Unit 1 — September: Introduction to Agriculture and Food Science
Description
Students begin the year by learning what agriculture is and where it appears in everyday life. They explore the farm-to-table chain at local, regional, and international levels and research how cultural practices affect food production, distribution, and processing. Students also study the history of agriculture and current agricultural practices in the U.S. and abroad. Food science activities focus on practical math applications such as calculating the cost of groceries and meals, understanding nutrition, and learning about food sanitation, spoilage, and storage.
Essential Questions
- What is agriculture and how is it involved in everyday life?
- How does food move from production to consumption?
- How do cultural practices affect agricultural systems?
Learning Objectives
- Articulate what agriculture is and identify where it appears in daily life
- Trace the pathway of food from farm to table at multiple scales
- Understand how cultural and policy factors influence food production and processing
- Apply mathematical reasoning to solve problems related to food costs and nutrition
- Learn basic food safety and handling practices
- Recognize the importance of good citizenship and stewardship
Supplemental Resources
- Graph paper for calculations related to food costs and nutrition
- Printed grocery advertisements for problem-solving activities
- Markers and colored pencils for illustrating farm-to-table chains
- Index cards for organizing agriculture information
- Lined journals for documenting research and reflections
Crosscutting Concepts
Disciplinary Core Ideas
Earth and Space Sciences
Life Sciences
Science and Engineering Practices
Students engage in reading informational texts, conducting research, and producing written work across all units. They write reports, blog posts, and portfolio updates on agricultural topics; engage in collaborative discussions about food systems, natural resources, and animal science; present findings using multimedia tools; and gather information from multiple sources to support claims about agriculture and the environment.
Students apply mathematical reasoning throughout the curriculum, including calculating food costs and nutrition from grocery advertisements, computing feed amounts and percentages for livestock, determining square footage for chicken coop design, converting units of measurement in food science, analyzing water chemistry data using graphs, and computing ratios and rates related to population dynamics and carrying capacity.
Students apply life, earth, and environmental science concepts across all units, including investigating plant cell structure and function, photosynthesis, and cellular respiration; studying genetics and heredity through Punnett squares and DNA extraction; analyzing ecosystems, food webs, and population dynamics; conducting water chemistry investigations; and examining the roles of organisms in natural systems and the impacts of human activity on the environment.
Students examine the history of agriculture from Native American practices through the industrial revolution, research food policies and cultural practices affecting food production and distribution across the U.S. and the world, investigate the influence of agricultural development on civilizations, and explore how economics, culture, and geography shape food systems and natural resource use globally.
Career readiness, life literacies, and key skills are embedded throughout all units. Students explore careers in agriculture, food science, natural resource management, animal science, agribusiness, and veterinary science; develop personal finance and budgeting skills through agribusiness activities; use technology tools to research and present information; and apply critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills in hands-on and project-based contexts.
Formative Assessments
- Exit and entrance tickets on agriculture concepts
- Observations during farm-to-table brainstorming and research
- Journals documenting food sourcing and cultural connections
- Pair and share discussions on agricultural importance
- Group work on grocery store problem-solving activities
Summative Assessment
Writing assignments on agriculture's role in life, projects researching farm-to-table pathways, portfolio updates
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding of agriculture concepts and farm-to-table pathways through oral presentation, recorded video explanation, or visual map with teacher-provided labels and sentence frames. Written assignments may be shortened in scope or completed with a speech-to-text tool, and research tasks may use pre-selected sources or images organized by a graphic organizer.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students with IEPs may benefit from visual supports such as illustrated farm-to-table diagrams and pre-taught vocabulary lists for key agriculture and food science terms to support comprehension and concept retention. For written tasks such as journals and research projects, consider allowing oral responses, dictation, or partially completed graphic organizers so that students can demonstrate understanding without being limited by writing demands. Math-based activities around grocery costs and nutrition should be scaffolded with visual step-by-step supports, and students may use calculators unless the assessment specifically targets computation. Breaking longer research or portfolio tasks into short, sequential steps with frequent check-ins will help students maintain progress and build confidence throughout the unit.
Section 504
Students with 504 plans should be given extended time on exit tickets, journaling, and the farm-to-table research project to ensure that pacing does not prevent them from demonstrating what they know. Preferential seating during whole-class discussions and group problem-solving activities will help students stay focused when navigating multi-step tasks such as grocery cost calculations. Printed copies of any directions or key vocabulary displayed on the board should be provided so students can reference them independently throughout class.
ELL / MLL
Multilingual learners entering this unit benefit from visual cues such as labeled food-chain diagrams, pictures of agricultural settings, and realia like food packaging or produce to make abstract concepts concrete and culturally accessible. Key vocabulary for this unit — including terms related to farming, food production, distribution, and nutrition — should be introduced before content lessons begin, reinforced with images or home-language glossaries where possible. Directions for group activities such as grocery problem-solving should be given in short, simple sentences, and students should be invited to share how agriculture and food practices connect to their own cultural backgrounds, which also builds meaningful content engagement.
At Risk (RTI)
Students who need additional support should be connected to the unit's concepts through familiar, everyday entry points — such as identifying foods they eat regularly and working backward to trace where those foods come from. Reducing the complexity of research tasks by focusing on a single, local example of the farm-to-table chain before expanding to regional or global comparisons will allow students to build understanding incrementally. Pairing these students with a supportive peer during brainstorming and group grocery activities provides access to grade-level thinking while lowering the barrier to participation, and brief check-ins at the start of assignments will help catch misunderstandings early.
Gifted & Talented
Students who are ready for greater depth should be encouraged to investigate the policy, economic, or environmental factors that shape food production and distribution at a global scale, moving beyond description toward analysis of cause and effect. In the food science strand, these students might extend their mathematical reasoning by comparing nutritional cost-efficiency across different diets or food systems, incorporating real data to draw evidence-based conclusions. Connecting agriculture to broader interdisciplinary themes — such as sustainability, food equity, or the cultural politics of food — will challenge them to synthesize information across content areas and present original perspectives in their portfolio or research project.