In this lesson, students will complete monohybrid and dihybrid Punnett squares in preparation for taking on a challenge to breed cotton plants that produce naturally blue colored cotton. Grades 6-8
Students will gain a broad understanding of the types and sources of different fibers, examining their origins and observing their differences. Activities in this lesson include examining clothing and clothing labels and observing how different types of fabrics burn. Grades 6-8
Students investigate the impact of cotton on the history and culture of the United States. Students will discover the growth and processing requirements for cotton, recognize how the invention of the cotton gin affected slavery, explain how the plantation system was organized, and ultimately understand the role of cotton in the Civil War. Grades 6-8
Students investigate the impact of cotton on the history and culture of the United States. Students discover the growth and processing requirements for cotton, recognize how the invention of the cotton gin affected slavery, explain how the plantation system was organized, and ultimately understand the role of cotton in the Civil War. Grades 9-12
These fact sheets provide information on the history, production, top producing regions and economic values of various agricultural products and natural resources. The activity sheets provide specific lesson ideas and fun facts for each topic. Commodities include agricultural water, alfalfa, almonds, artichokes, asparagus, avocados, beef, cantaloupes, carrots, citrus fruits, cling peaches, corn, cotton, cut flowers, dairy, dried plums, dry beans, forest resources, mushroom, pears, pistachios, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, processing tomato, rice, strawberries, table grapes, walnuts.
Historically, farming was an exhausting, physical task. Bright-minded individuals revolutionized agriculture with inventions that eased tasks and sped up production. The invention of milestone machines, such as Eli Whitney's cotton gin, are explored chronologically.
How do plants survive when they can't run away from danger? Plants can live in diverse places such as under water, in deserts, cold climates, high elevations or even on other plants. They must contend with storms, fire, poor soils, and hungry animals and insects. Fortunately plants can grow from spores, seeds, or vegetatively and often get a helping hand from people. Plants are cultivated to provide fruit, vegetables, nuts, grains, and fibers such as cotton as well as for wood, paper, and many other products. The book concludes by noting a few of the habitats plants help create such as forests, prairies, and marshes as the comical plant characters conclude that they do indeed have amazing powers. Several related activities are listed such as a plant power scavenger hunt, a writing prompt: My Plant Power, and a kitchen scrap garden.
Big Book of Big Tractors is a large, full color book that gets even bigger with it's fold out pages. Students will learn the names of many machines and implements used on the farms that grow and harvest their food. How do machines dig in the soil and plant seeds? What kind of tools make physical labor on a farm easier by lifting heavy objects or performing the work of many people? How do machines harvest grains, hay, cotton, and other agricultural products? How are tractors and large machines used off the farm? These questions and more are answered and can serve as a companion to lessons about machines, harvesting, and engineering (STEM).
This book provides a detailed overview of how farmers grow crops, exploring topics like why soil is important, what a grain crop is, how farmers grow fruits and nuts on trees, and how farmers pick crops. Important vocabulary words are highlighted and defined in a glossary at the end.
A very accurate account of the contributions of George Washington. In addition to being a general and one of the first presidents of the United states, he also made contributions to agriculture. He had a self-sufficient farm in Mount Vernon, Virginia. The book includes actual excerpts from Washington's writings, a timeline, resource section, and essays on his thoughts on slavery.
Books from this series teach how objects are made, how nature's cycles work, and how food is produced—from start to finish. Suitable for both struggling and on-level readers, these titles teach science concepts as well as sequential thinking. These books are an excellent supplement to lessons teaching elementary students about the importance of agriculture and how food and fiber gets from the farm to their home.
Join our young baker (and her little dog!) as they travel the United States—from New Hampshire to Hawaii, from Alaska to Texas—in search of the coal, cotton, clay, and granite they need to create all their baking tools. Take a round-the-U.S.A. journey by riverboat, taxi, train, and plane in a culinary adventure—and a playful celebration of America’s natural resources.
This Scholastic book illustrates what it was like to live at the time of the Civil War. Alternating pages are written from the point of view of the South and the North. Appropriate for Grades 2-6, this is a great resource to help tie lessons on cotton to social studies.
This easy to read 24-page book describes how inventions such as the cotton gin transformed America from an agricultural country to an industrial one, and led to both problems and opportunities.
Sally is a young girl living in rural Alabama in the early 1900s, a time when people were struggling to grow food in soil that had been depleted by years of cotton production. One day, Dr. George Washington Carver shows up to help. He teaches them how to restore the soil nutrients. He even prepares a delicious lunch made of plants, including "chicken" made from peanuts. Susan Grigsby's warm story shines new light on an African American scientist who was ahead of his time.
