Activity & Project Ideas
AgMag Ideas
Lesson Ideas
Students identify the original source of items they use everyday such as T-shirts, blue jeans, footballs, pizza, and cheeseburgers. A fast and fun relay format gets the students actively engaged in thinking about the plant and animal origins of food, fuel, shelter and clothing.
Agriculture Regions in Minnesota
Students create 3-D maps that show where crops are grown in Minnesota. The maps allow students to investigate and see how Minnesota’s vegetation regions offer distinct soils and growing patterns for different types of crops. These regions have influenced the development of cities and transportation systems throughout our state.
Students will investigate the three sisters crops and explore the benefit to planting these crops together. Native American Legends as well as plant growth will be involved in this investigation.
Agricultural Imports-Exports and the Minnesota Connection
Students identify the important trading partners of the United States and the impact that Minnesota has on global exports and trade. Students develop their abilities to connect and integrate knowledge from all disciplines into their own knowledge bases.
This lesson uses pizza as a basis for learning about agriculture, geography and mathematics.
Activity Ideas
- Investigate careers included on page 2 of the AgMag as well as many others at https://www.agriculture.purdue.edu/usda/careers/ Also explore the employment opportuntiies for college graduates in Food, Agriuclture, Renewable Natural Resources and the Environement at https://www.purdue.edu/usda/employment/
- Use Minnesota’s Agricultural Export Report from the Minnesota Department of agriculture to practice graph and data interpretation. Discuss with students the importance of exporting and importing and identify the agricultural goods that Minnesota exports to countries around the world.
http://www.mda.state.mn.us/food/business/~/media/Files/food/business/economics/agexportprofile.pdf - Visit the Minnesota Historical Society’s website featuring the Mill City Museum. Explore the interactive resources to connect the wheat bonanza farms to what was once the world’s largest flour mill, Learn about the intertwined histories of the agricultural industry, flour processing, the Mississippi River and the city of Minneapolis. http://www.millcitymuseum.org/
Additional MAITC Resources
- Minnesota School Garden
- Food For Thought
- Commodity Cards
- Ag Products Posters
- History of Minnesota Ag
- Where Does Your Pizza Come From