to remove the cyanide responsible for growth stunting in malnourished children?
How Do Farmers Make Seedless Fruit?
Explore how seedless fruits are made and how trees are reproduced without seeds in this 4-minute video.
How Does it Grow? Video Series
This video series follows food from farm to fork. Learn more about potatoes, asparagus, mushrooms, cranberries, garlic, cauliflower, spinach, oranges and more. These videos are a great way to introduce students to food science and cooking, and to increase understanding of the sources of our food.
How Drones are Helping to Plant Trees - A Cleaner Future
See how drones can plant tree seeds to help reforestation be more affordable and efficient with the goal of lowering overall carbon emissions.
How Farming Planted Seeds for the Internet
Use this TedEd video to support reasons why early civilizations moved from hunting-gathering to farming as a major innovation for the current world we live in today. All the essential advancements are depicted throughout this video stemming from agriculture to include the development of cities, division of labor, governing institutions, and advanced technologies - without agriculture none of these advancements would have occurred.
How It's Made Documentary Series
Although this television series is no longer being aired, the YouTube videos provide invaluable footage of factory production. A wide variety of foods and other products created from raw agricultural materials are explored in five-minute segments. Browse the "Food Collections" playlist to learn about a variety of foods from farm-to-fork.
How It's Made: Cotton Yarn
In just under five minutes, this video shows how cotton is processed in modern factories. See cotton cleaned, carded, coiled, drawn, stretched, spun, and wound onto giant spools—all by machines. In 48 hours raw cotton is transformed into cotton yarn.
How It's Made: Honey
This five-minute video travels from field to hive to factory, illustrating all the steps involved in making honey. Get a close-up look at a beekeeper opening a hive and a queen bee in the midst of her hive, and watch frames of honeycomb go through a factory to yield a number of products.
How Mendel's Pea Plants Helped Us Understand Genetics
This three-minute video does a great job of quickly explaining several key concepts. Cleverly animated peas illustrate the difference between dominant and recessive traits and how these traits can be diagrammed using Punnett squares. The difference between genotype and phenotype is also covered, and the importance of Mendel's discoveries is nicely put into a modern-day context.
How Stuff Works: Popcorn
From Discovery Channel's How Stuff Works, watch how our favorite movie snack explodes from kernel to white fluffy treat. The shell of a corn kernel can withstand an internal temperature of 450 degrees. After that threshold, the kernel explodes. Find out what it takes to create the perfect popping kernel in this three-minute video.
How to Feed the World in 2050: Actions in a Changing Climate video
Learn how climate change has affected agriculture and how steps can be taken to preserve our ability to sustainably produce food for our planet.
How to Read Food Labels, From Free-range to Fair Trade
Listen to a 22-minute podcast describing food labels related to agricultural production practices.
How to Read Nutrition Facts - Food Labels Made Easy video
A 5-minute explanation of the Nutrition Facts label. Learn about servings, serving size, calories, fat, and more.
Hugh Hammond Bennett: The Story of America's Private Lands Conservation video
This comprehensive 21-minute video highlights the endeavors of one man who changed farming practices through science and policy. Hugh Hammond Bennet was a pioneer in soil conservation teaching farmers about soil erosion and other farming practices needing reform at this time in history.
Learn GMO
Join director and writer, Nick Saik on his skeptical adventure to understand GMOs. Videos address specific questions such as Why are there two kinds of farming? Is the glass half empty or half full? or Why are there two kinds of food?
Living Soil Film
Our soils support 95 percent of all food production, and by 2060, our soils will be asked to give us as much food as we have consumed in the last 500 years. They filter our water, sequester carbon, are our foundation for biodiversity, and are vibrantly alive with 10,000 pounds of biological life in every acre. This 60-minute documentary features innovative farmers and soil health experts from throughout the U.S.
Modern Marvels: Harvesting
Modern Marvels: Harvesting traces the development of the massive machines that have transformed a season's labor into the work of mere hours. Cutting, digging, picking, stripping, shaking and raking--whatever the crop, there's a custom machine to harvest it. It all began with hand picking, but today it's often one man and one machine harvesting hundreds of acres in a matter of hours. Harvesting 2 explores the efficient and sometimes bizarre harvesting methods that have arisen from the constant struggle between hand labor and mechanization in America's orchards and farm fields.
Modern Marvels: World's Largest Combine
The Lexion 590R is the largest farm combine of its kind. Harvesting exponentially more and faster than hundreds of human laborers, see why this machine is at the top of its class. Use this three-minute video to give students an example of the importance of technology in agriculture.
Our Beautiful Planet: The Climate Secrets of Cows
Our Beautiful Planet is a series of compelling 5-to-7-minute science films highlighting the cutting edge research that climate scientists are doing to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues. Discover how cattle impact the climate and what research is being conducted to mitigate the greenhouse gas emissions of cattle.
Phosphate Mining Video
Phosphate is the "P" in N-P-K; one of three macronutrients that plants need to thrive. The Phosphate Mining video shows students the process of mining phosphate in the Southeastern region of the U.S. Take a close up look at where this element is found in the earth, how it is obtained, and how it is used as fertilizer to add nutrients to the soil to grow our food supply.
Photosynthesis video
This 12-minute video clip describes and illustrates photosynthesis. It also addresses the Calvin Cycle and photorespiration.
Planet Money Makes a T-shirt
This link highlights the growth and production of the cotton plant. Begin with a short video clip about the growth of cotton including its history with slaves. Continue by learning about the modern use of genetic engineering in the cotton industry today. Following the video you can learn where cotton is grown across the world and what technology is used to plant, harvest, and process it into fabric.
