Grow Educator Lessons
Food is a part of our everyday lives; the foods we eat nourish us and give us our vitality. How much choice do we have over what we eat? What factors influence the foods we eat and where they come from? Through the lens of the Mashpee Wampanoag experience, lesson participants will reflect on these questions and on the way that individuals and communities relate to food.
Materials
- Lesson: Connecting Food and Culture of the Wampanoag Tribe
- Handout: How does food and culture connect?
- Slides: Food, Culture, and the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe
Length: 40 minutes
Recommended timing: Year-Round
Massachusetts Standards: Health 3.7, Health 8.1, Science 3.LS.4.4, Reading RI.3.2, Reading RI.3.10
Do you ever consider how the weather changes or how similar the weather is during particular times of the year? Have you noticed patterns to how hot or cold it is in certain months of the year; or have you noticed how certain fruits or vegetables are available “seasonally”, or during certain seasons of the year? In this lesson, students will observe, describe, and record local weather data, improving their skills of observation, prediction, and measurement.
Materials
- Lesson: Outdoor Weather Lab
- Handout: Historical Weather Data, New Bedford MA
- Handout: Weather Observation Table
- Handout: Word Web – Weather
Length: 80 minutes
Recommended timing: Year-Round
Massachusetts Standards: Science 3.ESS.2.1, Science 3.LS.4.4
Garlic is commonly used in cooking as a spice; in fact, it is regularly used on every continent except Antarctica! But did you know that garlic also has health-promoting properties, well-documented throughout history and by modern scientists? This lesson provides students with a basic overview of garlic’s key characteristics, uses, development, and care; and it includes step-by-step instructions that can be used to plant and harvest garlic.
Materials
Length: 80 minutes
Recommended timing: Oct, Nov
Massachusetts Standards: Health 13.1, Health 8.1, Science 3.LS.4.4, Reading RI.3.2, Reading RI.3.10
Food is essential to life; we encounter it regularly. How often do we stop to really experience the foods we eat, though? What impact does it have to our minds and bodies when we slow down and appreciate food with our senses, bite for bite? How can food create a powerful link between our minds and bodies to support wellness? In this lesson, teachers will have the resources required to engage students in a mindful eating exercise. Student participants will not only get to taste-test food; they will learn valuable techniques to support mindful practice, healthy eating, and appropriate expression of gratitude.
Materials
Length: 40 minutes
Recommended timing: Year-Round
Massachusetts Standards: Health 5.2, Health 3.3
Life on Earth is sustained through balanced interaction among living and non-living things within every ecosystem. These systems depend on diversity and resilience. It is the incredible diversity and resilience of living things on our planet, including plant life, that enable life for all creatures, great and small. Seeds are physically quite small; yet, they play a huge role in the health of humans and our planet. Through this lesson, explore one way in which humans can play a part in protecting seeds, a powerful life force, and contribute to the continued diversity and resilience of Earth’s food and environmental systems.
Materials
Length: 40 minutes
Recommended timing: Year-Round
Massachusetts Standards: Science 3.LS4.5, Science 3.LS3.1, Science 3.LS4.3, Science 3.LS4.3
Eating is a fundamental human need. It is part of the shared human experience. Even so, how often do we stop to reflect on where our food comes from? Or, similarly, how frequently do we consider the people who play vital roles in our food systems? This lesson supports students as they develop a basic understanding of the processes and people involved as food moves from field to fork and encourages consideration of the impact that food habits have on people and communities.
Materials
Length: 40 minutes
Recommended timing: Year-Round
Massachusetts Standards: Health 3.5, Health 13.1, Health 13.2
Have you ever been at a grocery store or market and observed the way that certain fruits and vegetables appear and disappear over the course of the seasons? Or perhaps you’ve noticed that some items are sourced locally during certain months and imported from warmer climates during others. Though we may not often stop to think of it, each species of plant has its own very specific requirements for life. In this lesson, students and teachers will consider what it means to thrive and learn how and when to sow seeds so that each seed reaches its plant potential.
Materials
Length: 40 minutes
Recommended timing: Year-Round
Massachusetts Standards: Science 3.LS4.3, Science 3.LS.4.4, Health 3.5, Reading RI.3.10
Like an architect who carefully designs buildings to meet the needs of its occupants, farmers and growers carefully design their gardens to meet the needs of growing plants. Plants, like humans, need more than just air and water to thrive, they need ample nutrients and enough space to reach them. Rotational planting and square foot gardening are two practices that help farmers and growers ensure each plant will get what it needs to thrive. In the course of this lesson, students will learn about these design practices, understand deep connections between plant and human needs, and explore mathematical concepts through hands-on applications.
Materials
Length: 80 minutes
Recommended timing: Year-Round
Massachusetts Standards: Science 3.LS4.3, Math 3.MD.C, Science 3.LS.4.4, Health 3.5, Reading RI.3.10
Bacteria, viruses, and fungi – tiny living things – are everywhere. Whether or not we like to admit it, we need them. The world beneath our feet, in our soils, is vast and complex; and this life-giving world is sustained in no small part by the infinite number of microorganisms that reside there. In “Soil Under the Lens”, students and teachers explore the interconnected web of organisms that contribute to healthy soils, evaluate the health of the soils nearest to them through hands-on exploration, and identify actions that contribute to the safe stewardship of our soils.
Materials
Length: 80 minutes
Recommended timing: Spring and Fall
Massachusetts Standards: Science 3.LS4.3, Science 3.LS.4.4, Health 3.5, Reading RI.3.10
Like an astronaut in space, we are too large and too far away to appreciate the abundance of life that is everywhere around us and within us. Though we cannot see them, trillions of microbes are part of our human biology. These tiny life forms play essential roles in our everyday health, helping to break down and extract energy and nutrients from the foods we eat. They rely on us to keep them safe so they can do their jobs and keep us healthy. In “Microbes and Me!” students will learn about the important role that microbes play in human health, practice tracing the flow of energy and nutrients from one organism to the next in the context of a food web, and create a flipbook that reinforces the nutritional value of the produce that comes from the local garden or market.
Materials
Length: 80 minutes
Recommended timing: Year-Round
Massachusetts Standards: Science 3.LS4.3, Science 3.LS.4.4, Reading RI.3.10
Created by FoodCorps member Shalynn Brooks: “Since the start of my journey with Foodcorps and Grow Education – one of my biggest goals was to make an inclusive lesson plan to highlight Black History Month. There is so much history of black activism, leadership and innovation in New Bedford, so curating an activity that makes students feel heard and seen was important to me. It is also a part of my heritage. Growing up, I’ve realized that there is a lot of Black History that is not recorded (the good and bad). Very important people get left unrecognized (some historical stories included in the lesson plan was my first time learning it too). We have learned things through storytelling and observation and the result has pushed me to share a lesson that is informed by the story of Black History.”
Materials
Length: 40-45 minutes
Recommended timing: February
