Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom
Lessons for Grades 6-8
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Students learn about machines used in agriculture. (7th-8th grade language arts and social studies)
Agriculture—It Doesn't Just Happen: The Work of the Ag Research Service
Students use research skills to find information about agriculture research projects and use gathered information in a variety of presentations. (6th-8th grade language arts and social studies)
Are You Thirsty? The Effects of Pollution on Drinking Water
Various activities for helping students visualize the effects of pollution on drinking water. (6th-8th grade science, math and language arts)
Biomass: The Energy of the Future
Students will use research skills to gather information on renewable fuels. Students will compile information on a graph and compare and contrast the pros and cons for developing the fuels for use. (6th-8th grade language arts)
Biosecurity Keeps Everyone Safe
Students will learn about biosecurity and how to discern between valid and invalid resources before writing a research paper on biosecurity. (6th-8th grade language arts)
Bovine Oversteps Boundaries: Newspaper Headlines, Captions and Stories
Students read the newspaper account of Grady, the Silo Cow from Yukon and write headlines, photo captions and their own newspaper stories. (6th-8th grade language arts)
Students conduct experiments to discover carbon dioxide. (6th-8th grade science, language arts and social studies)
Busting the Prairie: Planning a Homestead Community
Students learn about the Homestead Act of 1862 and the importance of agriculture in the settling of the West by planning and designing homestead communities and designing handbills inviting others to join them. (6th-8th grade social studies and language arts)
Circles in the Landscape: Irrigating Oklahoma Crops
Power Point Presentation (Keynote Version)
Students examine transpiration, evapotranspiration and water balance, learn the reasons for irrigation, analyze Oklahoma weather information and use geometry and other math skills to design an irrigation system. (6th-8th grade math, science and social studies)
Students use number sense, measurement and data analysis to construct drawings and compute multi-step problems with whole numbers, fractions and percentages. (6th - 8th grade math)
Students will develop an understanding of the importance of corn to the survival of early civilizations of the Americas. (6th-8th grade social studies)
Students compare the myths and legends about corn and use their creative abilities to act them out. (6th through 8th grade language arts and social studies)
Cotton Pickin': Before and After the Civil War
Students examine the importance of cotton to the economy of the South before and after the Civil War. (6th-8th grade social studies and language arts)
Students design and conduct investigations with crickets. (6th-8th grade science and language arts)
Students read and discuss information and vocabulary about some new developments in agriculture and the future of agriculture in Oklahoma. (6th-8th grade language arts and social studies)
Dear George: Using Census Data to Report on Agriculture
Students use Census of Agriculture information to compose a letter about agriculture in the US and translate correspondence about agriculture from George Washington into modern language. (6th-8th grade language arts and social studies)
The Disappearing Honeybees: Tracking Honeybee Decline
Students use graphing and other math skills to track the number of honeybee colonies present in the US since 1978. (6th-8th grade math and science)
Students conduct an experiment with fruit to demonstrate DNA isolation. (6th-8th grade language arts and science)
Students grow flowers in different soil types to determine the effect on flavor. (6th-8th grade science)
Fit With Fiber: Graphing Cereal
Students gather and graph information about favorite breakfast cereals. (6th-8th grade science and math)
Students explore food preservation methods in early American history through today. Includes beef jerky recipe. (6th-8th grade language arts, science, social studies, and math)
Students explore the difference between fruits and vegetables from different perspectives and develop their own definitions. (6th-8th grade science and language arts)
Genetics: A List of Traits (formerly "Hairy Heredity")
Students flip coins to demonstrate how parents pass genetic traits to their offspring through heredity and the difference between dominant and recessive genes, and how they interact. (6th-8th grade science and math)
George Washington and the First Census of Agriculture
Students will read excerpts from a letter George Washington wrote about agriculture in the US in 1771 and compare his evaluation with agricultural data over time. (6th-8th grade social studies and language arts)
Students investigate the flammability of natural and synthetic fabrics while practicing safe procedures. (6th-8th grade science, language arts, social studies)
Students research and grow a plant and present findings orally. (6th-8th grade science and language arts)
Hairy Heredity (now called "Genetics: A List of Traits")
Students flip coins to demonstrate how cattle pass genetic traits to their offspring through heredity and learn to recognize the difference between dominant and recessive genes and how they interact. (6th-8th grade math and science)
Students learn the history of 4-H, one of the oldest youth organizations, and use the information to compare and contrast other historical events.