Plant and Animal Cell Overview video
This 9-minute video clip teaches and reviews the function of each organelle within a cell.
Popped Secret: The Mysterious Origin of Corn
View this 17-minute video to learn about the origins of corn. Discover how the domestication of corn impacted society and what plant domestic corn originates from. This video supports lessons on the domestication of plants and genetic evolution.
Population, Sustainability, and Malthus: Crash Course World History video
How many people can reasonably live on the Earth? Thomas Malthus got it totally wrong in the 19th century, but for some reason, he keeps coming up when we talk about population. In 1800, the human population of the Earth passed 1 billion, and Thomas Malthus posited that growth had hit its ceiling, and the population would level off and stop growing. He was totally wrong! There are 7 billion people on the planet now! John will teach a little about how Malthus made his calculations, and explain how Malthus came up with the wrong answer by not understanding the technological advances in agriculture that were improving population sustainability by providing a steady food supply.
Portion Size Me & Portion Size Me Too DVDs
"Portion size is the key to the American obesity epidemic," said James Painter, chair of Eastern Illinois University's School of Family and Consumer Sciences. He believed that healthy choices could be found in every fast-food restaurant. To prove his point, he followed two graduate students--254-pound Aaron and 111-pound Ellen--who ate portions suitable to their body types for a month. They could chose only foods from 10 fast-food restaurants and gas stations. Both ended up losing weight and lowering their cholesterol. While Portion Size Me showcases the details of the study, Portion Size Me Too highlights how they did it. Students will enjoy the details of how to make healthier choices at their favorite fast-food restaurants.
Potash Mining Video
Potassium is the "K" in N-P-K; one of three macronutrients that plants need to thrive. The Potash Mining video shows students the process of mining potassium (potash). Take a close up look at where this element is found in the earth, how it it was formed anciently, and how it is mined and then used as fertilizer to add nutrients to the soil to grow our food supply.
Preserving Heirloom Crops with Wozupi Farms
See and hear how groups such as the Wozupi Tribal Garden are working to preserve indigenous and heirloom crops. The crop varieties are preserved for taste, texture, and cultural relevance. These heirloom plants come from seeds that have been passed down for generations in a particular region or area. They are hand-selected by gardeners for a special trait.
Robotic Farming of the Future
The University of Sydney's Australian Centre for Field Robotics are pioneers when it comes to robotic farming. Having developed a series of driverless tractors, they give us a sneak peek of how future farms and orchards will operate in the era of mass automation.
Soil Science Videos
To celebrate the International Year of Soils in 2015, the Soil Science Society of America created monthly videos teaching about various soil topics. These videos are a great supplement to soil science lessons.
Soil, Not Dirt
Follow Rebecca Lybrand on a digital journey to connect soils, plants, and climate. Rebecca, a soil scientist explains some of her daily job tasks and teaches about soils in different climates and ecosystems.
Some Like it Hot: Climate Change and Agricultural Pests
Scientists and farmers are starting to notice that as California's winters warm up, the state is becoming more hospitable to agricultural pests resulting in crop destruction and undesirable traits in food. Secondary students can explore the impact of this phenomenon in this video.
TEDMED Talk: What Does the World Eat?
Peter Menzel is a freelance photojournalist known for his coverage of international feature stories on science and the environment, and his wife Faith D’Aluisio is a former award-winning television news producer. In this 14-minute talk, Menzel discusses the projects they have undertaken together, including publishing The Hungry Planet. He further explores the changes they have observed in what and how people eat around the world, touching on issues such as obesity and food security.
Taking Care of Business (DVD)
Help your students understand the difference between a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, and cooperative with this video from the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. This 10-minute DVD highlights the distinguishing details of each type of business structure and gives examples that students can relate to. A great video for Business CTE or basic economics courses.
Order this DVD online from agclassroomstore.com.TedTalk- How to Fight Desertification and Reverse Climate Change
Secondary students can learn from scientist Allan Savory how and why fertile grasslands are changing into desert. It is a common belief that livestock grazing is causing or increasing this loss of rangelands. Discover a different cause and solution to this worldwide problem and how livestock can help.
TedTalk- The First 21 Days of a Bees Life
Photographer Anand Varma raised bees in his backyard and in front of a camera to get an up close view. This National Geographic project gives a lyrical glimpse into a beehive and reveals one of the biggest threats to its health, a mite that preys on baby bees in their first 21 days of life. The footage is set to music from Rob Moose and the Magik*Magik Orchestra. (This talk was part of a session at TED2015).
That's So Sweet! – A Look at Honey Production in the Twin Cities
Follow along on the fascinating journey of honey from the hive to your home. Kristy Lynn Allen, head beekeeper at the Beez Kneez introduces the process of honey collection, extraction, and delivery. Learn the important role honey bees play in honey production and the pollination of some of our favorite fruits and vegetables!
The Facts and Knowledge of BT Corn
A 13-minute video to answer questions about genetically modified BT corn. Understand questions such as Why is it safe to consume BT corn? What is BT (bacillus thuringiensis) and where does it come from? How is BT corn (and other GMO plants) regulated?
The Farming Robots of Tomorrow are Here Today
If we told you traditional agriculture was on the brink of a massive shift towards autonomy with machines doing the bulk of all the harvesting, would you believe it? Discover how robot farming machines are already doing the dirty work in more fields than people may realize.
