Unit 1 — September: Introduction to Agriculture and Food Science
Description
Students begin by learning what agriculture is, where it is found, and its role in daily life. The unit covers the farm-to-table chain from local to international scales and explores how agriculture impacts everyday activities. Students research policies around food products and processing globally and examine cultural practices affecting food production. Concurrently, students engage in food science through grocery store problem-solving, using math to analyze food costs and nutrition. Activities from MyCAERT on food sanitation, spoilage, storage, nutritional balance, food ingredients, food preparation, and buying food introduce the fundamentals of food science.
Essential Questions
- What is agriculture and where is it found in our community?
- How does agriculture impact our daily lives?
- What are the different pathways food takes from farm to table?
- How do cultural practices affect food production and distribution?
Learning Objectives
- Define agriculture and identify agricultural practices in local, regional, and international contexts.
- Trace the farm-to-table chain and understand the roles of different stakeholders.
- Apply mathematical reasoning to solve problems about food costs and nutrition.
- Explain the importance of food safety, sanitation, and proper storage.
- Analyze how cultural practices and policies influence food production and processing.
- Articulate why agriculture is important to society.
Supplemental Resources
- Markers and colored pencils for farm-to-table concept mapping
- Printed grocery store advertisements for cost analysis activities
- Index cards for food safety vocabulary and concepts
- Chart paper for documenting farm-to-table pathways
- Lined journals for recording research and reflections
No core standards aligned for this unit.
Students read and analyze informational texts about agriculture, food science, natural resources, and animal science topics throughout the year. They write argumentative and informative pieces, including blog posts, portfolio updates, and project reports, to communicate findings and support claims with evidence. Students engage in collaborative discussions, present research to peers, and develop vocabulary specific to agricultural science domains.
Students apply mathematical reasoning across units, including calculating feed amounts, fertilizer ratios, percent loss, square footage for chicken coops, costs of food using grocery ads, carrying capacity using graphs, acreage and supply calculations for agribusiness planning, and unit conversions in food science measurements.
Students investigate the history of agriculture from Native American practices through the Industrial Revolution and into modern global food systems. They examine how cultural practices affect food production and distribution, explore food insecurity and inequality around the world, and analyze the relationship between natural resource use and societal development.
Career readiness, financial literacy, and 21st century life skills are embedded throughout the curriculum. Students explore careers in agriculture, food science, veterinary science, natural resource management, and agribusiness. They develop personal finance skills through grocery budgeting and agribusiness planning activities, and practice workplace readiness skills including teamwork, communication, and problem-solving across all units.
Formative Assessments
- Exit and entrance tickets on agriculture definitions and applications
- Journals documenting farm-to-table research findings
- Pair-and-share discussions on cultural food practices
- Group work on grocery store math problems
- Observations of student participation in food science activities
Summative Assessment
Writing assignments and portfolio updates documenting understanding of agriculture's role in everyday life and food science fundamentals
Benchmark Assessment
— not configured —
Alternative Assessment
Students may demonstrate understanding through oral responses to questions about agriculture definitions and the farm-to-table chain, recorded or discussed with a teacher. Visual organizers such as labeled diagrams of the farm-to-table process or graphic organizers may replace written journal entries, with teacher scribing or student use of image-based representations as needed.
IEP (Individualized Education Program)
Students with IEPs benefit from visual supports such as graphic organizers that map the farm-to-table chain and illustrated vocabulary references for key agriculture and food science terms. For written output like journals and portfolio entries, consider allowing oral responses, dictation, or abbreviated written formats that still demonstrate conceptual understanding of food safety and agricultural roles. Directions for multi-step tasks such as grocery math problems should be chunked and numbered, and models of completed examples can reduce cognitive load during problem-solving. Frequent check-ins during activities and structured templates for journal entries support students in organizing and expressing their thinking across this unit.
Section 504
Students supported by 504 plans should have access to extended time on written reflections and any assessments connected to this unit's vocabulary-heavy and math-integrated content. Preferential seating supports focus during food science activities and discussions about cultural practices, and printed copies of any directions or key visual content displayed on the board ensure consistent access. Reducing unnecessary visual or auditory distractions during grocery math problem-solving tasks supports sustained engagement with numerical reasoning.
ELL / MLL
Multilingual learners benefit from a dedicated visual word wall or picture-supported glossary featuring core agriculture and food science vocabulary introduced in this unit, including terms related to the farm-to-table process, food safety, and food labeling. Directions for research tasks and grocery math activities should be given in clear, simple language, and students should be encouraged to retell instructions in their own words before beginning. Where possible, connecting food production topics to students' home cultures and food practices builds meaningful background knowledge and supports comprehension of global agricultural content.
At Risk (RTI)
Students who need additional support should be connected to the unit's content through familiar, concrete entry points — for example, beginning discussions about agriculture and food safety with foods they eat daily and stores or farms they recognize. Grocery math problems can be introduced with reduced data sets or pre-organized information so students can focus on the reasoning process rather than information management. Journals may be supported with sentence starters or visual prompts tied to the farm-to-table sequence, helping students build confidence in expressing agricultural concepts before moving to more open-ended reflection.
Gifted & Talented
Students who demonstrate early mastery of foundational agriculture and food science concepts should be invited to investigate the complexity behind global food policy or supply chain disruptions, moving beyond description toward analysis of cause and effect across local and international contexts. Extending the grocery math component to incorporate real-world budgeting scenarios, nutritional equity issues, or comparisons across different economic contexts deepens engagement with both the mathematical and social dimensions of food systems. These students may also explore how cultural identity shapes food production norms in specific regions, synthesizing findings in formats that go beyond standard journal entries, such as comparative analysis or a position-based argument.