Tuesday 10 July 2012

Agriculture in the Classroom: Seed Kit

Living in a province with a large agricultural industry, it is important that Saskatchewan teachers accept the responsibility of educating our students in this area. By providing meaningful information and experiences, we can empower them to make informed choices when it comes to interacting in the world of farming.

One great way that I learned to involve students more in their Saskatchewan roots was through the organization Agriculture in the Classroom. Sponsored by the Ministry of Agriculture as well as the agriculture industry, they have a multitude of amazing hands on resources for students. The best part ... these resources are free for educators!

One of my favourite picks would be the seed kit. This kit comes with 14 different seed samples, a few lesson plans and a sorting graphic. It is great to use for all ages, I have adapted the activity for students aged 4 to 10.

I have used the kit as both an inquiry centre (set up with all necessary tools and information cards) and a structured guessing game competition. The kids seem to be amazed at all of the consumer products that the grain industry supports! Here are some pictures of my kids interacting with the centre. I will attach the link to my information cards and the AITC website at the bottom. Enjoy!

A real canola plant!

These seem to look the same...



Materials for set up:

  • A tray for the students to dump the seed samples (trust the kids to do this! -- we had a few spills but they all accepted responsibility and cleaned up their mess)
  • A magnifying glass
  • I had a mirror to place all of the bottles on for a beautiful visual display
  • I also got some real wheat plants from the field for the kids to see the actual plant.
  • The information cards
Check out this great website for over 250 lesson plans, activities, teacher guides, etc!

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