Unit 1 — September: Introduction to Agriculture and Food Science
Description
Students begin by establishing classroom norms and learning about good citizenship and stewardship. The unit introduces agriculture as a field of study, examining where agriculture is found and its role in everyday life. Students research the farm to table chain at local, regional, and international levels, considering how agriculture connects to daily consumption. The unit addresses products and byproducts, explores careers in agriculture, and reviews agricultural history and current practices in the U.S. and abroad, including cultural and policy differences in food production and processing. Food science begins with real-world problem-solving using mathematics to analyze grocery store costs, meal nutrition, and diets around the world.
Essential Questions
- What is agriculture and where can it be found?
- How does food travel from farm to table?
- What careers exist in agriculture?
- How does agriculture impact our lives?
Learning Objectives
- Define agriculture and identify agricultural systems in daily life
- Trace the pathway of food from local, regional, and international sources
- Identify agricultural products and byproducts
- Explore career opportunities in agriculture
- Understand historical and contemporary agricultural practices
- Apply mathematical reasoning to food costs and nutrition
- Recognize cultural practices affecting food production
Supplemental Resources
- Graph paper for cost analysis work for organizing grocery data
- Markers and poster board for farm to table chain visual presentations
- Sticky notes for brainstorming agricultural careers and applications
- Index cards for vocabulary review of agricultural terms
- Printed grocery advertisements for cost comparison activities
Engineering, Technology, and Applications of Science
Crosscutting Concepts
Disciplinary Core Ideas
Science and Engineering Practices
Students engage in reading, writing, speaking, and listening tasks throughout all units. They conduct research on agricultural topics using informational texts, write blog posts and project reports, present findings to peers, and engage in collaborative discussions. Students summarize information from diverse media, quote from sources to support claims, and produce informative and opinion writing aligned to agricultural themes such as food systems, animal science, and natural resource management.
Students apply mathematical concepts across all units. They use measurement and unit conversions when testing water chemistry, calculating feed amounts, and designing chicken coops. Students collect and graph data from macroinvertebrate studies and plant experiments, calculate percentages for hatch rates and cost analysis, use area and volume formulas when designing agricultural structures, and apply operations with fractions and decimals in food science and agribusiness contexts.
Students apply scientific practices throughout the curriculum by conducting experiments, collecting and analyzing data, developing models, and constructing explanations. Topics including plant biology, animal systems, water chemistry, genetics, ecology, and food chemistry directly align with life science and earth science disciplinary core ideas. Students engage in engineering design when creating hydroponics systems and chicken coop structures, and they use crosscutting concepts such as cause and effect, systems and system models, and structure and function.
Students examine the history of agriculture, food production policies across cultures, the impact of natural resource use on communities, and economic principles of agribusiness. They investigate how geographic factors influence agricultural production and distribution, compare food systems across regions and nations, analyze the economic interdependence created by trade in agricultural products, and evaluate how cultural practices shape food identity. The agribusiness unit directly addresses economic concepts including supply and demand, entrepreneurship, and the role of resources in shaping economic opportunity.
Career readiness, financial literacy, and 21st century life skills are embedded throughout all units. Students explore careers in agriculture, food science, natural resource management, veterinary science, and agribusiness. They develop personal and entrepreneurial financial skills through agribusiness simulations, plant sales, and grocery cost analysis. Students use digital tools for research, collaboration, and data visualization, and they practice critical thinking, creativity, and communication in team-based agricultural challenges.
Formative Assessments
- Exit and entrance tickets assessing understanding of agriculture definition
- Observations during farm to table brainstorming and research activities
- Journal entries documenting career exploration
- Pair and share discussions on agricultural importance
- Self-evaluations of group participation
Summative Assessment
Writing assignments on agricultural impacts, projects documenting farm to table pathways, portfolio updates, and blog posts reflecting on agriculture's relevance
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through oral explanations, recorded audio or video responses, or teacher-led interviews in place of written assignments. Visual supports such as picture cards, labeled diagrams, and graphic organizers with word banks may be provided to help students organize and communicate their thinking about agricultural systems and food pathways.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students with IEPs may benefit from graphic organizers that visually map the farm-to-table chain, reducing the cognitive load of tracking multi-step pathways across local, regional, and international levels. Written output for journal entries and blog posts can be supported through dictation, sentence starters, or scribed responses so that a student's understanding of agricultural concepts is not masked by writing challenges. Vocabulary lists with visual supports for key agriculture and food science terms should be provided in advance of instruction, and directions for research tasks should be broken into numbered steps with checkpoints to support task completion. Extended time and the option to respond orally rather than in writing should be available for formative and summative assessments.
Section 504
Students with 504 plans should be given preferential seating during discussions and research activities to minimize distraction and support focus during the multi-topic content introduced in this unit. Extended time should be provided for written reflections and any cost-and-nutrition math tasks, and a print copy of any board-displayed information or directions should be made available. Reducing the quantity of written response required while maintaining the conceptual expectation is appropriate where attention or processing speed is a documented concern.
ELL / MLL
Multilingual learners will benefit from visual supports throughout this unit, including labeled diagrams of the farm-to-table chain, picture-supported vocabulary for agricultural products and byproducts, and video resources that use visual context to build meaning around food production concepts. Key vocabulary related to agriculture, food systems, and careers should be introduced and displayed prominently before and during each topic, and students should be encouraged to make connections between the agricultural practices discussed and those from their own cultural backgrounds. Simplified directions, paraphrased explanations of food science math tasks, and the option to respond in their home language before transitioning to English will support both comprehension and participation.
At Risk (RTI)
Students who need additional support should be connected to the unit's content through familiar, everyday experiences — beginning with foods they eat regularly before broadening to regional and international examples builds accessible entry points into the farm-to-table concept. Research tasks can be simplified by narrowing the scope to one point on the farm-to-table pathway at a time, and math tasks around food costs and nutrition can be scaffolded with partially completed models or reduced data sets. Frequent check-ins during independent and group work, along with positive reinforcement of partial understanding, will help these students build confidence as they engage with the breadth of topics introduced in this unit.
Gifted & Talented
Students who demonstrate early mastery of foundational agriculture concepts should be invited to investigate the unit's topics at a deeper level — for example, analyzing how agricultural policy differences between countries affect food availability, cost, or environmental impact in ways that connect food science data to real-world systems thinking. Career exploration can be extended by having students examine the intersection of multiple disciplines within agricultural careers, such as the role of data science or environmental law in modern food production. These students may also be challenged to develop an original argument or position on a current agricultural issue, drawing on historical and international practices to support their reasoning rather than simply summarizing what they have learned.