The Future of Farming & Agriculture video
Farming is being revolutionized by a technological wave. This 12-minute video highlights technological advancements in both animal and plant agriculture. Learn how drones, robots, GPS systems, hydroponics, vertical farming systems, and more can help grow and harvest crops more efficiently. You can also see tools used in livestock production such as activity monitors, thermal imaging tools, and 3-D imaging which assist farmers in keeping their animals healthy.
The Life of a Seed- Jake, a GMO Seed
The Life of a Seed is a 3-minute video clip which explores the basics of biotechnology. Learn about the history of plant breeding and how genetically modified crops are created.
The Man Who Tried to Feed the World
The Man Who Tried to Feed the World recounts the story of the man who would not only solve India’s famine problem, but would go on to lead a “Green Revolution” of worldwide agriculture programs, saving countless lives. He was awarded the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize for his work but spent the rest of his life watching his methods and achievements come under increasing fire. This documentary provides context for discussions about the Green Revolution, plant breeding methods, accomplishments in selective breeding, conserving natural resources, responding to political pressures, protecting the environment, and providing food to a growing population. The full documentary is available to rent or buy on
Amazon Prime.
The Price of Climate Audio Series
Listen to the Wall Street Journal's "Future of Everything" three-part audio series on the price of climate. These podcasts will cause students to critically think about the implications of climate change related to their food, clothing, and shelter.
The Story of Bottled Water video
This video highlights the story and history of bottled water. Discover when and why water first began being bottled and marketed for individual sale. This video can supplement lessons on water systems, pollution, water safety, and use. It can also be used as part of a business or marketing lesson discussing how markets and demand are created.
This High-Tech Farm Grows Kale in a Factory
Visit a vertical farm, Bowery Farming. The farm is a piece of proprietary software that makes most of the critical decisions -- like when to harvest and how much to water each plant. It still takes humans to carry out many tasks around the farm. Will robots change the need for farm laborers?
Timelapse: Photosynthesis Seen from Space
Witness the influence of the sun on the seasonal abundance of plant matter produced on land and in our oceans. Use this video as a catalyst to discuss questions about which areas of our planet are most productive and why, how plants respond to seasonal changes in sunlight, and about carbon absorption.
Top 10 Foods That Originally Looked Totally Different
Everyday foods, fruit and veggies used to look totally different before we started cultivating them. But did you know they haven’t always looked like they currently do? Here are 10 fruits and veggies that looked very different before we started cultivating them!
Utah Beefscapes
Beef cattle are the leading source of farm income in Utah. This video is a mountain of beefy goodness that allows you to examine Utah beef from farm to fork.
Vascular Plants video
Supplement a plant anatomy lesson with this video which breaks down the anatomy and physiology of vascular plants. Learn the difference between herbaceous and woody plants and examples of each, the parts of the plant and the function it performs, and how water is absorbed through the roots and circulated through the plant through the xylem.
Vertical Farming video
Use this 4-minute video to explore the benefits and challenges to vertical farming systems which utilize hydroponics to grow plants. Can the land and water conservation advantages outweigh the cost of creating artificial light?
Vertical Farming video and activities
This 2-minute video explores a potential innovation in agriculture, vertical farming. Watch the video and use the discussion questions and accompanying activities to help students think critically as they weigh the pros and cons of this method of farming.
Virtual Chicken
Watch the virtual animation of the step-by-step process of a hen producing an egg. Students will learn the parts of an egg as it is developed. This is an excellent way for students to gain a greater understanding of egg science.
Virtual Egg Farm Field Trips
Take a virtual tour of three different egg farms. Learn why each farmer chose their career, how their farm manages their ecological footprint and how they conserve natural resources all while raising the laying hens that produce eggs for our food supply.
Visit an Iowa Turkey Farm
In this virtual farm tour, go inside a modern brooder barn to see two-week-old turkey poults and a grow out barn with 10-week-old turkeys. Learn how farmers use technology every day to regulate barn temperature, air flow, feed and water use, and monitor turkey health.
What Can We Learn from Cuba's Organic Farms? video
This 6-minute video highlights the success of Cuban farmers in growing their food using organic agriculture practices. This method was adopted incidentally in the 90s when the country lost its access to fertilizers, fuel, and food. Out of necessity, they began producing their own food without fertilizers, pesticides, or fuel for tractors. See the successes, benefits, and challenges of organic agriculture practices.
What Happens When Farming Goes High-Tech?
Soil maps, GPS guidance, and even drones are becoming critical tools for modern farmers. These methods of precision agriculture can help increase yields and save farmers a surprising sum along the way.
What is Regenerative Agriculture?
Regenerative agriculture is an effective way to restore biodiversity and stabilize the climate, but what exactly is it? This video explores three different regenerative practices that have great potential both in food production and in healing the land.
What is Sustainable Agriculture?
A video series highlighting common practices farmers and ranchers use to improve profitability, qualify of life, and environmental stewardship.
Why Can a Cow Eat Grass? Video
Beef and dairy cattle provide us with hundreds of different products, and all they need is an ample supply of grass and other plants. Most of these plants people can't even eat, so why can cows eat them? This Gee Whiz in Agriculture video provides an in-depth look at the digestive system of cattle, focusing on differences between cattle and humans. Take a journey into a cow’s stomach and microscopically view the stomach contents. Ten-year old “experts” will share their “MOO-ving” experiences with you. This video is available on DVD or
YouTube.
Order this DVD online from agclassroomstore.com.
