6th - 12th Grade Agriscience:
Plant Science
PLANT SCIENCE BASICS
At Home on the Range: Students will learn about rangelands by participating in a hands-on activity to grow their own grass to represent a beef or sheep ranch.
Crop Case Files: Dichotomous Keys: Students will explore the connection between weeds and ecosystem stability, practice observing characteristics by using and creating a dichotomous key, and research and present information on noxious weeds.
Flower Power: Students will observe the anatomical structures of flowers and explain a flower's role in plant growth and reproduction, as well as their connection to our food supply.
FoodMASTER Middle: Vegetables: Students will learn the concept of pH and the impact of acids and bases on plant pigments, explore the impact of acids and bases on plant cell structure, and discover the health benefits of consuming vegetables.
Growing Pulses: This lesson introduces agriculture as a managed system that has environmental impacts and teaches how farmers employ practices—such as growing pulses—to minimize these impacts.
Plant Parts and Functions: In this lesson, students will learn about plant parts and how they function in plant growth and reproduction.
Plant Propagation: Students will learn about two types of plant propagation—seed planting (sexual) and stem cuttings (asexual)—and recognize the genetic differences in these processes, as well as the advantages and disadvantages of each method.
Plant-Soil Interactions (Grades 6-8): Students will recognize that plants remove nutrients from the soil, explain the roles of diffusion and active transport in moving nutrients from the soil to the plant, and relate the root and vascular systems of the plant to the human circulatory system.
Plant-Soil Interactions (Grades 9-12): Students will explain the roles of diffusion and active transport in moving nutrients from the soil to the plant; describe the formation of soil and soil horizons; and describe the events in the Great Dust Bowl, how they relate to soil horizons, and how those events affected agricultural practices.
Surrounded by Plants: Students identify the importance of plants to human life by surveying their home and neighborhood for plant products used for medicine, aesthetics, fuel products, fiber and food.
AEROPONICS
Aeroponic Engineering and Vertical Farming (Grades 6-8): Students will use the Engineering Design Process to develop and construct an aeroponic garden to grow a food crop. Students will develop and apply an understanding of plant anatomy and physiology related to plant growth and ultimately discuss the possibilities and limitations of using vertical farming to produce our food.
Aeroponic Engineering and Vertical Farming (Grades 9-12): Students will use the Engineering Design Process to develop and construct an aeroponic garden to grow a food crop. Students will develop and apply an understanding of plant anatomy and physiology related to plant growth—and ultimately, discuss the possibilities and limitations of using vertical farming to produce our food.
GMOs
Evaluating Perspectives About GMOs: While many view bioengineered crops (GMOs) as a promising innovation, there is controversy about their use. This lesson provides students with a brief overview of the technology, equipping them with the ability to evaluate the social, environmental, and economic arguments for and against bioengineered crops (GMOs). This lesson covers a socioscientific issue and aims to provide students with tools to evaluate science within the context of social and economic points of view.
Farmland: Students will view the film Farmland, a documentary spotlighting six farmers and ranchers in the United States. The film portrays the business and lifestyle of a variety of farmers and ranchers. Perspectives on topics such as genetically modified (GMO) crops, animal welfare, organic and conventional farming practices, farm size, farming stereotypes, and more are presented.
Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) and Organic Foods: Students will determine the presence of DNA in their food by extracting it from a strawberry. Then, students will compare and contrast GMOs and organic foods in order to evaluate the nutrition, safety, economic, geographic and environmental impacts of these agricultural production practices.
The Science of GMOs: Students will map the scientific process of creating a bioengineered (GMO) plant, compare bioengineered soybean seeds to conventional soybean seeds, describe the impact weeds have on plant growth, and understand how a bioengineered seed can help farmers manage weeds.
HEREDITY & GENETICS
Apple Genetics: A Tasty Phenomena: Using the context of apples, students will apply their knowledge of heredity and genetics to distinguish between sexual and asexual reproduction as they explain how new varieties of apples are developed and then propagated to meet consumer demand for a tasty, uniform and consistent product.
Apples and the Science of Genetic Selection: Students will distinguish between natural and artificial selection and use a student-centered learning activity to see how science and genetics have been used to artificially select apples for specific traits like color, texture, taste and crispness.
Applying Heredity Concepts: In this lesson, students will complete monohybrid and dihybrid Punnett squares in preparation for taking on a challenge to breed cotton plants that produce naturally blue-colored cotton.
Strawberry Breeding and Genetics: Students learn about DNA by extracting it from strawberries. Students also analyze the similarities and differences of their extraction process to those on “Genetic Engineering: The Journey of a Gene.” Students learn how genetic testing—including DNA extraction—is useful in breeding new varieties of strawberries.
