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Hands-on activity on agriculture?

Laura Massa

Teaching agriculture is a challenge for most of my students. As city dwellers with little exposure to nature, they neither know nor fully understand the inputs required for agriculture or the concept of annual or seasonal cycles for some crops. Do you have any hands-on activities that help students grasp these concepts? Do you take them to your school orchard to observe plants as they grow? Do you simulate or demonstrate the process from beginning to end?    

  • Being in southern California where "the 4 seasons" don't really exist presents another layer of complexity!

    I don't have a from seed-to-consumption activity, but my students create seed packets for a crop with information about how they were cultivated and used. It's been a hit, and they look beautiful! Here are some pictures!

  • in reply to Meaghan Mihalic

    I love this activity!  It is visually appealing and very engaging for students. I would like to do it in pairs or in groups. How long does it take to implement it in class? 

  • Hi Laura! Last year I started a classroom activity with my city students to help them along with this exactly. We grew bean plants in my class using cotton balls, plastic bags, dry beans, and water. In order to simulate how it might have been back then I gave my watering suggestions, and then let each group decide the rest! How frequently they’d water, where in the classroom they wanted their bag to get the sun. Once plants rooted, we potted them in cups of soil and continued the journey. Only so many “farms” ended up being successful. I teach grade 10 and my students LOVED this activity. It teaxhes them the basics of farming, but also how things like jealousy over successful neighboring farms might have caused some conflict. I highly recommend the activity! 

  • in reply to Adriane Musacchio

    What a great activity  where students see the whole process and take action and responsibility for their outcomes. Since I don't have the time to do a comprehensive activity for so many students, I will adapt it to the time frame I have.
    I am thinking in terms of comparing planting seeds and tubers to show them the agricultural process that each one entails. We will see how it goes.

  • in reply to Laura Massa

    Well, since many of them get really artistic and that can take time, I provide a longer runway for the due date after two class periods of work (introduce the project, go over rubric, research, draft, print, cut and glue).

  • in reply to Meaghan Mihalic

     thank you for sharing the details of the work. The final product is absolutely great.

  • in reply to Meaghan Mihalic

    I remember you telling us about this exercise once,  . It seems like a motivating way to do history!

    Do you ever get the actual seeds for the packets, or it is s symbolic act?