Why are GMOs Bad?
This video clip provides a brief, but comprehensive introduction to GMOs. The video defines what a GMO is, the history of genetic engineering, how GMOs are created, what traits genetically modified crops exhibit, how traditional plant breeding differs from genetic engineering and how all methods of plant breeding have been used to improve crops through the years.
Will the Last Farmer in America Please Turn Out the Light? video
Immigration policy affects how we eat... what we eat... and how much it costs. Discover the necessity farmers have for skilled labor in order to plant, grow, and harvest the food on our tables. When did immigrant farm labor begin and what challenges would occur if this work force was lost?
Wings of Life
One-third of the world’s food supply depends on pollinators. This full-length movie uses stunning imagery to explore the interactions of butterflies, hummingbirds, bees, and bats with flowers. Use this DVD as a companion resource to any lesson on pollinators.
World Population History
Our population is expected to grow to over 9 billion by 2050, yet the ability of our environment to provide space, food, and energy are limited. Explore population growth from 1 CE to 2050 with this video, see how our numbers impact the environment, and learn about the key advances and events allowing our numbers to grow.
Poster/Infographic
Anatomy of a Worker Bee
Honey bees are extremely important to humans. Bees pollinate 95 different crops, helping to create nearly one-third of the world’s food supply. Use this 38" x 25" laminated poster to identify each bee body part.
Order this poster online from agclassroomstore.com.
Berries Flowchart
This three-page informational sheet describes the process of how berries are grown and harvested, how they get from the farm to the store, and nutrition facts. Words and graphics are used to portray this information for strawberries, blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, and blackberries.
Print your own or order a set of 30" x 8" printed charts from
agclassroomstore.com.
Compliments of Cattle Poster
Meat isn't the only product that comes from beef cattle. The by-products of beef production are used to make numerous everyday items like lipstick, perfume, paint, crayons, leather balls, and more. This black line coloring sheet depicts cattle using items that come to us “compliments of cattle.” Students can color cattle doing things like playing basketball, repairing cars, and putting on lipstick. As they are coloring, students can check off the list of everyday items that are made from beef cattle by-products. Download the lesson plan "Beef Basics" for great classroom activities and a shopping list to create your own beef by-products kit.
Creative Solutions to Ending School Food Waste
Americans waste enough food every day to fill a 90,000 seat football stadium. Approximately one-third of all food is wasted at the retail and consumer levels. While research has shown that food wasted by children is similar to the rest of the U.S. population, there are many ways schools can reduce food waste and teach students about the impact it has on the environment and in their community.
Crop Modification Techniques
To help educate people about the many methods that are used to generate new traits in plants, Biology Fortified has created an infographic on six different crop modification techniques, with examples of crops generated with each method. The webpage has detailed explanations of each modification technique, helpful to both teachers and students to recognize all the ways plants can be selectively bred to obtain desired characteristics.
GMO Infographics
Find numerous infographics teaching fact from fiction about GMOs. These can be used to discuss and dispel common myths, illustrate the timeline of crop breeding and genetic modification, and discuss factors and solutions to agricultural sustainability.
Honey Bee Study Prints
Twelve 13" x 18" color enlargements from Dadant & Sons depict various behavioral characteristics of honey bees and scenes of beekeeping. Instructional material printed on the back of each color photograph tells what can be observed and learned from the picture, asks questions, gives additional information on the subject, and suggests other sources of information.
Livestock Flowchart
This three-page informational sheet describes the processes of how an animal grows, how it gets from the farm to the store, and what products are produced from that animal. Words and simple graphics are used to portray this information for beef cattle, dairy cattle, sheep, pigs, chickens, and turkeys.
Print your own or order a set of 30" x 8" printed charts from
agclassroomstore.com.
Living Science Career Cards (posters or mini-posters)
The Living Science Career Cards feature 32 science careers associated with our nation's food, agricultural, and natural resource system. This is a great resource to help your students better understand the exciting and diverse array of employment opportunities for scientists working to generate new knowledge and to advance technology. These cards are available for
free download.
Meat Cut Fact Cards
Print these black-and-white fact cards to illustrate the wholesale and retail cuts of meat found in beef, lamb, pork, and chicken. Use them as a coloring pages or as pages in an interactive notebook.
MyPlate Activity Poster
Use this 30" x 26" MyPlate poster to teach your students about food groups and healthy eating. MyPlate is the USDA’s visual nutrition guide, which depicts a place setting showing the five food groups and the relative proportions they take up in a healthy diet. MyPlate provides a simple, highly visual approach to nutrition that is directly applicable to daily life.
Order this poster online from agclassroomstore.com.
Nutrition Posters
How would you rather eat calcium, fiber, iron, protein, vitamin C, and zinc? This set of posters provides examples of foods that fit into each category and includes nutrition information about each.
What Is Agriculture?
How would you define agriculture? Not with
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary. That just doesn't fully capture the importance of agriculture or how it touches all of our lives. Learn how to define agriculture with five words by using this 22" x 34" poster, which engagingly displays the 5-F's of agriculture—farming, food, fabric, forestry, and flowers.
Order this poster online from agclassroomstore.com.
Where Does Your Cheeseburger Come From?
Do you know the source of the burger, bun and toppings that make a delicious cheeseburger? This 11" x 17" student poster breaks down the cheeseburger ingredients to help students correlate the farm-to-fork path. These are available to educators free of charge from Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom.
Who Makes the Best Burger?
