4-ESS2-1:
Plan and conduct investigations on the effects of water, ice, wind, and vegetation on the relative rate of weathering and erosion.

Keeping Soil in Its Place: Students will be able to demonstrate rain drop splash (splash erosion) and determine its impact on bare soil, ultimately being able to visually identify types of erosion.

What Makes Up Your Profile?: Students will recognize soil changes in relationship to depth and understand factors associated with soil formation.

4-ESS2-2:
Analyze and interpret data from maps to describe patterns of Earth’s features.

Color in the Garden: Students will use the art of soil painting to explore science and the natural world while learning about the color wheel, the importance of soil to agriculture, and why soils have different colors.

Powerful Potato: Students will explore life science concepts by observing a potato grow with and without soil. They will further learn about geography and world cultures by charting potato geography on a world map and holding a potato dress up contest.

4-ESS3-1:
Obtain and combine information to describe that energy and fuels are derived from renewable and non-renewable resources and how their uses affect the environment.

A Search for the Source: Students determine that agriculture provides nearly all of the products we rely on in any given day by participating in a relay where they match an everyday items with its “source.”

Corn an A-maizing Plant: Food, Fuel and Plastic: Students will examine the growth, composition, history, and uses of corn through a close reading activity, discussion of renewable and non-renewable resources, and hands-on exploration of bioplastics made from corn.

Farming for Energy: Students identify renewable and nonrenewable energy sources and investigate how farms can produce renewable energy.

My Farm Web: Students use the visual representation of a web to explore the role of agriculture in their daily lives and understand how most of the necessities of life can be traced back to the farm.

4-LS1-1:
Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.

Backpack Garden: Through project-based learning, students use school resources to construct and grow a school garden to supplement the school Backpack Program with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Desktop Greenhouses: Students will investigate the importance of light to plants by creating a desktop greenhouse investigation and exploring the process of photosynthesis.

Do You Know GMO?: Students explore the process of genetic engineering and discover the 10 genetically modified crops approved in the United States.

Edible Numbers: Students will develop a working vocabulary regarding food, categorize foods by their sources, examine grocery ads, learn about food production, and apply what they learned by analyzing foods they eat at a particular meal.

Eggology: Students will identify how the basic needs of a growing chick are met during egg incubation. Activities include identifying and diagramming the parts of an egg and hatching eggs in class.

Eggs: From Hen to Home: Students will trace the production path of eggs, beginning on the farm and ending in their home. Students will identify the culinary uses and nutritional benefits of eggs.

Enjoying the Harvest: Students will identify the parts of a wheat plant and wheat kernel and investigate the process of milling wheat kernels into flour.

Exploring Aquaponics: The students will identify the basic needs of plants and fish and engineer, assemble, maintain, and observe a small-scale aquaponics system that meets plant and fish needs.

Farmers Market Finds: Students explore the value of farmers markets to local communities and discover the benefits of locally-grown food.

Farming in a Glove: Students observe how a seed sprouts and investigate the conditions necessary for germination to occur.

Flower Power: Students will observe physical characteristics of flowers and explore principles of pollination.

FoodMASTER: Grains: Students will learn the steps of making flour, compare the nutritional value of different cereals, compare cooked and uncooked rice, and identify the parts of a whole grain.

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

Got Guts?: Students will investigate the different digestive systems of livestock and learn how animals have unique nutritional needs based on these structures. Students will also discover the responsibilities of an animal nutritionist.

Growing Almonds: Fact or Opinion: Students will learn about the process of getting almonds from farm to table and distinguish the difference between facts and opinions as they learn about each stage and season of almond growth.

Hatching Science with Classroom Chicks: Students will explore how an embryo develops inside of a chicken egg over time, discuss life cycles and other natural cycles, and observe similarities and differences between parents and offspring.

Honey Bees: A Pollination Simulation: Students will identify the parts of a honey bee, the stages of its life cycle, and its role in pollination.

Inside the Egg, Hatching Chicks: Students will learn about biology by studying embryo development in chicken eggs.

Milk Makin’ Math: In this lesson, students will learn about the numerous career opportunities involved in the dairy industry. They will also practice real world math problems related to specific careers within the industry.

Pancakes!: Students will describe the physical properties of materials and observe physical and chemical changes as they learn about the ingredients in pancakes and how maple syrup is harvested from trees.

Peaches: What’s All the Fuzz About?: Students explore peach production in various regions of the United States, describe how peaches are produced and processed from farm to table, and explain how internal and external structures of peaches support survival and growth.

Plant-Soil Interactions: Students will discover how plants and soils interact by observing root growth, considering the function of a plant’s roots, modeling the movement of water into the roots, and investigating the movement of water and nutrients throughout the plant.

Plants Around You: Students will categorize plants into groups, describe what plants need for healthy growth, and start their own garden by planting seeds inside a cup.

Roll of the Genes: Students will learn about genes and how they affect important traits such as growth, reproduction, disease resistance, and behavior. Students will also discover the responsibilities of an animal geneticist.

Science and Poetry with Almonds: Students will learn about the almond tree life cycle including tree dormancy, pollination, bloom and kernel development of an almond.

Seeds, Miraculous Seeds: Students will develop an appreciation and understanding of the natural development of seeds, learn the anatomy and function of each seed part through a seed dissection and classify seeds as monocots or dicots.

Significant Surroundings: Students will identify basic animal behaviors and hypothesize what causes them. Students will also discover the responsibilities of an animal physiologist.

Sorghum at School: The Sorghum Story: Students will investigate sorghum, including the stages of plant growth, production in the United States, health benefits, geography, and positive environmental impacts.

Sun, to Moo, to You!: Students will investigate the transfer of energy in the process of making milk. Students will understand that there are different forms of energy, that living things need energy to survive, and that the primary source of energy is the sun.

Terrariums: A Look at the Living and Nonliving World: Students will observe the interactions between living plants and other living and nonliving things in a small terrarium environment. They will also learn about farms and discuss similarities between the terrarium environment and the farm environment. 

Test Tube Hydroponics: Students will investigate the importance of nutrients for plant growth and discover how plants grow without soil by growing and observing plants in a test tube hydroponic system.

The Chemistry of Fruits and Vegetables: Students examine fruit and vegetable preparation and storage.

Think in Pictures: Like Dr. Grandin: Students will compare agricultural inventors and inventions by creating a timeline of important dates, explore cattle flight zones, and work as agricultural engineers to design a corral system that uses the research of Dr. Temple Grandin.

Vermicomposting: The class will create a worm bin which will serve as a basis for investigations about ecosystems, life and nutrient cycles, and decomposition.

Wild Rice: Students explore the life cycle of wild rice, compare the steps of the traditional Native wild rice harvest with a cultivated wild rice harvest, and create their own wild rice bowls.

Working Worms: Students observe how earthworms speed the decomposition of organic matter and learn how this adds nutrients to the soil that are important for plant growth. Activities include constructing worm habitats from milk jugs and completing Ride the Wild Leaf Cycle activity sheets. 

4-LS1-2:
Construct an explanation to describe how animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brains, and respond to the information in different ways.

Honey Bees: A Pollination Simulation: Students will identify the parts of a honey bee, the stages of its life cycle, and its role in pollination.

Milk Makin’ Math: In this lesson, students will learn about the numerous career opportunities involved in the dairy industry. They will also practice real world math problems related to specific careers within the industry. 

Significant Surroundings: Students will identify basic animal behaviors and hypothesize what causes them. Students will also discover the responsibilities of an animal physiologist.

Vermicomposting: The class will create a worm bin which will serve as a basis for investigations about ecosystems, life and nutrient cycles, and decomposition.