How did we get the familiar large yellow ear of corn today? Through the study of genetics, we know today that corn's wild ancestor is a grass called teosinte. Teosinte doesn't look much like maize, especially when you compare its kernals to those of corn. But at the DNA level, the two are surprisingly alike.
FAOSTAT provides free access to food and agriculture data for over 245 countries and territories and covers all FAO regional groupings from 1961 to the most recent year available.
Take an interactive journey around the world to visit 16 farms. These are not your ordinary farms with cattle, sheep, hay, or grain. These farms produce specialty crops such as salmon, tulips, alligators, wind, mussels, coffee, leeches, lavender, yaks, seaweed, ostriches, rice, sunflowers, salt, ostriches, solar power, and alpacas. This journey would be an excellent supplement for elementary geography and agriculture lessons to teach students about less common types of farms.
The Fight Bac website contains many helpful resources for teachers. You will find information about preventing foodborne illness, proper hand washing, kids games, activities, brochures, flyers, and video clips to enhance your lesson plans.
This website contains the full report from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United States about food security and nutrition around the world. View numerous graphs showing trends over time for hunger, malnutrition, child stunting, and other related impacts of food insecurity.
The 2024 Food and Farm Facts eLearning Module accompanies the latest version of the the Food and Farm Facts booklet. The module includes infographics, real-world examples, and engaging multimedia to help students better understand where their food comes from and the work involved in feeding the nation, with a focus on agricultural literacy and critical thinking.
GMO Answers is an educational website to answer your questions about GMO's, or Genetically Modified Organisms. You will find infographics, images, videos, posters, and handouts to use as learning tools.
The Genetic Science Learning Center provides many teaching tools to supplement lessons on genetics, heredity, cells, cloning, and more. You will find virtual labs and simulations, graphics, and animations.
This multimedia timeline pairs with Growing a Nation lesson plans using interactive technology to bring depth and meaning to historical events. The timeline includes stories and is linked to lesson plans that merge seamlessly with existing American history textbooks and high school history curricula. The program covers historical events such as the Dust Bowl, Great Depression, Civil War, and the impact of science and technological growth.
The Hatching Science Center offers practical information about the technical aspects of hatching chicks and provides relevant, hands-on activities for integrating embryology themes into core curriculum. Hatching chicks in the classroom can be an effective way to increase student engagement, investigate how organisms change and develop over time, and study embryology, life cycles, heredity, and animal needs.
The Peter Menzel Photography website provides an archive of the photos included in the Hungry Planet book, which depict everything an average family consumes in a week along with the food cost. These portraits provide a glimpse into kitchens from Norway to China to Mexico, raising questions about how culture and environment influence the cost and calories of diets around the world.
A school garden is a powerful education tool to teach about many subjects including science, math, language arts, engineering, technology, and even stewardship. With any type of garden, indoors or outdoors, students have an opportunity to engage in agricultural practices on a small scale, learning about the web of interactions among the living and nonliving players that sustain life. The Indoor Gardening Curriculum is a compilation of lessons specifically focused on building and running simple hydroponic and aquaponic systems in the classroom, as well as growing in soil on vertical shelving. Each lesson has been designed to give teachers practical low-cost options to growing in their classrooms.