This 42" x 25" bulletin board teaches students about the production of the ingredients in hamburgers. A large picture of a hamburger is featured in the middle of the bulletin board and pictures of the ingredients and their descriptions are in each corner. An envelope asking students to vote for "Who makes the best burger?" is included. The envelope can be removed after the voting to display the words "FARMERS and RANCHERS." The bulletin board is mailed in a reusable storage tube.
Order this bulletin board online from agclassroomstore.com.
Agricultural Biotechnology Questions and Answers
What is Agricultural Biotechnology and how is it used? This informative text breaks down the questions surrounding biotechnology and how it is used for agricultural production. The article breaks down four topics: Genetically Engineered (GE) Crops, How Other Countries Gain Access to GE Technology, How Crops and Foods are Assessed for Safety, and Developing a Biosafety System.
Antimicrobial Wash for Fresh Produce
This article supplements lessons regarding food safety and food processing from the farm to the grocery store. Learn about an antimicrobial formulation, approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, that has been formulated to reduce the risk of food-borne pathogens that could contaminate fresh produce. The antimicrobial wash is a combination of lactic acid, fruit acids, and hydrogen peroxide proven to reduce pathogens up to 99.99 percent.
Are consumers ready to embrace and eat lab-grown meat?
Public attitudes about cultured "meat" vary widely. Use this article to introduce students to the possibility. Discuss the pros and cons and develop a name for this alternative meat.
Botany on Your Plate: Investigating Plants We Eat
This investigative science curriculum introduces the world of plants to elementary school students through foods we eat. Watch children's understanding of our world grow as they partake in hands-on activities that explore edible roots, stems, leaves, flowers, fruits, and seeds through observation, dissection, journaling, discussion of findings, and, of course, tasting! This book can be used in educators' instruction to support standards in nutrition, math, language arts, and social studies. Every lesson includes plant snacks that spark curiosity, interesting questions, and social dialogue to fuel the learning process.
Creamed, Canned and Frozen: How the Great Depression Revamped U.S. Diets
During the Depression, cheap, nutritious and filling food was prioritized — often at the expense of taste. Although today the trend is "fresh," food preservation has been historically important. This article can help students see the impact of the Great Depression on American diets.
Crop Cards
Double-sided cards representing ten agricultural crops. Each card shows the plant in each stage of growth, explains how and when it is planted and harvested and describes its use as feed for animals or food for humans. The cards can be printed from the attached PDF or prints can be ordered from the Nebraska Foundation for Agricultural Awareness.
Dig In: Hands-On Soil Investigations
Give students the dirt on soil with a practical book that brings new meaning to the term "hands-on." Using these 12 activities and two original stories as guides, kids will soon be up to their elbows in the study of soil formation, habitats and land use, animals that depend on soil, plants that grow in soil, soil science, and soil conservation. Each teacher-tested lesson plan offers helpful background, assessment methods, and suggestions for further exploration.
Feeding the World and Protecting the Environment
This supplemental resource was developed to provide content and labs about fertilizer’s role in federal regulations, such as the Clean Water Act. Additionally the supplement provides an overview of sustainability and 4R nutrient stewardship providing a lot of information as well as places for students to keep notes. This free,
downloadable PDF can be requested from the Nutrients for Life Foundation.
Fighting Weeds: Can we reduce, or even eliminate herbicides by utilizing robotics and AI?
Take a quick look at some of the technical strategies being pursued in farming, robotics, and AI. Which of these robots do you think you'll see in the future? Could robotics revolutionize farming practices for weed control?
Food Chemistry Experiments
This free, downloadable 60-page booklet contains seven basic food science experiments designed for middle and high school students. Includes teacher/student activity guides.
Food Safety A to Z Reference Guide
A treasure trove of scientific and comprehensive food safety information in one user-friendly, alphabetical format. Use this guide as a research tool for reinforcing the science concepts in the video, performing the activities and labs, and to further enhance your knowledge of food safety.
Garden Genetics: Teaching With Edible Plants
Tired of teaching genetic concepts with the same old pink petunias and Mendel’s peas? With Garden Genetics, you can present core content in ways that are fun for students and fresh for you. This two-part set—a teacher edition and companion student edition—is adaptable to biology students at all levels, including AP. It uses a series of activities and inquiry-based experiments with familiar foods to teach genetics while helping students make connections to ecology, evolution, and plant biology.
Genetically Engineered Crops in the United States Report
Despite the rapid increase in the adoption of genetically engineered (GE) corn, soybean, and cotton varieties by US farmers, questions persist regarding their economic and environmental impacts, the evolution of weed resistance, and consumer acceptance. This report examines issues related to three major stakeholders in agricultural biotechnology: GE seed suppliers and technology providers (biotech firms), farmers, and consumers.
Genetically Modified Food: Good, Bad, Ugly
Review this article to hear multiple perspectives on the issue of GMOs. Why do some fear the technology while others believe it is a solution to many challenges in food production?
Glidden's Patent Application for Barbed Wire
Life in the American West was reshaped by a series of patents for a simple tool that helped ranchers tame the land: barbed wire. Learn why this tool was important and impactful in the history of the United States as well as in cattle ranching.
Gourmet Lab: The Scientific Principles Behind Your Favorite Foods
Hands-on, inquiry-based, and relevant to every student’s life, Gourmet Lab serves up a full menu of activities for science teachers of grades 6-12. This collection of 15 hands-on experiments, each of which includes a full set of both student and teacher pages, challenges students to take on the role of scientist and chef as they boil, bake, and toast their way to better understanding of science concepts from chemistry, biology, and physics. By cooking edible items such as pancakes and butterscotch, students have the opportunity to learn about physical changes in states of matter, acids and bases, biochemistry, and molecular structure. What better topic than food to engage students to explore science in the natural world?