Levi Strauss and Blue Jeans tells the story of the man who made the first pair of blue jeans and changed the way the world dressed! In the mid-1880s, while adventurers rushed off to California to find gold, Levi Strauss followed with an idea of his own. In dramatic, graphic novel format, this book follows Strauss as he works to create a pair of pants sturdy enough for gold miners. Readers will learn how Levi found that not just gold miners, but hard-working people everywhere wanted the durable pants with the pocket rivets.
Mr. Blue Jeans is a 64-page chapter book which tells the story of the life of an immigrant Jewish peddler who founded Levi Strauss & Company, the world's first and largest manufacturer of denim blue jeans.
Right here on this spot, where today Grandpa drives a tractor in his cabbage field, Indians in ancient times lit their campfires, chipped stone into tools, and then moved on. Time passed, trees grew into a forest, and settlers came from across the ocean to clear the land again and make a new home. Years later, a Union soldier crossing that field lost a button. Grandpa was digging a ditch when he found that button... In graceful words and striking pictures, this book chronicles the changes the centuries bring to one field and offer young readers a vivid slice of history.
This book tells the story of one African American family, fighting to stay together and strong in the face of brutal racist attacks, illness, poverty, and betrayal in the Deep South of the 1930s. Nine-year-old Cassie Logan, growing up protected by her loving family, has never had reason to suspect that any white person could consider her inferior or wish her harm. But during the course of one devastating year when her community begins to be ripped apart by angry night riders threatening African Americans, she and her three brothers come to understand why the land they own means so much to their Papa. "Look out there, Cassie girl. All that belongs to you. You ain't never had to live on nobody's place but your own and long as I live and the family survives, you'll never have to. That's important. You may not understand that now but one day you will. Then you'll see."
Did you know that the cotton for your jeans was picked from a plant? How did the colorful wool in your sweater get from a sheep’s back to a ball of yarn? Where did your soccer uniform, your rain boots, and your fleece jacket come from? And what does recycling plastic bottles have to do with anything? This book will take you to visit farms, forests, and factories all over the world to find out how everything you wear has a story behind it. The fabrics covered include denim, wool, and synthetics, and suggestions on how to recycle or repurpose old clothes are also provided.
Working Cotton describes the long days of work in a cotton field from the view of a child in a migrant family. Shelan describes how her parents, brothers, and sisters arrive at the cotton fields before dawn and work until night to harvest cotton.
A four-page student reader examines how cotton is grown, its agricultural importance, product evolution, and economic importance. It can be easily printed for individual or small group use in the classroom.
Help your students understand how the fiber in their clothing, towels, and sheets comes from cotton plants. The seeds must be removed from the cotton fibers to make cloth. This process is called ginning (after Eli Whitney's cotton gin; gin is short for engine). The cotton bolls in this kit may be hand ginned, or dissected, allowing students to experience the process of hand ginning, understand the significance of the cotton gin, and explain how machines help us today to be more productive. Each kit contains a classroom set of individually wrapped cotton bolls. Each cotton boll can easily be pulled apart into four distinct sections so that a group of four students may use one cotton boll. Teacher Note: The purpose of this activity is to investigate cotton, the process of hand ginning cotton, and the impacts of the cotton gin. Adjusting this investigation into a role-play or simulation of a slave activity is absolutely discouraged. In addition, no student should be required to participate in hand ginning cotton. We recommend consulting your administrator and/or communicating with parents prior to presenting this lesson. You may want to consider ginning as a teacher demonstration if you anticipate tension or uncomfortable feelings. For more information concerning teaching about the history of African Enslavement, refer to research conducted by the Southern Poverty Law Center Teaching Hard History: American Slavery.Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
This Cotton Education Kit is designed for students, teachers and anyone who is interested in learning about cotton. This kit can be used by educators as a companion to any lesson about cotton in the subjects of science, geography, history, or agriculture science. The kit includes cotton seed with planting instructions, cotton boll from the farm, cottonseed separated from raw cotton, cotton lint separated by removing seeds, cotton bale that is sent to mills, cotton sliver that makes yarn, cotton yarn used to make cloth, denim representing the final product, and the Cotton in the Classroom brochure with lesson plan ideas.
Grow your own farm in a glove! This kit contains instructions and enough materials for a classroom of students to plant five different seeds in the fingers of a food handler's glove and the cotton necessary to sprout them. Given a few days, and some water, the glove will be alive with growing sprouts - baby plants that your students can observe. An excellent activity for teaching plant growth and genetic differences. Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
This kit contains instructions and enough materials for a classroom of students to plant five varieties of corn seeds – sweet corn, super sweet corn, popcorn, dent corn (also known as field corn), and flint corn (also known as Indian corn) – in the fingers of a food handler's glove and the cotton necessary to sprout them. Given a few days and some water, the glove will be alive with growing sprouts that your students can observe. An excellent activity for teaching plant growth and genetic differences. Order this kit online from agclassroomstore.com.