(3rd-8th grade language arts, social studies and math)
The History of Ethanol in America
Students will explore the production of biofuels from the 1850s to the present. (6th-8th grade social studies and language arts)
History of Irrigation on the Great Plains
Students examine teh history of irrigation on the Great Plains, create a timeline to organize information, locate the Great Plains on a US map and research to learn about irrigation around the world. (4th-6th grade social studies and language arts)
Students read about the role Oklahoma's wheat fields played in the history of labor movements in the US. (6th-8th grade social studies and language arts)
How Far Did It Travel? Exploring the Geography of Food
Students compare the distances food travels from farm to table. (6th-8th grade social studies, language arts, and math)
Students conduct a test to help them visualize the spread of germs. (6th-8th grade science)
If Not for the Pollinators: Matching Flowers with Pollinators
Students match flowers to pollinators and construct models of flowers to demonstrate why different kinds of flowers need different kinds of pollinators (6th-8th grade science)
Students learn about strawberry production and compute payroll costs for strawberry workers. (6th-8th grade math, science and language arts)
Manure Happens: Nutrients in Livestock Manure
Students reinforce science and math skills while learning about the nutrients found in livestock manure. (6th-8th grade science and math)
Students reinforce math skills while learning about best practices for use of animal manure nutrients and protection of water quality. (6th - 8th grade math)
Students learn how seedless watermelon were developed and model the process of mitosis and meiosis in watermelon, using jelly beans. (6th-8th grade science and language arts)
Students build a soil erosion model and learn the importance of soil conservation. (6th-8th grade science and math)
Norman Borlaug, Hunger Fighter
Mathand reading activities demonstrating the impact Dr. Borlaug had on relieving world hunger. (6th-8th grade math and writing)
Oklahoma Wheat on the World Market
Students compute profit and loss in a wheat trading market a graph market activity. (6th - 8th grade math, social studies and language arts)
Organic or Conventional: Fact, Opinion, Propaganda
Students examine the differences between organic and conventional farming and learn to identify fact, opinion and various propaganda techniques. (6th-8th grade language arts and social studies)
Paper or Plastic? Exploring Rewewable Resources
Students discuss, develop, invent and implement a plan for making informed personal economic decisions about renewable resources. (6th-8th grade social studies, science and language arts)
Students gather particles that settle from the air in different settings. (6th-8th grade science, language arts and social studies)
Pizza Portions: Finding the Percentage of Daily Caloric Intake
Power Point Presentation (Keynote Version)
Students calculate the percentage of daily caloric intake in two slices of pizza. (6th-8th grade math and language arts)
Playing in the Dirt: Discovering Soil
Students will use their science process skills to discover the percentage of sand, silt, loam or clay in soil samples. (6th-8th grade math and science)
Plotting the Plight of the Cattle
Students graph cases of a livestock disease in several countries. (6th-8th grade math and science)
Plows on the Hunting Grounds: The Indian Allotment Act of 1887
Students read about the Indian Allotment Act of 1887 and discuss its impact on Oklahoma's Native American tribes and agriculture. (6th-8th grade social studies and language arts)
Students research, interview experts and design pollinator habitats (6th-8th grade language arts)
Students form subcommittees to propose plans for drought management and relief. (6th-8th grade social studies)
Preventing Disease in Meat Animals
Students research animal diseases and examine why they should matter to us. (6th - 8th grade language arts)
Students research and locate seed banks around the world while experimenting with viable methods for storing seeds. (5th-8th grade language arts, science, social studies, math)
The Role of Fire in Healthy Prairie, Brush and Forest Land
The importance of fire to maintaining the health of prairie, brush and forest lands. (6th-8th grade science and math)
The student will perform an experiment, using eggs, to test the strength of the dome shape. (6th-8th grade science and math)
Surveying: 19 Chains and 50 Links
Students use geometric skills to practice the art of surveying. (6th-8th grade math)
Students compare insect relationships according to their symbiosis class—parasitism, commensalism, mutualism. (6th-8th grade science and language arts)
Students read about the development of animal husbandry, outline the reading and arrrange steps in sequence. (6th-8th grade language arts, social studies, science)
Students compare and contrast different energy values of feeds by graphing the net energy for maintenance and percentage of fat for a variety of feed types. Students examine human nutritional needs and prepare a balanced human feed ration. (6th-8th grade science and math)
3-D Dairy: Graphing Dairy Production Statistics
(6th-8th grade math)
Students evaluate the quality of pecans, based on a set of criteria. (6th-8th grade science, math, social studies, reading)
US Agriculture and the World Market
Students interpret agricultural import and export data in tabular form, determine percentages, convert values between measurement systems and graph information from tables. (6th-8th grade math and science)
Students conduct an experiment to explore the effects of drought. (6th and 8th grade science)
Where Has All the Farmland Gone?
Students look at issues related to land use worldwide (6th-8th grade social studies and language arts)
Will Your Car Run on Grass? How Biomass Becomes Alcohol
Students conduct experiments with yeast to determine what substances promote fermentation. (6th-8th grade science)
Students use research skills to learn about world trade and the organizations which govern trade. (6th-8th grade social studies and language arts)
Oklahoma Ag in the Classroom is a program of the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry and the Oklahoma State Department of Education.