Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix

Students investigate rangelands by growing their own grass to represent a beef or sheep ranch. Grades 6-8

Using the context of a county fair livestock show, students investigate how diseases are spread. With a focus on zoonotic disease, students will complete simulations demonstrating the spread of illness and implementation of biosecurity measures as well as complete an online module to deepen understanding of specific diseases and their prevention. Grades 6-8

Students will use the Claim, Evidence, and Reasoning model to evaluate styles of housing used for hens that lay eggs. Using critical thinking skills, students will compare housing styles, determine which system meets their animal welfare standards, and engineer their own hen house model to meet the needs of laying hens. 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. Grades 6-8

Students explore the difference between inherited and acquired traits and understand why knowledge of inherited and acquired traits is important to agriculture. Activities in this lesson include trait sorting, two video clips, a PTC taste test, and student presentations. Grades 6-8

Students will discover why it is important to use credible sources, learn strategies for identifying credible sources, identify primary sources of information, and practice citing sources. Grades 6-8

Students will read about and research the domestication of animals to better understand why and how they are raised on a farm. They will create a timeline of animal domestication. Grades 6-8

In this lesson, students will follow the farm to fork process of producing beef, learn how cattle and other ruminants convert grass into nutrient-rich foods such as milk and meat, discover ways cattle recycle food waste, and identify careers in the beef cattle industry. Grades 6-8