How Safe is Your Salad?
Learn about the safety system and protocols farmers and farm workers must follow while growing and harvesting lettuce and other leafy greens grown in Arizona. After an E. coli outbreak in 2006 the leafy green industry began approaching food safety in a new way. Learn the steps taken to protect your salad from foodborne illness.
How a New Evolutionary Map Could Help Farmers Eliminate Fertilizer
Many key food crops require nitrogen fertilizer, which can have negative effects on the environment if not managed correctly. Other crops, such as those from the legume family have special nitrogen fixing characteristics which return nitrogen to the soil. Read this article to discover how scientists are trying to transfer the nitrogen fixing trait to other plants.
Illustrated Accounts of Moments in Agricultural History
Modern Farmer magazine offers a number of illustrated accounts by Lucas Adams that depict interesting and important moments in agricultural history. The Illustrated Account of 'The Great Die-Up' of the 1880s tells the story of the winter of 1886-7, which was so harsh that only about one out of ten cattle survived, and the era of the open range came to an end soon after. Other accounts address topics such as the Pleasant Valley Sheep War, mulberry and silk production in 1830s Connecticut, a maple syrup heist, and dairy farming in the 1940s. These graphic novel style articles are sure to engage students from upper elementary to high school and older.
Magical Sour Cabbage: How Sauerkraut Helped Save the Age of Sail
"Super food" is a well-known term representing a food rich in nutrients. Did you know sauerkraut was a superfood on sailing ships in the 1500-1800s? Introduce or support a lesson on food preservation, food storage, or nutrients by teaching your students how fermented cabbage prevented sailors from coming down with scurvy on long voyages.
Mandarin Oranges: Protecting the Flavor of This Popular Fruit
This article can enrich a lesson on food safety, transportation, food packaging, or food science with a real-life example. Illustrate how food scientists are researching the mandarin orange to protect the flavor of the fruit after it is harvested.
Mobile System Removes Phosphorus From Manure
Read about the research for a mobile system designed to remove phosphorus from cow manure. This technology may offer dairy farmers greater flexibility in where, when, and how they use the nutrient to fertilize crops.
Natural GMO? Sweet Potato Genetically Modified 8,000 Years Ago
Genetically modified crops have specific genes transferred from one genome to another. Typically it is believed that this could not happen naturally without human assistance. However, this article reports on the evidence that the sweet potato has a gene originally found in a bacterium.
Nutrition Research Articles
See a collection of articles reporting the results of various research projects carried out by the United States Department of Agriculture. These articles can help secondary students make connections with topics such as food, nutrition, and overall health.
Precision Agriculture Technologies and Factors Affecting Their Adoption
Precision agriculture technologies are playing an increasing role in farm production. Examples include GPS tractor guidance systems and GPS soil and yield mapping for variable-rate applications. This USDA report discusses adoption rates for using these technologies and factors impacting adoption of use.
Smarter Food: Does Big Farming Mean Bad Farming?
A common misconception in agriculture is that large scale farming is "bad." This article discusses farm size, conventional vs organic food production, sustainability, and various cultivation practices designed to protect and preserve the environment.
Smartphones Enlisted to Battle Crop Disease
Is a smartphone really that smart? In this article a research scientists from Penn State and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology are joining together in an effort to develop a smartphone app that will diagnose a crop disease from an image. Healthy crops can become infected by thousands of pests and the first line of defense is the farmer. This is a good article for illustrating the use of modern technology to increase and encourage crop health.
Using Technology to Save Water
Use this resource when discussing the future use and demand of fresh water. Sixty percent of the world's fresh water is used by farmers which has a large impact upon its availability in meeting the challenge of producing food for a growing population. This article explains how scientists in the southwest are developing tools for saving water with the help of satellites, computer models, remote sensors, and other types of technologies.
Wiki Watershed
A web toolkit designed to help teachers and students advance in their knowledge and stewardship of fresh water.
Website
23andMe
A World of Cotton
This natural plant fiber is a globally important crop with many uses. But cotton growers are continually dealing with environmental challenges like drought and pests. Explore the content of this website to learn more about cotton, its wild ancestors, and some of the approaches scientists are using to study and improve cotton plants.
Ag & Food Careers
This website, put together by a partnership of agricultural organizations in Pennsylvania, has agricultural career resources that are applicable to all states. See over 50 careers in agriculture through videos, and infographics on the
Ag & Food Careers List. Additionally, there is an
Educator Resource section that includes 4 web scavenger hunts to guide students through the videos.
Agricultural Stats and Facts
A nationwide interactive map geared for elementary students which displays state agricultural facts.
All About Corn: e-learning modules for educators and students
This website includes a series of interactive online modules with nearly five hours of programming on everything about corn, targeted to high school students.
An Unusual Snack for Cows, a Powerful Fix for Climate
One of the most powerful weapons in the fight against climate change is washing up on shorelines around the world, unnoticed by most beachgoers. It’s seaweed. Specifically, Asparagopsis taxiformis and Asparagopsis armata — two species of a crimson submarine grass that drifts on waves and tides all around the world’s oceans. See how seaweed is being researched as a feed additive to reduce methane production in livestock.