HYDROPONICS
What? No Soil?: After learning the five basic requirements of plant growth, students discuss terms related to hydroponics. Students then build and maintain hydroponic units from soda bottles.
NUTRIENTS & FERTILIZER
Can We Have Too Much of a Good Thing?: In this lesson, students will understand that plants require nutrients in proper concentrations. Students will discover that plants can be damaged or killed by either too many or too few nutrients.
Concentrate on the Solution: In this lesson, students will use their knowledge of solutes, solvents and parts per million to analyze fertilizer options that meet plant nutrient requirements, while evaluating costs associated with managing plant nutrients.
Digging Into Nutrients: In this lesson, students will gain background knowledge of the nutrient requirements of plants, how those nutrients are obtained by the plant, what farmers must do if the nutrients are not available in soils and current issues related to agricultural production.
In Search of Essential Nutrients (Grades 6-8): In this lesson, students will learn the definition of an essential element, compare and contrast the essential nutrient requirements of plants and humans, explain why plants cannot use elemental nitrogen found in the atmosphere and identify the sources for each essential nutrient needed by plants.
In Search of Essential Nutrients (Grades 9-12): Students explore the meaning of essential elements and use periodic tables to compare the elements that are essential to people and plants. Students discover where in the environment plants obtain each of their essential elements.
Journey 2050 Lesson 2: Soil Nutrients (Grades 6-8): Students will identify nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus as primary soil nutrients necessary in the production of abundant and healthy foods, describe various methods of replenishing soil nutrients that have been depleted by plant growth, discover how overall plant health impacts a plant’s ability to resist disease and pests, and describe what best management practices are in agriculture to improve overall sustainability.
Journey 2050 Lesson 2: Soil Nutrients (Grades 9-12): Students will identify nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus as primary soil nutrients necessary in the production of abundant and healthy foods, describe various methods of replenishing soil nutrients that have been depleted by plant growth, discover how overall plant health impacts a plant’s ability to resist disease and pests, and describe what best management practices are in agriculture to improve overall sustainability.
One in a Million: In this lesson, students will learn about solutes and solvents and will use serial dilution while investigating parts per million—a term used to describe the nutrient concentration of a fertilizer solution.
Plant Nutrient Deficiencies (Grades 6-8): Students discuss the definition of fertilizer and relate it to plant nutrition and the need to restore nutrient balance in agricultural soils. They discuss how people and crops can suffer from nutrient deficiencies. Students assume the roles of plant doctors and diagnose nutrient deficiencies in corn plants.
Plant Nutrient Deficiencies (Grades 9-12): Students will recognize that plants—like people—require essential nutrients to be present in the right amounts in order to be healthy, use reference materials to diagnose plant nutrient deficiencies, define fertilizer as a type of food for plants and appreciate that fertilizers are used to replenish nutrients in agricultural soils.
The Right Diet for Your Plants: In this lesson, students will learn how to read a fertilizer label, understand the components of fertilizers and explore factors for choosing the appropriate fertilizer for a given situation. Students will use their knowledge and conduct research on one type of soil supplement to design a persuasive product advertisement.
The Right Solution: In this lesson, students will understand concepts about solutes, solvents and parts per million as they learn how fertilizer solution is properly calculated and applied.
PLANT SPECIFIC
Fungi Multiplication: Learn about edible mushroom cultivation and how one mushroom multiplies into many more. Create a spore print and explore ecology concepts by experimenting with mold and yeast growth and researching species of fungi.
Growing America: Students determine corn anatomy and function of plant parts, identify stages of plant development in corn, and research how temperature plays a role in corn growth as they calculate growing degree units (GDUs) for a region.
Growing a Nation Era 1b: Cotton’s American Journey: Students investigate the impact of cotton on the history and culture of the United States. Students discover the growth and processing requirements for cotton, recognize how the invention of the cotton gin affected slavery, explain how the plantation system was organized, and ultimately understand the role of cotton in the Civil War.
Herbs and Spices of the World: In this lesson, students will recognize the difference between a spice and herb, learn how herbs and spices are grown on farms around the world and participate in a culinary challenge to season popcorn for various cultural cuisines.
Inherited Traits in the Living Corn Necklace: Students will observe the growth of Indian corn and popcorn seeds, observe similarities and differences between the two varieties and discuss heredity.
More Than One Grain of Rice: Students will learn about the cultivation and parts of rice while also covering subjects including mathematics, economics, and geography. Activities include reading “One Grain of Rice” by Demi and removing the hull, bran and germ from grains of rice.