Vertical Gardens and Rooftop Farms

OBJECTIVE Students will explore alternative agriculture methods occurring in urban environments. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS MATERIALS PROCEDURE Introduction:  Ask students, “What do farms look like? Together, let’s draw a farm.”  Invite students to come up and add elements onto a farm on a large piece of paper/blackboard.  Ask students, “Where is this farm?” Recall some farm visits […]

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Introduction to Corn: Botany

OBJECTIVE Students will understand the process of seed to fork through the lens of corn. Students will explore the transformation of corn over thousands of years, and how it has become the primary crop used in the US today. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS Where does corn come from? How does eating corn affect the world? MATERIALS Teosinte […]

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Corn Investigation in our Food System

OBJECTIVE Students will explore the meaning of “nourish” in both personal and global contexts. Students will investigate the role of corn in their daily lives and understand its historical impact on society. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS What does food tell us about culture? How do we nourish ourselves? How does eating corn affect the world? MATERIALS NEEDED […]

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Impacts of Urban Agriculture

OBJECTIVE Students will explore alternative agriculture methods occurring in urban environments, particularly in the form of community gardens. Students will identify the ways in which these systems create not only an alternative food system, but also an alternative economic and social system. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS MATERIALS Access to provided resources (links, articles, videos) Presentation materials (poster […]

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Feeding a Hungry World

OBJECTIVE Students will explore alternative agriculture mthods occurring in urban environments. Students will work in small groups to research various case studies of urban agriculture, create displays/models of the urban agriculture systems, and present to their classmates and community members. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS RESOURCES Urban Farming Around the World- Time Magazine The Vertical Farm How a […]

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Bioengineered Food

OVERVIEW In this lesson, students compare the processes of selective breeding and transgenic manipulation of plants. They consider the pros and cons of growing genetically modified crops. Then they explore the possible future consequences of genetically modified organisms. Finally, they analyze public opinion data about the use of genetically modified foods. As an optional activity, […]

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