Nourishing Maine

This month some of our lessons, videos and resources are highlighted to honor February as Black History Month. The "Books" section features several stories about Black Americans and their contributions to agriculture, and a lot of the lessons highlights can accompany the books.

Potatoes: More Than Fries. Grades K-2. Students investigate potato varieties, explore potato plants, determine how potatoes grow, and make a potato recipe.

Feed Your Soul with Plants. Grades K-6. Lesson 5 from the Healthy Kids Happy Planet Curriculum. Cool Bean & Cultural Connection: BLACK-EYED Pea & Africa and American Soul Food. Nutrition Focus: Fiber & Healthy Gut Bacteria, Healthy Soil Bacteria. Fun and engaging worksheets with recipes too!

Powerful Potato. Grades 3-5. Students observe a potato grow with and without soil, chart potato geography on a world map, and hold a potato dress up contest.

Where Does it Come From? Grades 3-5. Students explore the connection between geography, climate, and the type of agriculture in an area by reading background information and census data about the agricultural commodities beef, potatoes, apples, wheat, corn, and milk.

Nuts About Peanuts. Grades 3-5. Students label the parts of a peanut plant on a diagram, follow step-by-step instructions to plant a peanut, and use a chart to record the growth of peanut plants. 

Cracking Open the Story of Nuts. Grades 3-5. Students investigate a variety of nuts, discover how and where they are grown, and explore their nutritional benefits.

Clothes on the Grow. Grades 6-8. Students will gain a broad understanding of the types and sources of different fibers, examining their origins and observing their differences. Activities in this lesson include examining clothing and clothing labels and observing how different types of fabrics burn.

FoodMASTER Middle: Energy Balance. Grades 6-8. Students will identify the importance of a healthy diet, examine how to meet current Dietary Guidelines, and determine the potential energy (kilocalories) of a peanut through measurements obtained during teacher use of a bomb calorimeter. Students will make comparisons to the actual Nutrition Fact Label and identify possible sources of error.

Growing a Nation Era 1b: Cotton's American Journey. Grades 9-12. Students investigate the impact of cotton on the history and culture of the United States. Students discover the growth and processing requirements for cotton, recognize how the invention of the cotton gin affected slavery, explain how the plantation system was organized, and ultimately understand the role of cotton in the Civil War.

Looking for more? Explore the Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix HERE

Data Nuggets. Free classroom activities, co-designed by scientists and teachers, to bring contemporary research and authentic data into the classroom. Data Nuggets feature a scientist role model and the story of what inspired their research. In a Data Nugget activity, students are guided through the entire process of science, including identifying hypotheses and predictions, visualizing and interpreting data, supporting claims using data as evidence, and asking their own questions for future research. Because of their simplicity and flexibility, Data Nuggets can be used throughout the school year and across grades K-16, as students grow in their quantitative abilities and gain confidence. Data Nuggets have the potential to improve the understanding of science in society while engaging and motivating the next generation of scientists. You can check out data nuggets by theme: agriculture, plants, climate change, etc.

Fascinating Farms Around the World. 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.

Sugar 101: Connecting Students to Where Their Food Comes From. Students are curious about where their food comes from and what’s in it. Yet, with all the information, and misinformation out there on social media, they may not be able to answer that question when it comes to sugar. Check out the videos, complimentary presentations, printable resources and more from The Sugar Association, a STEM.org Accredited Educational Program.

Nut Flowchart. This six-page informational sheet describes the process of how nuts are grown and harvested, how they get from the farm to the store, and nutrition facts. Words and graphics are used to portray this information for almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, peanuts, pecans, pine nuts, pistachios, and walnuts.