Looking for resources to integrate into your next Science unit? Check these out...

My American Farm Games

Build the perfect piece of agricultural equipment to get the job done! 

• Playing Time: 10-15 minutes 
• Grades: 5-6 
• Curriculum Areas: Science, Language Arts 
• Ag Themes: Agriculture is Everywhere

Race to earn points by finding images of conservation practices hidden in a farm scene! 

• Playing Time: 5-7 minutes 
• Grades: 3-5 
• Curriculum Areas: Science 
• Ag Themes: Farmers steward the land

Spin the wheel and solve word puzzles about the science and technology involved in agriculture. 

• Playing Time: 7-10 minutes 
• Grades: 3-5 
• Curriculum Areas: Science 
• Ag Themes: Farmers steward the land, Farmers care for animals, Farmers feed the world

Race against the clock to put images of different plant, animal, and product life-cycles into the correct order! 

• Playing Time: 7-10 minutes 
• Grades: 3-5 
• Curriculum Areas: Science 
• Ag Themes: Famers feed the world, Agriculture is everywhere

Lesson Plans/Classroom Activities

Hands Horses and High Tech Machines

• Grade Level: 4th - 5th Grade
• Description: Students race to build the tallest tower as they discover how agricultural machinery has changed over time.
  

My Miniature Greenhouse 

• Grade Level: 4th - 5th Grade 
• Description: Students create a personal herb garden in a soda bottle. Students explore the necessary components for plant growth.

Make Your Own Rain Gauge 

• Grade Level: 3th - 5th Grade 
• Description: Students create their own rain gauge to determine the amount of rainfall in a given time. Extension activities included.

Teacher-Led Erosion Demonstration 

• Grade Level: 4th - 5th Grade 
• Description: Students define erosion, evaluate demonstration, and identify ways that farmers prevent erosion. Includes enrichment and take-home activity ideas.

Seed Starter 

• Grade Level: Up to 5th Grade 
• Description: Students engage in a lab in which they create plastic-glove window boxes to observe seeds as they start growing.

Fun Take-Home Activity Sheets

Agricultural Mechanics Master

• Grade Level: 4th - 5th Grade
• Description: Students discover simple machines and the important role they play in the work farmers and ranchers do each day.
  

Sweet Pollination 

• Grade Level: 5th Grade 
• Description: Students evaluate an image of a bee pollinating crops and label the steps in pollination.

Harvesting Image Match 

• Grade Level: 4th Grade 
• Description: Students match images and descriptions of harvesting equipment to the commodity harvested. Students use math skills to complete math problems, which calculate potential yield and the number of times the commodity can be harvested.

Persuasive Scenario Evaluation 

• Grade Level: 5th Grade 
• Description: Students choose from 3 scenarios (i.e.: nursery production facility, corn farm, cattle ranch) and write a persuasive essay on why their scenario needs water. Students end up realizing that many entities need water, which is why we must conserve!

Other Great Resources 

• "Look Closer at Biotechnology" by the Council for Information on Biotechnology 
• Soybean Ag Mag 
• Corn Ag Mag

Books About Agriculture and Science 

• Eli Whitney and the Cotton Gin, by Jessica Gunderson 
• George Washington Carver: Ingenious Inventor, by Nathan Olson 
• George Washington Carver: Scientist and Inventor, by Judy Monroe 
• Louis Pasteur and Pasteurization, by Jennifer Fandel 
• Rainmakers: A Photographic Story of Center Pivots, by The Groundwater Foundation
  
• From Seed to Plant, by Gail Gibbons 
• Beyond the Bean Seed, by Nancy Allen Jurenka 
• The Life Cycle of the Sunflower, by Linda Tagliaferro 
• How Plants Grow, by Angela Royston 
• A Seed in Need, by Sam Godwin