California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom Lesson Plans
California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom
Our mission is to increase awareness and understanding of agriculture among California's educators and students. Our vision is an appreciation of agriculture by all.
Agriculture is the very basis of civilization—the food we eat, the clothing we wear, the material of our homes and many of our traditions and values…all coming from agriculture and collectively setting the pace for a nation's standard of living.
As generations of Americ
Global Development Policies and Social Injustice
The Sixth Goal of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) is: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases such as tuberculosis. In Bolivia, a country with a population of over 8,000,000 people, it was claimed in 2006 that there were 2366 confirmed cases of HIV. According to the World Health Organization, Bolivia is considered to be a country with a low incidence of the virus affecting 0.10% of the adult population. In contrast, it has been estimated that 50% of the population is infected
A Clear and Present Danger: The Chinese Exclusion Act
The San Francisco Building Trades Council (BTC), organized in 1898, actively participated in the anti-Asian agitation that characterized California politics, particularly labor politics, in the late-19th century. The BTC, like the national American Federation of Labor (AFL), argued that the very presence of Chinese (and, after 1900, Japanese and Korean immigrants as well) dragged down the living standards of white workers. The following excerpt is from a 1902 AFL pamphlet entitled Some Reasons f
"A Black Joke."
Free African Americans living in the North before the Civil War suffered enormous disadvantages and discriminations. Forced to sit in separate and inferior sections in theaters, public transit, and churches, free blacks were also barred from all but the most menial jobs and denied entrance to white trade unions. This racist cartoon in an 1854 edition of the humor magazine Yankee Notions inadvertently illustrated the everyday harassment and cruelty to which northern African Americans were subject
"A Bill of Rights for the Indians": John Collier Envisions an Indian New Deal
John Collier's appointment as Commissioner of Indian Affairs by Franklin Roosevelt in 1933 marked a radical reversal--in intention if not always in effect--in U.S. government policies toward American Indians that dated back to the 1887 Dawes Act. An idealistic social worker, Collier first encountered Indian culture when he visited Taos, New Mexico, in 1920, and found among the Pueblos there what he called a "Red Atlantis"--a model of living that integrated the needs of the individual with the gr
Not So Neutral Views
Students are introduced to acids and bases, and the environmental problem of acid rain. They explore ways to use indicators to distinguish between acids and bases. Students also conduct a simple experiment to model and discuss the harmful effects of acid rain on our living and non-living environment, as well as how engineers address acid rain. In an associated literacy activity, students learn how persuasive techniques are used to develop an argument, and create an environmental case study.
Energy Balance Climate Model
Students explore a Global Energy Balance Climate Model Using Stella II. This Stella model focuses on global energy balance and creating a useful climate model. Students can explore how the model planetary surface and atmospheric temperatures respond to variations in solar input, atmospheric and surface albedo, atmospheric water vapor and carbon dioxide, volcanic eruptions, and mixed layer ocean depth. Climate feedbacks such as water vapor or ice-albedo can be turned on or off. The activity provi
Daisyworld Stella Activity
Daisyworld model is a very simple planet that has only two species of life on its surface - white and black daisies, and bare ground. Daisyworld is a good example of homeostasis and was first proposed by James Lovelock as a plausible example of his Gaia hypothesis. The Daisyworld activity helps students build a Stella model of Daisyworld from scratch. After constructing the model they perform guided experiments to explore the behavior of Daisyworld to changes in model parameters and assumptions.
English - Subject/Verb Agreement
A short video on subject/verb agreement; includes examples and a tip/trick to help remember which verb (singular or plural) is appropriate for compound subjects. * Note - Instructor writes "Mark" in an example, but says "Mary". (Minor discrepancy that does not effect the content.)