Before the Plate Website
The Before the Plate website contains information about the Before the Plate documentary and videos and explanations for each step of the farm-to-fork process for beef, potatoes, honey, milk, and sunflowers.
Careers for Green Thumbs
Students interested in a plant science career can use this website to find information on specialized career paths in the fields of agriculture, horticulture and forestry. Discover the demand for nursery and greenhouse workers, horticulturists, florists, flower specialists, and more.
Corteva Grows Science: Outreach Career Paths
Cotton Campus
The Cotton Campus is a digital simulation of a college university all about cotton. Begin with how cotton is grown and harvested and then continue your "education" to learn how the fibers are processed into fabric, how to wash and care for cotton fabric, and other fun facts.
Cotton Counts Educational Resources
This website provides a variety of publications for teaching about cotton, including printable handouts on cotton and the consumer, what can be made with a bale of cotton, and the history of cotton from its first planting in the United States until today. An online presentation provides images and text to show your students how cotton goes from field to fabric.
Crop Science Career Profiles
The Crop Science Society of America promotes and encourages career opportunities in the agronomic, crop, soil and environmental sciences. The Career Placement webpage contains career profiles, salary survey reports, and career brochures for teachers and students who are interested in learning more about available jobs in these areas.
DNA Learning Center
The DNA Learning Center (DNALC) is the world's first science center devoted entirely to genetics education and is an operating unit of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, an important center for molecular genetics research. The DNALC website provides links to a family of educational Internet sites that cover broad topics, including basic heredity, genetic disorders, eugenics, the discovery of the structure of DNA, DNA sequencing, cancer, and plant genetics.
Dirt to Dinner
Looking for topics to engage students in critical thinking and argumentation? This site deals in "food matters" highlighting the relationship between producers and consumers using credible resources on the topics of global food production, sustainable agriculture, and nutrition.
Dirt-to-Dinner: Food Matters
The goal of Dirt-to-Dinner (D2D) is to educate the curious consumer on how food travels from the farm to our forks. Verified science is used to answer questions on our global food supply chain, sustainability in agriculture, the integrity of our food, and its nutrition. Information is focused on how and why countries are dependent on each other for a constant food supply, looks for the balance between feeding the world’s population today without compromising the environment or future generations of tomorrow, and examines the integrity of our food.
Eggs in Schools
The Eggs in Schools website has a variety of classroom resources and tools including virtual field trips, activities, games, cooking videos, and lesson plans.
Employment Opportunities for College Graduates in Food, Renewable Energy, and the Environment
This report describes projected job opportunities for U.S. college graduates in the food, agricultural, and natural resources system for the years 2020-2025. It highlights areas where graduating students are most likely to find jobs. The publication also describes factors that are driving trends in the job market, as well as characteristics of students graduating from U.S. Colleges of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Forestry, and Veterinary Medicine. Visit the website or download the printable PDF.
FAOSTAT: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Statistics Division
FAOSTAT provides free access to food and agriculture data for over 245 countries and territories and covers all FAO regional groupings from 1961 to the most recent year available.
Fight Bac! Food Safety Education
The Fight Bac website contains many helpful resources for teachers. You will find information about preventing foodborne illness, proper hand washing, kids games, activities, brochures, flyers, and video clips to enhance your lesson plans.
Food Security & Nutrition Around the World
This website contains the full report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United States about food security and nutrition around the world. View numerous graphs showing trends over time for hunger, malnutrition, child stunting, and other related impacts of food insecurity.
GMO Answers
GMO Answers is an educational website to answer your questions about GMO's, or Genetically Modified Organisms. You will find infographics, images, videos, posters, and handouts to use as learning tools.
Genetic Science Learning Center
The Genetic Science Learning Center provides many teaching tools to supplement lessons on genetics, heredity, cells, cloning, and more. You will find virtual labs and simulations, graphics, and animations.
Growing a Nation Multimedia Timeline
This multimedia timeline pairs with Growing a Nation lesson plans using interactive technology to bring depth and meaning to historical events. The timeline includes stories and is linked to lesson plans that merge seamlessly with existing American history textbooks and high school history curricula. The program covers historical events such as the Dust Bowl, Great Depression, Civil War, and the impact of science and technological growth.
Hungry Planet Family Food Portraits
The Peter Menzel Photography website provides an archive of the photos included in the Hungry Planet book, which depict everything an average family consumes in a week along with the food cost. These portraits provide a glimpse into kitchens from Norway to China to Mexico, raising questions about how culture and environment influence the cost and calories of diets around the world.
Insect Herbivores and Plants
Visit this website to take a deeper look at the connection between herbivorous insects and the plants they eat, explore a gallery of insect herbivores, and discover methods and tools to keep insect herbivores from eating our crops.
Journey 2050
The Journey 2050 website focuses on the year 2050 as a key moment in time when the world's population is estimated to be 9 billion. Answer the question, "How will we sustainably feed 9 billion people by the year 2050?" Find four games and seven videos to learn about sustainable agriculture.
Journey of a Gene
This website engages students in the genetic engineering process in a problem and solution format. The video series describes a plant disease in soybeans and then illustrates the steps in genetic engineering that could be employed to develop seeds that are resistant to the disease.
Labels Unwrapped
The Labels Unwrapped project was launched to address the frustration and confusion caused by food labels. Laws and regulations that govern the labeling of food products are complex and, in some instances, ambiguous. Because everyone eats food every day, the creators of this site wanted to unwrap the law behind the labels on various types of food products and provide an accessible informational resource for anyone who wants to better understand the language and imagery that can both inform and confuse consumers.
