To understand the laws regarding marijuana use in the United States, you can go all the way back to the 1800's to learn about farming hemp, or you can go back to 2018 when California became the sixth state to legalize recreational...

Ziggurats, cuneiform writing, the Tower of Babel, hieroglyphics, pyramids, the Great Wall. Launch a unit on ancient cultures, with a presentation that introduces viewers to ancient Mesopotamia, Babylonia, Sumer, Egypt, Indus, and China....

"What should we have for dinner?" "What am I eating?" "Where did it come from?" These three questions are at the heart of Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals. Pollan's book provides some very...

The Grapes of Wrath may be the most famous novel set during the Dust Bowl, but what other stories cover the same time? The unit focuses on the Karen Hesse novel Out of the Dust. Learners keep a timeline of the Dust Bowl, maintain a...

Extra! Extra! High schoolers read about Dolores Huerta, the social activist who helped organize the United Farm Workers. Researchers read primary and secondary sources about Huerta's work and craft a headline, supported by three pieces...

Not all food is created equal. The lesson dives into the world of migrant farm workers to show their struggles to earn livable wages and better working conditions. Academics learn why the Coalition of Immokalee Workers was created and...

Agricultural survey and the documentation of livestock or goods was the basis for the first written language. Youngsters discuss sorting and counting, and how these skills have been used for thousands of years. They accent their class...

This is a fantastic resource designed for learners to envision what it was like for the three million African-Americans who migrated to urban industrial centers of the northern United States between 1910 and 1940. After reading a...

Students examine the painting, Spring on the Missouri. They role-play and discuss floods and flood control from the views of an environmental lobbyist and a farmer.

Middle and high schoolers read and discuss articles about the mussel industry in Arkansas. They pay close attention to the history of pearling and button making industries on the Black and White Rivers of Arkansas. This impressive,...

The food on young scholars' tables was likely harvested by hands that fought for fair wages and working conditions. By examining the life of Cesar Chavez and Dolores Huerta, learners connect their daily meals with the struggles of those...

Barbed wire may have made cattle farming easier, but it brought to an end the free-roaming days of the plains. No longer could Native American groups continue their nomadic lifestyle, and the days of cowboys herding large groups of...

A wonderful instructional activity on the development and impact of mechanized farming! History or agriculture classes learn the historical background of the United States' food production by creating a pamphlet with information on...

After reflecting on jobs people perform in the present day, scholars discuss what they believe jobs would have been like in Colonial Virginia during the American Revolution. Small groups then perform a jigsaw using informational packets....

As part of a study of colonial and Native American history, class members focus on the beliefs and land use of the Pocumtucks, who settled near Deerfield, Massachusetts. Students examine their beliefs about land use and ownership, the...

The Great Depression not only impacted city folk and factory workers, it also had a profound effect on farmers. Young historians examine primary source materials that document the struggles of Alabama farmers during this time and...

Students investigate the relationship between physical geography and Utah's settlement. In this Utah land lesson, students view a PowerPoint about Utah land and work in groups to answer questions about the uniqueness of Utah's Mormon...

Honing reading and communication skills through the theme of farm animals is the focus of this activity. Students read a book about Scandinavian farm animals and complete prediction journal activities. They complete a worksheet about the...

Marilyn Nelson's poem, "1905," asks young scholars to compare and contrast George Washington Carver and Albert Einstein. After studying images of the two scientists and listing their observations, class members listen to several readings...

Decode primary sources in a fast-paced activity. A quick guessing game helps pupils use visual clues to understand primary sources. Academics look at a picture of the cotton gin and must guess what it is without other knowledge or clues....

Third graders label a map of ancient Greek and Roman civilizations and do a written report on one element of these two cultures. They participate in discussions of food, farming, daily life and government (among others). Students use the...

Discover the nutritional wonders of apples and get to know Johnny Appleseed with a plethora of learning experiences that cover subjects math, history, English language arts, health, and arts and crafts. Activities include an apple...

To further their understanding of the basis of the conflicts between the Pocumtucks and the English settlers, class members research the religious beliefs and attitudes of the Puritan farmers that settled in Deerfield, Ma.

The tenant farming and sharecropping systems that developed in the South after the Civil War, the reasons for their development, and the eventual decline of these systems are the focus of this two-day plan.