Climate Monitoring and Diagnostic Laboratory: Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Climate Monitoring and Diagnostic Laboratory Carbon Cycle Greenhouse Gases group makes ongoing discrete measurements from land and sea surface sites and aircraft, and continuous measurements from baseline observatories and tall towers. These measurements document the spatial and temporal distributions of carbon-cycle gases and provide essential constraints to our understanding of the global carbon cycle. This website is an interactive atmospher
Climate Impact of Quadrupling Atmospheric CO2: An overview of GFDL Climate Model Results
In this report, the Global Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Climate Research Group examines the possible climate impacts of quadrupling atmospheric CO2. Several impacts are discussed, surface air temperature warming, sea level rise, thermohaline circulation changes, mid-latitude summer drying, heat index and temperature increases and possible changes in tropical storms and El Nino. This site provides a nice written overview and images regarding changes in climate and oceans due to increased CO2.
Calibrated Peer Review: Petroleum Geology of the Persian Gulf Region
In this assignment, students explore the origin and distribution of oil and gas in a region of global significance. Also included are the geologic history and the socio-political and environmental issues associated with hydrocarbon exploration and production. Students then walk through an online case study and write an essay addressing important points that they have learned. The Calibrated Peer Review interface is then used to give feedback on the essays. On this Starting Point page, users can
Car wash sequence from 'Easy Living'
'Easy Living' follows the movements and activities of individuals represented by miniature objects, most notably the kinds of dolls, locations, and accessories affiliated with model construction. This miniature suburban world traces a typical day in suburbia. Shown here is a short excerpt of a car as it progresses through a miniature car wash.
Annie Johnson
Fritz Wetherbee reports that Annie Johnson (Boston resident) will receive the Living Legacy Award in Washington DC. Wetherbee reports that Johnson grew up in Boston and organized domestic workers through the Women's Service Clubs of Boston in the 1960s. Wetherbee notes that Johnson led the workers on a campaign for benefits. Wetherbee interviews Johnson in her home. Johnson talks about the importance of helping others. Johnson discusses her relative, Eleanor Graves Chandler, who was an early com
Who Can Live Here? Life in Extreme Environments
Astrobiology in the Classroom leads students in the exploration of the limits of life on Earth to extend their beliefs about life to include its possibility on other worlds. In this four-part activity, students first explore the environments of several mammals and birds to better understand how living things and their environments interact and depend on each other. In the second part, students match bacterial types with their more extreme environments. Students discover that an environment's tem
EO Global Warming
Earth Expeditions: Global Warming has been designed to provide students with an interactive multimedia environment where they can learn about the causes and possible effects of the rise in concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere for more than a century. How will Earth’s environment be affected if this rise continues over the next century? The multimedia package provides background information about radiation from the Sun and Earth, the Earth’s energy balance, and the greenhouse ef
Earth Explorers Series
Who Are NASA's Earth Explorers? The elementary school student questioning if El Nino occurs anywhere besides the Pacific Ocean... The researcher investigating connections between Arctic ozone depletion and global climate change... The consumer comparing hydrocarbon versus hydrogen-powered cars... And the business person projecting future needs for harvest, delivery, and storage of crops... All of these people are Earth Explorers -- they are all connected by their curiosity about Earth system pro
NASA Earth Observatory Mission: Biomes
This fun, interactive website was designed by NASA's earth observatory to introduce students to the Earth's Biomes. A biome, as defined by the site, is a community of plants and animals living together in a certain kind of climate. This website provides links to seven different biomes that students can learn about including coniferous forests, grasslands, and tundras. Each separate biome page contains a brief general description as well as basic information about characteristics such as Temperat
Muscles and Bones
Muscles and Bones offers teachers 10 activities that help students understand how the body's muscles and bones work. The activities in this guide help students explore important questions related to muscles and bones in living things; such as: Do you know which foods have lots of calcium for your bones? What are you doing to keep your muscles strong? and How do your bones and muscles work together?
Nutrition, Inequality and Agriculture: Contested Models of Degenerative Disease in Chiapas, Mexico
The industrial agro-food system has had two significant impacts on world public health: deteriorating human and animal nutrition due to poor food quality and the emergence of new infectious diseases arising from industrial animal production facilities and centralized food processing facilities. This situation is widely misrepresented in media coverage of public health issues. The corporate food system promotes the consumption of high levels of animal protein and processed foods
