Sustainable Food Production

All Ages

Climate & Environment

Science

Technology

Students will explore sustainable food production.

Submitted By:

April 7, 2021

Lesson Plan
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Skills

Citizenship
Critical Thinking
Project Based Learning

External References

How Apples Go from the Orchard to the Store

What is a Center Pivot? Pivot 101

Understand Goal 12: Responsible Consumption and Production

Sustainability City Minecraft World

World to support lesson activities. Direct download.

Supporting Files

Complete Lesson Plan

Learning Objectives

Students will… Begin at a grocery store where farm products are bought and sold. Explore a sustainable farm and learn about soil conservation, crop rotation, and water pollution. Visit a waste facility and learn how fertile soil is created from waste products. Walk through a recycling facility and learn how old packaging is recycled into new packaging. Visit the shop where the farm products are being packaged and sold back to the grocery store.

Guiding Ideas

Introduction

Beginning at the town’s grocery store and ending at a honey stand, students will explore sustainable practices for every step of food production. They will learn that food as a product is made up of multiple products and services, each of which should be sustainable. This lesson also includes stops at a farm, waste facility, and recycling plant. Students will understand that when they buy a product, they are buying the entire process of its production and encouraging that process to continue.

Guiding Questions
What is a producer?
What is a consumer?
What does sustainable mean? Why is it important?
How does your food get from the farm to your local store?
Why is it important to consider what you are purchasing from the store?
How can we promote and live a sustainable lifestyle in regard to food production and consumption?
Teacher Preparation & Notes

Possible NGSS standard(s):

- MS-LS2-3: Develop a model to describe the cycling of matter and flow of energy among living and nonliving parts of an ecosystem.

If possible, the teacher should bring in a glass jar of honey (local). If that cannot be done, an image on a PowerPoint or the like will work just fine.

The following vocabulary will be used in this lesson and the teacher may want to introduce these to the students beforehand.

Producer
Consumer
Sustainable

Student Activities

Introduction:

The teacher will introduce or review the terms producer and consumer with students and ask for examples to ensure they know what each means. This could be done with discussion or a simple sorting activity, depending on the age of students (PE1).

Next, the teacher will have students watch a video that explains sustainability (here is an example). The students can watch it as a class, in small groups, or individually as assigned in OneNote or Teams. Once the video has been watched, students will share out what sustainable means, some examples, and why it is important (PE2).

To conclude the introduction, the teacher will present honey from a local farm (as local as one can get!) and in a glass container. The teacher will ask students how they think the honey and its container got from the farm to the grocery store and how each step could have exemplified sustainability. Have students write their predictions before opening the Minecraft world.

Note: See Full Lesson plan for all activities.

Performance Expectations

Students will be able to…

Explain the roles of producers and consumers (PE1).
Define the term sustainable and explain its importance (PE2).
Understand how food gets from the farm to the grocery store (PE3).
Consider the importance of what they are purchasing from local stores (PE4).
Promote sustainable lifestyles in regard to food production and consumption (PE5).