Like Your Food? Thank a Trucker
Tired of higher food prices? The food industry is focusing on tighter cost controls to hold the line against future increases. But you might be surprised to see what worries food executives most. Explore the importance of transportation in the food supply chain using this article from Dirt to Dinner.
MyPlate
MyPlate is the USDA's food guidance symbol that illustrates the five food groups using the familiar image of a place setting for a meal. A wide variety of resources are provided on the associated MyPlate website.
National FFA AgExplorer
AgExplorer is a comprehensive career resource to help you explore the broad range of careers within the industry of agriculture. Careers may have you using advanced equipment, creating new hybrid seeds, raising animals, managing people, or designing new products and packaging. The industry of agriculture can open up a world of possibilities, and the demand for professionals in every agricultural area is high. Learn more about which career might be right for you by watching the videos, exploring the career pages, and completing the Career Finder interactive.
National Geographic: What the World Eats
Do you know which country in the world consumes the most daily calories? Which country consumes the most bread or meat? View a series of pie graphs representing countries throughout the globe to answer these questions and more. Each graph displays the typical diet from that country broken down into food groups such as produce, dairy & eggs, meat, sugar & fat, and grains. You can also see how diets have changed from the year 1961 until the present.
Nitrogen & Agriculture
This interactive site explores the importance of nitrogen for plant, animal, and soil health. Students are able to build amino acid and fertilizer molecules and calculate molecular weight in relation to nitrogen content.
Pathful Connect
Pathful Connect matches teachers and students with the right industry professionals virtually, without having to spend much planning time or leaving the classroom, while providing an effective way for companies to extend education outreach and create equity of access.
Phenomenon
Find a master list of phenomena and corresponding resources to implement as episodes in a phenomenon storyline. Resources are categorized by grade level and cover grades K-12.
Producepedia
Fruits, vegetables, and nuts are all considered produce. Producepedia is a website devoted to teaching about these important food crops. Find fun facts about various produce, learn about how and where it is grown, when it is in season, and watch videos from top chefs about how to cook and prepare the produce for eating.
Project WET
Project WET publishes water resource education materials that are appropriate for many different age groups and cultures and offer comprehensive coverage of the broad topic of water. They also provide training workshops to educators at all levels, formal and non-formal, on diverse water topics.
Soil Health Education Resources
Soil Life
Soil Life is a website designed to change the way the world looks at soil—digging into what's dirty and calling into question what's clean. This website includes an interactive, graphics-based introduction to soil science, a media hub of soils-related content, and actionable ways to protect and promote soils and life.
Soil Science Society of America
The Soil Science Society of America website hosts dozens of soil resources specifically for educators. Find lessons, activities, maps, and helpful information aligned to NGSS standards.
State Fact Sheets
Visit this website and click on your state to see statistics from the Economic Research Service and United States Department of Agriculture. State fact sheets provide information on population, employment, income, farm characteristics, farm financial indicators, and top commodities, exports, and counties for each state in the United States.
Thanksgiving Maps and Posters
Visit this website to see maps and graphs to discover where your Thanksgiving dinner foods such as green beans, carrots, celery, sweet corn, cranberries, onions, pecans, potatoes, pumpkins, squash, sweet potatoes, turkey, and wheat were produced.
The American Dairy Industry
This online special collections exhibit from the USDA National Agricultural Library includes sections on the early history of the dairy industry, government contributions to dairying, and research in the private sector.
The Food Timeline
Ever wonder what foods the Vikings ate when they set off to explore the new world? How Thomas Jefferson made his ice cream? What the pioneers cooked along the Oregon Trail? Who invented the potato chip...and why? Welcome to the Food Timeline! Food history presents a fascinating buffet of popular lore and contradictory facts. Some people will tell you it's impossible to express this topic in exact timeline format. They are correct. Most foods we eat are not invented; they evolve.
The USGS Water Science School
This website offers information on many aspects of water, along with pictures, data, maps, and an interactive center where you can give opinions and test your water knowledge.
Tractor Timeline- A History of Tractors
Use this interactive tractor timeline to learn about the history of tractors. Dive into the history of tractor development and see how the evolution of these farm implements has changed how we farm and made it possible to increase our crop yields.
Utah State University Bee Lab
The website for the USDA Bee Biology and Systematics Laboratory at Utah State University provides a glimpse into the world of bee research. This is a great resource to build background knowledge prior to teaching about bees. In addition to many technical articles, the site provides links to popular magazine and USDA Agricultural Research Service news articles on bees. Dig deeper to find pages on how to identify bumble bees of northern Utah and a guide to raising bumble bees at home.
Virtual Food Safety Labs
Food safety and science come together with these virtual labs. Students can see and practice some of the laboratory techniques used by researchers and food scientists. Visit the website to see eight virtual labs including Testing for Corn Mold, Bacteria Sampling, Gram Staining, Using the Microscope, The pH Scale and Meter Calibration, Testing and Adjusting pH, Understanding Water Activity, and Controlling Water Activity in Food.
Web Soil Survey
The Web Soil Survey provides soil data and information for your specific area to help cater your soil lesson to your own community. Visit the website link below for instructions, then click on
"Start WSS" to find your soil data.
What's In My Food?
Would you like to learn more about the ingredients in your food? Common questions about our food include: Does it contain GMOs? Does the packaging contain BPA? and What are the ingredients? This website contains detailed information about these topics for common foods such as soups, sauces, juices, pasta, crackers, and cookies.