Use this interactive map to help students see how geography and climate affects the production of agricultural crops. The map has USDA statistics built in to allow your students to answer questions such as, "Which state(s) produce the most cattle?" "Where does [my state] rank nationally in corn production?" "What region of the United States produces the most cotton?" etc. There are many agricultural maps available including field crops such as corn, wheat, barley, and alfalfa in addition to fruit and vegetable crops, ornamental nursery crops, and livestock.
This fabric map is an excellent resource for "hands-on" geography activities. The cotton fabric washes well and can be taken outside. Countries and their capitals, and major bodies of water are identified. Each map has been serged around the edges. Order the map individually, or add on a set of Herbs and Spices Cards, Where in the World Food Cards, or Lunch Cards. Students will use the cards to identify where in the world each of the foods come from. Order this map online from agclassroomstore.com.
America’s Heartland is a magazine-style, half-hour video series. The website and YouTube channel offer more than 700 episodes about farmers and ranchers providing food, fuel, and fiber for America and the world. The series strives to give urban viewers a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities facing modern agriculture today by providing informative and compelling stories about topics ranging from agricultural technology to consumer issues to crop sustainability. Video segments can be viewed from the website or YouTube and can be easily integrated into classroom discussions. Visit the website and search for videos by topic (e.g., dairy farm, cotton, cattle ranch, etc.).
Watch all or part of these episodes to learn about cotton. Follow the production of cotton from field to fabric and learn about the genetic improvement of cotton plants, their harvesting, history, use as cattle feed, and more.
This 17-minute video is a great way for students to learn about how agriculture connects to their lives. Animation, fun facts, and farmers tell the story of agriculture and how it relates to economics, science, and business. Interwoven through the commodity stories of corn, cotton, apples, dairy, and soybeans are important concepts such as: biodegradable properties, renewable resources, biotechnology, foreign trade, pest management, conservation practices, and food quality. Order this DVD online from agclassroomstore.com.
View an animation of Ely Whitney's Cotton Gin. Separating the cotton seeds from the cotton fiber was a very labor-intensive task before the invention of the cotton gin. This animation can help students visualize how the cotton gin worked and see the impact of labor-saving technology.
Explore how cotton is produced "from field to fabric" and processed into cotton cloth on a modern farm and in a modern textile mill. Order this DVD online from agclassroomstore.com.
Cotton has been grown and used throughout the history of the United States. This 9-minute DVD teaches how cotton plants have impacted and changed the history of the United States. From the production of blue jeans to the filament in the first light bulbs, you will be amazed to learn some of the many uses of cotton, past and present. Order this DVD online from agclassroomstore.com.
In just under five minutes, this video shows how cotton is processed in modern factories. See cotton cleaned, carded, coiled, drawn, stretched, spun, and wound onto giant spools—all by machines. In 48 hours raw cotton is transformed into cotton yarn.
Field Trip! is a series of video field trips you can take right in your classroom. Video field trips include: Beef, Cheese, Cotton, Honey, Milk, Onion, Peanuts, Pecans, Pistachios, Red Chile Spice, Salsa, Turf, and Wine!
This link highlights the growth and production of the cotton plant. Begin with a short video clip about the growth of cotton including its history with slaves. Continue by learning about the modern use of genetic engineering in the cotton industry today. Following the video you can learn where cotton is grown across the world and what technology is used to plant, harvest, and process it into fabric.
This three-page informational sheet describes the process of how oilseed crops are grown and harvested, how the products get from the farm to the store, and nutrition facts. Words and graphics are used to portray this information for canola, cottonseed, peanuts, soybeans, and sunflower seeds. Print your own or order a set of 30" x 8" printed charts from agclassroomstore.com.
Despite the rapid increase in the adoption of genetically engineered (GE) corn, soybean, and cotton varieties by US farmers, questions persist regarding their economic and environmental impacts, the evolution of weed resistance, and consumer acceptance. This report examines issues related to three major stakeholders in agricultural biotechnology: GE seed suppliers and technology providers (biotech firms), farmers, and consumers.
This natural plant fiber is a globally important crop with many uses. But cotton growers are continually dealing with environmental challenges like drought and pests. Explore the content of this website to learn more about cotton, its wild ancestors, and some of the approaches scientists are using to study and improve cotton plants.
The Cotton Campus is a digital simulation of a college university all about cotton. Begin with how cotton is grown and harvested and then continue your "education" to learn how the fibers are processed into fabric, how to wash and care for cotton fabric, and other fun facts.
This website provides a variety of publications for teaching about cotton, including printable handouts on cotton and the consumer, what can be made with a bale of cotton, and the history of cotton from its first planting in the United States until today. An online presentation provides images and text to show your students how cotton goes from field to fabric.