This lesson is a fun and tasty way to introduce students to dichotomous keys and how to create their own keys using snack packs of nuts, dried fruit, or chips. Non-food items like pens/pencils work well, and avoid allergens.

Use this virtual version featuring mint candies to learn about dichotomous keys.

Common plastic is made from petroleum, a fossil fuel and non-renewable resource. Increasingly, plastic products are being made from biomass which is made from renewable resources, often by-products of agricultural processes.

Google Slides version of student worksheet available for elearning purposes.

This hands-on lesson teaches students about the physical and social geography of Oregon’s 36 counties. Students learn to interpret a variety of maps, glean information to answer worksheet questions and finally create a map that communicates physical and social facts about an Oregon county. As an extension to the lessons, students work cooperatively to create the questions and answers for an Oregon Geography Pursuit game.

Google Slide version of student worksheets available for elearning purposes.

Enjoy sweet or spicy microgreens with students! Students will explore plant needs and grow a tasty treat for them to enjoy!

In this activity students make notebooks to both hold materials they find and record their observations on nature walks.

Students will sharpen their observation, listening and vocabulary skills with this poetry writing exercise that
features items with an agriculture connection. For higher grades, have students create a haiku, acrositc, mirrored
refrain or cinquain poems.

Find our Google Slides version of the activity for elearning purposes!

This fast-moving relay race teaches students that before any product leaves a factory, or enters a store, it began as a resource or product of the natural world – most likely agriculture. Students will work in teams and run a relay race where they have to quickly decide the source of a product and then race to place it into one of the buckets marked Factory, Store, Farm or Earth. Source Relay is a great interest approach activity for older students!

Check out the adapted online, student worksheet version for elearning puposes!
Answer Key to Source Relay with explanations.

*This lesson plan is similar to our Breakfast Relay lesson plan. Click the link to check it out!

This lesson introduces plant needs and the basic principles of garden design. Square foot gardening is a method of food production that allows gardeners to grow a large amount of food in a small space. Gardens are divided into a square foot grid, with every individual square measuring 1ft by 1ft. The size of the plants at maturity will determine how many of each plant type can fit into a single square. This method requires students to use their math and measurement skills to design a garden that fits the uniquely sized beds at their school. This lesson can be used to emphasize fraction practice for older students and simple units of measurement and counting for younger students.
This lesson was adapted from the Junior Master Gardener Learn, Grow, Eat, and Go! Curriculum. You can purchase that here: https://jmgkids.us/lgeg/

In this activity, students will observe barley seed heads and sort them to compare and contrast traits with parent barleys, showing that offspring are like, but not exactly like, their parents. Lesson developed by Barleyworld, Oregon State University.

Virtual Version of the lesson plan can be found here.

Discover the law of buoyancy and its importance in the production of cranberries! Students will explore whether or not a cranberry floats and the phenomena of the buoyancy force.

Find virtual learning versions of this lesson here.