In the strategic building game Lakeland, you’ve decided to build a new town called Lakeland. In order to grow your town and keep your people alive, you need food and resources.

Luckily, you’ve got some friendly advisors to help you get started. Your Farm Advisor shows you how to grow corn. Now your people have food! Then you start a dairy farm. People love dairy. Milk, cheese, ice cream… what could go wrong?

As it turns out, a lot. Cows don’t just produce milk. They also produce lots and lots of poop, which means the lakes your people love are about to turn into a toxic cesspool of blue-green algae. Your mission: grow your town without destroying their lakes.

This game puts kids in charge of building their own town. Players add houses and farms, export produce, and manage resources like food, money, and manure. Students will get an introduction to the complex relationship between farming, soil nutrition, and lake pollution.

This reading seminar examines land, water, food, and climate in a changing world, with an emphasis on key scientific questions about the connections between natural resources and food production. Students read and discuss papers on a range of topics, including water and land resources, climate change, demography, agroecology, biotechnology, trade, and food security. The readings are supplemented by short lectures that provide context and summarize main points. The seminar provides a broad perspective on one of the defining global issues of this century. Students consider scientific controversies as well as areas of general agreement and examine practical solutions for addressing critical problems.

The National Humanities center presents reading guides with primary source materials for the study of America 1789-1820: Living the Revolution. Primary source materials include autobiographies, plays, essays, orations, addresses, political documents, letters, poems, cartoons, and more. Resources are divided into the topics: Predicament, Religion, Politics, Expansion, and Equality.

Students in Grades 3 & 4 at Chain Exploration Center developed an understanding of the important role that pollinators play in human food systems as well as in native habitats. Students also learned about the stressors, many of them human-influenced, that are associated with the decline in pollinator populations. Students also learned about ways that humans can improve pollinator habitat. The culmination of student learning was an environmental stewardship project: the installation of a pollinator garden on the school grounds. What follows is an outline of the project process and a discussion of the resources that were used. 

In the Arizona desert, farmers depend on an ample supply of irrigation to grow their crops. As climate changes, irrigation managers face a host of issues to keep the water flowing.

Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe school is a Bureau of Indian Education/Tribally controlled school catering to students who are themselves tribally enrolled or a descendant of a tribal member. Our school has a close working relationship with the Lac Courte Oreilles College Extension program, including access to the college farm. In an effort to encourage students to learn where their food comes from, make more informed decisions about what they eat and how what they eat impacts the environment, students are introduced to indigenous teachings regarding companion planting of food crops. Though the growing part of this project is long term, students learn about the process of seed development, understand the length of time it takes for a plant to mature and ultimately provide food sources. An additional benefit to this project is that it provides students with a sense of nurturing as they help their plants thrive. 

Maple Grove Charter School, Athens School District, is a Grades K-5 elementary school located the heart of the rural Town of Hamburg. The school takes its name from the school forest on its site. Built in 1904, the school has annual tradition of tapping the maple trees. What started as a first grade classroom project has expanded as students from each grade level identify, tap, and collect sap from two trees. Unit plans have been created for each grade level to address agriculture, science, literacy, social studies, math, and environmental literacy standards. While the sap collecing routines remain relevatively constant each year, the learning opportunties have been differentiated by grade level so that students are always learning new content and skills.In the following unit plan discussion readers will learn about the schoolwide project from the perspective of teachers in Grades 1 and 5.Students in Grade 1 learn about maple tree identification and the traditional and modern tools and technologies employed in sap collection and syrup production. Their fifth grade counterparts continue to grow in their understanding of the tapping, collection, and production processes, and take on the role of entrepreneurs as they develop their brand and market the finished pure maple syrup.

Students in Grades 1 & 2 at Chain Exploration Center developed an understanding of the maple syrup production and its importance as an agribusiness. Students also learned about plant structures and their role in photosynthesis and the ecosystem services of sugar maple trees. The culmination of student learning was a project showcase in the form of a Maple Tree Museum to which parents and community members were invited. What follows is an outline of key place-based lessons and experiences that supported students’ learning.

This kit explores how sustainability has been presented in the media with a particular focus on issues related to food, water and agriculture. Each of the 19 lessons integrates media literacy and critical thinking into lessons about different aspect of sustainability. Constant themes throughout the kit include social justice, climate change, energy, economics and unintended consequences.

