Linking Food and the Environment (LiFE)

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Growing Food (grades 4, 5, or 6)

Overview
In this module students investigate and expand their understandings about how nature provides us with food. They study photosynthesis and structure and function of plants, interactions in nature, and human designed agricultural systems that produce the plants and animals humans desire for food. The module ends with students exploring and analyzing their food choices in light of what they have learned about our food production system.

Driving Question
Module: How does nature provide us with food?

Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Making Science Real, Meaningful, and Successful
Getting Acquainted with LiFE
Materials
Science Standards Matrices

Unit 1: Becoming Food Scientists
Driving Question:  What is a food scientist?
Lesson 1: Corn Investigations
Lesson 2: Exploring Grapes
Lesson 3: Making Grape Juice
Lesson 4: Pre-assessment

Unit 2: Plants
Driving Question: If there were no plants, would humans have food?
Lesson 5: The Producers
Lesson 6: Celebrating Plant Parts
Lesson 7: Energy Transformation
Lesson 8: Linking Plants and Animals

Unit 3: Food Webs
Driving Question: How do components in nature interact with each other?
Lesson 9: Nature’s Decomposers
Lesson 10: Classroom Composting
Lesson 11: Web of Interactions

Unit 4: Agriculture
Driving Question: How do we interact with nature to meet our food needs?
Lesson 12: No Farmers, No Food
Lesson 13: Classroom Crops
Lesson 14: Investigating Soil
Lesson 15: Soil Texture
Lesson 16: Crops and Weather

Unit 5: Making Choices
Driving Question:  How can we use the science we learned to make food and agriculture choices?
Lesson 17: Regional Eating
Lesson 18: Comparing Farming Practices
Lesson 19: Farmer Frieda’s Design Project
Lesson 20: Bringing It All Together

Bibliography
Resources
Glossary