New York Agriculture in the Classroom | July 2020
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Important Dates:

July 21- On The Farm STEM Experience: High School Genetics & Heredity

July 23On The Farm STEM Experience: Middle School Ecosystem Dynamics & Interactions

July 24- Purple Plow Challenge Submissions Due

July 27-31- Soil- Life's Main Ingredient Professional Development

March 15-19-  Agricultural Literacy Week 2021
News
Phenomena Found in Agriculture- Free Livestreaming Events
The American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture presents the On The Farm STEM Experience.  These FREE events on  July 21 and  July 23 will provide participants with an introduction to the storyline pedagogy while connecting educators with geneticists, animal scientists, ecologists and more! Aligned to Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), each event provides immediate classroom applications and access to agricultural storylines. 

New York teachers will receive CTLE credit for thier participation. Please visit the On the Farm STEM website for more information and to register. 
Nutrients for Life Professional Development Opportunity
The Nutrients for Life Foundation is offering its third annual Professional Development Virtual Event, Soil - Life's Main Ingredient, on July 27-31 This course is designed for teachers aiming to further their knowledge and understanding of soil and how to apply this new knowledge to enriching classroom curriculum. Workshops will based on the free, Smithsonian approved, Nutrients for Life Foundation curricula and 4R principles, attendees will learn the science  of soil, nutrients, and the environment. 

To register for Soil - Life's Main Ingredient, visit www.nutrientsforlife.org. There is a $10 registration fee for shipping of workshop resources. 
Spring/Summer 2020 Purple Plow Challenge
Are your looking for summer learning opportunities? If so, join the American Farm Bureau's Purple Plow Challenge. The theme for this year's competition is,  " How can we improve the water  quality of runoff and, in turn, reduce dead zones in our water resources? Through participation in this challenge , students will gain an understanding  of effects of  runoff in rural and urban areas and its impact on the e nvironment. Students will create  solutions for environmental  issues such as  dead zones, hypoxia, and w ater quality. Your students could win gift cards or even a 3d printer.   Students in grades 5-12 can enter the challenge. Join now  as the competition ends July 24, 2020. For more information or to participate in the challenge go to the Purple Plow  website
Are you already developing your curriculum map for the 2020-2021 school year or just looking to avoid that "summer slide"? You should do your own higher level investigation into the Agriculture in the Classroom Literacy MatrixThis K-12 cross-curricular web-based resource is free and offers parents and teachers national standards based l essons and lesson plans. Lesson plans include stand alone activities, multimedia, texts, links to online resources, and much much more.
Teacher Resources
Elementary Resources
Exploring Aquaponics
In this lesson, the students will identify the basic needs of plants and fish while engineering, assembling, maintaining, and observing a small-scale aquaponics system that meets plant and fish needs.
The Farmer Grows a Rainbow: First Place Foods
In this hands on learning opportunity, students will develop an understanding that certain foods provide nutrients and energy for growth and healthy living while offering additional dental health benefits in this lesson
Soil Formation & Edible Horizons
Have you ever heard of a soil profile or wonder what one looks like? Now you and your students can investigate the exciting subject of soil composition and explore the five soil-forming factors and their effects on a soil horizon. Explore this lesson further to learn all about soils and the factors affecting them. Who new there was so much to dirt?

A "Sour" Subject
As the summer gets warmer and the temperature rises, lemonade stands start popping up everywhere. Want to take that citrus science  knowledge to another level and impress your friends and customers? Well you should grab an ice cold cup of your favorite citrus based summer beverage and check out this lesson  on the growth and production of summer fruits. In this lesson, students will participate in an activity where they use skills of observation, close reading strategies , inquiry-based science , and mathematical computation while comparing and contrasting grapefruits and lemons. When students finish "A Sour Subject" they are bound to have the "coolest" stand on the block. 
Middle School/ High School Resources
Mind Your Own Beeswax
Through project-based learning, students will solve the problem of excess beeswax, a byproduct of honey bees, by developing a useful beeswax product and marketing their product to be sold in a local boutique or farmers market. This lesson can also be combined with the  Beeswax Modeling Clay Kit to make all-natural modeling clay from beeswax. 
A Recipe for Genetics: Selective Breeding and Transgenics
Students will identify technologies that have changed the way humans affect the inheritance of desired traits in organisms; compare and contrast selective breeding methods to genetic engineering techniques; and analyze data to determine the best solution for cultivating selected desired traits in organisms in this lesson
Eggs are a staple of the American diet and now students can discover the five culinary functions of eggs by completing a cooking lab comparing recipes with and without eggs. In  Don't Forget the Eggs! students will see how eggs leaven, bind, thicken, coat, and emulsify our foods and, when finished, they will be able to take their chef skills to the next level! 
The Carbon Cycle and Climate Smart Agriculture
Do you have students that are "world changers"? In this lesson, students will explore the carbon cycle, evaluate natural and human-induced activities that drive the carbon cycle, and discover climate smart agricultural practices that can be used to produce our food.
July Book Nook
The Honeybee and the Robber
This moving/picture book follows an adventurous honeybee as she goes about her busy day, sipping nectar from flowers, avoiding hungry birds, and playing with butterflies. But when a robber bear comes looking for honey, all the bees must rush out to defend their home. 
Oliver's Fruit Salad
Oliver is off to stay with Grandpa, who grows his own vegetables. But Oliver doesn't eat vegetables-only chips. How will Grandpa persuade him into a week of healthy eating? This book can be combined with many lessons about fruits and vegetables: Eat 'Em UpEating PlantsFreshest Fruits, and more. 
Hey, Hey, Hay!
A joyful rhyming story about a girl and her mother and the machines they use on their family farm to make hay. A girl tells the tale of making hay as Mom uses a mower for mowing grass, then a tedder for aerating the grass, and eventually a baler. Told in rhyme and illustrated with fabulous art by Joe Cepeda, each part of the process is a celebration of summer, farming, and the mother-daughter relationship.
New York Agriculture in the Classroom |  nyaitc@cornell.edu
  http://www.agclassroom.org/ny
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Cornell University
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