College & Career Awareness Center
Welcome to Utah Agriculture in the Classroom's College & Career Awareness Center! Here you will find all the resources you need to teach the agricultural portion of this seventh grade core requirement with engaging, hands-on lesson plans and activities.
College & Career Awareness: Problem-based Learning
Problem-based learning (PBL) is an instructional strategy that has been adapted into Utah's College and Career Awareness (CCA) curriculum. During PBL instruction, students work together to create solutions to a problem based on real-world issues or situations. The steps involved in problem-based learning include identifying the problem, gathering information, determining a solution, evaluating and reviewing the solution, and presenting the final solution. For more information and resources on PBL instruction, visit the CCA PBL webpage.
Listed below are agriculture, food, and nutrition PBL Lessons designed specifically for Utah seventh graders:
College & Career Awareness: 7th Grade Lessons
Designed specifically for Utah seventh graders, this collection of agricultural lessons covers topics including agricultural careers, contemporary agricultural technologies, genetics, food science, natural resources use, and agricultural business.
Each of these lessons is approved by the Utah State Board of Education. Students participate in activity-centered lessons to utilize technology, develop foundational skills, and explore careers by expanding awareness. The same agricultural lessons are also located on the Utah State Board of Education website.
The suggested sequence for these lesson follows.
First:
Early (any ordrer):
End (any ordrer):
Last:
Recommended Resources for College & Career Awareness Lessons
Career Trek Game Boards
Grade 7
Laminated Game Boards
Classroom set: Includes 10 game boards. The Career Trek Game is an interactive game for up to four players. The object of the game is for the students to be able to name 10 careers in agriculture and natural resources. This kit includes 10 game boards for a classroom of 40 middle school students.
Download lesson to accompany this game.
Food and Farm Facts
Grades 4-12
Booklet
Food and Farm Facts features interesting and educational facts about food in America, how and where it is grown, and who produces it. Color photographs and easy to read infographics illustrate the many fascinating facets of today’s agriculture. The book includes 32 color pages. Food and Farm Facts comes with an "America the Bountiful" map.
Living Science Career Cards
Grades 7-12
Cards
Living Science: Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resources Careers. This 8 1/2" x 11" poster series features 50 science careers associated with our nation's food, agricultural, and natural resource system. This is a great resource to help your students better understand the exciting and diverse array of employment opportunities for scientists working to generate new knowledge and to advance technology. Use these cards with the
Find Your Future Careers lesson plan.
Living Science Careers Equipment Bags
Grades 7-12
Cards
This is a great resource to help your students better understand the exciting and diverse array of STEM employment opportunities in food, agriculture, and natural resources. Each kit comes with yarn, signs, and seven Living Science Careers Equipment Bags, all in a sturdy plastic storage container. Add additional images and other items to the kit as your students learn more about careers.
Planet Zorcon
Grades 4-8
Kit
Classroom kit: Includes enough materials for 36 students working in groups of six. This interactive group activity will help your students understand the limited resources available for consumption on earth. Students will work in groups to explore the connection between individual behavior and resource use, explain the differences between renewable and nonrenewable resources, and identify careers related to natural resource management.
Science in Your Shopping Cart
Grades 6-12
DVD 14 min. & Booklet
We pay less for food than citizens of other nations; the United States enjoys the cheapest food in the world. Each year, dozens of improved products and new varieties of fruits, nuts, and vegetables emerge from the laboratories and greenhouses of the Agricultural Research Service. But walking through the grocery store, do we ever consider where such an abundance and variety of food and products come from? Learn about ARS research and how it affects your food in this PDF
booklet and
YouTube movie.
Seed Samples
Grades K-12
Seeds only
Classroom kit: Includes enough materials for 40 students working in groups of four. This kit contains a variety of agronomic or crop seeds. Samples of corn, wheat, rice, and quinoa seeds are included. Use these seeds to complement the lesson
Serious Cereal Science found on the
Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix.
Serious Cereal Science
Grades 7-9
Kit
Classroom kit: Includes enough materials for 40 students working in groups of four. Just as grains were foundational in the advent of agriculture thousands of years ago, they continue to play a central role in agriculture and food security today. Corn, rice, and wheat provide more than half of the calories consumed by people worldwide. The science of cereal science is serious business!
Strawberry DNA Necklace
Grades 7-9
Kit
Classroom kit: Includes enough materials for 100 students. Is there DNA in my food? Absolutely! Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is a long molecule that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms, including the plants we eat.
Strawberry DNA Necklace Refill
Grades 7-9
Kit
Classroom kit: Includes enough materials for 100 students. Refill your Strawberry DNA Necklace kit. Refill includes: 100 microcentrifuge tubes, 100 pieces of yarn, 40 transfer pipettes and cheesecloth.
What is Agriculture?
Grades 2-9
Poster
How would you define agriculture? Not with
Merriam-Webster's Dictionary. That doesn't capture the importance of agriculture or how it touches all of our lives. Learn how to define agriculture with five words. The 5-F's of agriculture are: farming, food, fabric, forestry and flowers. This poster (22" x 34") works well with the
My Farm Web lesson plan and other lessons on the
Agricultural Literacy Curriculum Matrix.