What do Prairie Chickens Need in Order to Survive Today's Prairie?

This middle school unit covering ecosystems, animal behavior and symbiosis was developed through the Storyline approach. Middle school students will be figuring out why prairie chickens have a very unique dance and understand the role cows play to help ensure the dance takes place. Using this approach, students engage in science concepts to help ensure the survival of the prairie chicken.

Climate change adaptation isn’t always welcome as a topic of conversation, even among those who could benefit from it. A recent study hints at a possible path forward.

Students use the visual representation of a web to explore the role of agriculture in their daily lives and understand how most of the necessities of life can be traced back to the farm.

Climate is also where we begin the design process in another tool referenced in the Permaculture design system. This is the Scale of Landscape Permanence, originated by P.A.Yeomans, the founder of Keyline™ Design. Yeomans asserts that the order of design is:

Climate
Landshape
Water Supply
Roads/Access
Trees
Structures
Subdivision Fences
Soil
This book is predominantly about climate, and the macro influences of climate and climate change on design. As we get through the topics of climate analogues and climate change forecasting, we will end up moving down this list to see the climate’s influence on specific design choices.

In this media-rich, self-paced lesson, students explore the industries that produce and rely on advanced technology and assess how their goals and interests may make them well suited for a career in this cutting-edge sector.

Context: Our Ancient Roots Homestead collaborates with students, elders, and community members in the surrounding Tribal Nations— both Menominee and Stockbridge Munsee. We recognize all students learning in different ways. Some students join us in person, while others join us virtually. People are invited to tell stories, garden, preserve food, make music, create art, and learn different Indigenous life skills. The culturally-relevant text sets offer different perspectives for students to see as well as wonderful conversation starters. Students learn of different careers within the Indigenous World. Some of those careers being: Seed Keepers, Gardeners, Knowledge Keepers, Storytellers and more! Dig your bare feet into the soil and feel those connections to your ancestors, the land, the plants, animals, and all things. We are all connected. Let’s work together and connect our past to the present for the future… of learning!

Ranchers are participating in a pilot project to improve carbon storage and reduce net greenhouse gas emissions. After quantifying their baseline emissions and carbon storage, they implement conservation practices that may let them tap into revenue from voluntary carbon markets.

Students learn about soil properties and the effect biochar—charcoal used as a soil amendment—has on three soil types, sand, loam and clay. They test the soils’ water retention capability before and after the addition of biochar. During the activity, student teams prepare soil mixtures, make observations (including microscopic examinations), compare soil properties, conduct water retention tests, take and record measurements, and analyze their observations and data. They see how the physical properties of soils—color, texture, and particle size—can be indicators of nutrient content and water retention capabilities to support plant growth. From their findings, they consider biochar’s potential benefits for environmental and agricultural applications, especially in conditions of drought and depleted soils. An activity lab sheet is provided to guide experimental data collection and analysis.

How do bunk beds hold the history of agricultural production in Wisconsin?

After World War II, agricultural production in Wisconsin was growing, and farms needed more workers. Large companies brought in workers from southern states to harvest fruits and vegetables, which spurred the creation of migrant worker camps. Harsh working conditions and poor accommodations led workers to organize and demand better from their employers.

This episode is part of The Look Back, a series made for learners in grades 4-6 that explores eras from Wisconsin’s history through artifacts. The collection is hosted by historians who model an inquiry process: sharing artifacts, asking questions, visiting archives and museums to learn more, telling the story of their findings as they go, and making connections to our lives today.

Over the last fifty years, humans have made remarkable progress in reducing hunger around the world. How can we keep our farms and food system resilient in a warming climate? Dr. Cynthia Rosenzweig, Senior Research Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, joins host Laur Hesse Fisher on this episode of TILclimate to explain how climate change is already impacting our global food system.

The Sentinel-2 10m Land Use/Land Cover time-series is live on ArcGIS Living Atlas of the World! This map provides an annual assessment of yearly global land cover from 2017–2021, in 9 different land cover classes, at 10-meter resolution. The new time-series animates the natural and anthropogenic processes that continue to transform our planet's landscapes and resources, giving researchers, planners, and the GIS community the information they need to make critical future decisions.