All Ages
Climate & Environment
Science
Technology
Students will explore sustainable food production.
January 28, 2021
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World to support lesson activities.
Complete Lesson Plan
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.
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.
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.
Students will be able to…
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