2.4 Agriculture Then and Now
“Agriculture Then and Now” is a middle school agricultural literacy lesson (MS.IAS.2.4) from the Pork Checkoff Food and Agricultural Literacy Curriculum that teaches students about trends in agriculture by comparing past and present conditions. Using a fashion-trends interest approach and USDA per-capita meat consumption data, students graph and analyze trends in beef, pork, and chicken consumption from 1950 to the present and explore other trends in the agricultural industry.
At a glance
- Learning objectives
-
- As a result of this unit the student will… Evaluate how agriculture supports all life
- As a result of this lesson, the student will… Compare and contrast agriculture from yesterday to today
- Time required
- Instruction time for this lesson: 45 minutes.
- Grade level
- Middle School
- Materials
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- Overhead projector/transparencies
- Writing surface
- Scratch paper
- Colored pencils, markers and crayons
- Fashion and Ag trend resources (examples include: Internet, fashion history texts, books from public library)
- MS.IAS.2.4.TM.A – one per teacher
- MS.IAS.2.4.TM.B – one per teacher
- MS.IAS.2.4.TM.C – one per teacher
- MS.IAS.2.4.TM.D – one per teacher
- MS.IAS.2.4.ASSESS.A – one per student
- Lesson Number
- MS.IAS.2.4
- Precepts
- H. Social Growth; H3. Develop, maintain and grow healthy relationships.
- Key Terms
- Trends
- Resources
- Food and Farm Facts. American Farm Bureau. US Per Capita Meat Consumption 1950-2007. United States Department of Agriculture. http://www.hsus.org/web-files/PDF/farm/PerCap-Cons-Meat-1.pdf
Downloads & Links
Aligned Standards
National Standards
- CS.01.05.01.bAnalyze the impact of trends and issues on the community.
- CS.05.03.01.bInterpret resource data in graphic format.
- FPP.01.01.01.aDiscuss the history and describe and explain the components (e.g., processing, distribution, byproducts) of the food products and processing industry.
- NL-ENG.K-12.12Applying Language Skills
- NM-DATA.6-8.3Develop and Evaluate Inferences and Predictions that Are Based on Data
- NM-MEA.6-8.1Understand Measurable Attributes of Objects and the Units, Systems, and Processes of Measurement
- NM-NUM.6-8.1Understand Numbers, Ways of Representing Numbers, Relationships among Numbers, and Number Systems
- NM-NUM.6-8.3Compute Fluently and Make Reasonable Estimates
- NM.DATA.6-8.1Formulate Questions That Can Be Addressed With Data and Collect, Organize, and Display Relevant Data to Answer
- NS.5-8.6Science in Personal and Social Perspectives
- NSS-EC.5-8.18National Productivity
- NSS-EC.5-8.8Supply and Demand
Social Science / Economics
- NSS-EC.5-8.1Productive resources are limited. Therefore, people cannot have all the goods and services they want. As a result, they must choose some things and give up others.