Linking Food and the Environment (LiFE)

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Growing Food (grades 4, 5, or 6)

In Growing Food you and your students embark on an exciting adventure— learning science through the study of food system. By investigating the question, How does nature provide us with food?, students learn about the cycling of matter in nature, flow of energy, and food systems— critical ideas in science. They engage in hands-on investigations of photosynthesis, food webs, agriculture, and more. Students explore and analyze their personal food choices through scientific reasoning, and they apply what they have learned to personal decisions related to food systems, health, and the natural environment. Growing Food is designed for use in grades 4, 5, or 6 and teacher manual includes: Lesson plans with helpful background information, practical teaching tips, and tools for assessment Student activity sheets and reading A matrix that maps Growing Food to the National Science Education Standards and Benchmarks for Science Literacy

Order Growing Food from National Gardening Association

"My students are thinking deeply about food system issues. They get excited every time we do the lessons. I use LiFE as a replacement unit in our adopted science curriculum."
-Stephen M., sixth grade teacher

"We were being scientists because the lesson helped us find out more about the things we wanted to know."
-Alicia L., fifth grade student

"When I grow up I want to be a scientist. The LiFE Program... was one step forward toward my dream."
-Samual A., sixth grade student

Try out Lesson 6 of Growing Food,
Celebrating Plant Parts (featuring making a plant part salad)

Driving Question
Module: How does nature provide us with food?

Table of Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Making Science Real, Meaningful, and Successful Getting Acquainted with LiFE Materials Science Standards Matrices

	Unit 1: Becoming Food Scientists Driving Question:  What is a food scientist? Lesson 1: Corn Investigations Lesson 2: Exploring Grapes Lesson 3: Making Grape Juice Lesson 4: Pre-assessment
	Unit 2: Plants Driving Question: If there were no plants, would humans have food? Lesson 5: The Producers Lesson 6: Celebrating Plant Parts Lesson 7: Energy Transformation Lesson 8: Linking Plants and Animals
	Unit 3: Food Webs Driving Question: How do components in nature interact with each other? Lesson 9: Nature’s Decomposers Lesson 10: Classroom Composting Lesson 11: Web of Interactions
	Unit 4: Agriculture Driving Question: How do we interact with nature to meet our food needs? Lesson 12: No Farmers, No Food Lesson 13: Classroom Crops Lesson 14: Investigating Soil Lesson 15: Soil Texture Lesson 16: Crops and Weather
	Unit 5: Making Choices Driving Question:  How can we use the science we learned to make food and agriculture choices? Lesson 17: Regional Eating Lesson 18: Comparing Farming Practices Lesson 19: Farmer Frieda’s Design Project Lesson 20: Bringing It All Together

Bibliography
Resources
Glossary