Taste Testing — Gives general information, tips, and a sample guide for offering taste testing of foods within schools. Part of the Minnesota Toolkit for School Foodservice.
Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom — Minnesota Department of Agriculture — Educational programs for embedding agriculture, food, and natural resources education into the K-12 classroom.
Food for Thought Mapping Curriculum: Connecting Minnesota Geography, Agriculture and Communities — Minnesota Agriculture in the Classroom and the Minnesota Alliance for Geographic Education - Lessons and maps are designed to enable students and others to locate themselves amidst the grand mosaic of fields, processing plants, wind towers, ethanol plants, power lines and roads in Minnesota.
Sustainable Agriculture Resources and Programs for K-12 Youth — Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education — This 16-page guide to sustainable agriculture-oriented educational opportunities for schoolchildren features more than 50 programs and curricula nationwide, from “Growing Minds,” a program linking the garden and agriculture in Appalachia, to “French Fries and the Food System,” a year-round curriculum focusing on ways youth can better understand land and local food systems. Updated in 2011.
Center for Ecoliteracy — A variety of instructional tools to assist teachers as they plan and implement sustainable curriculum. They include books, discussion guides, resource listings, lessons, professional development seminars, and other events designed for educators.
- Rethinking School Lunch: A Visual Guide to Linking Food, Culture, Health and the Environment — A guide to developing your own farm to school related curriculum. Discover how an integrated curriculum and enriched school environment link student learning and well-being and enhance student understanding about the natural world.
- Big Ideas: Linking Food, Culture, Health, and the Environment — Big Ideas provides a conceptual framework for integrated learning in these important areas in K–12 classrooms.
Farm to School in the Classroom — Maryland Department of Agriculture
My American Farm — American Farm Bureau Foundation — My American Farm is an online educational game that lets students learn about agriculture, where food comes from, and how those products get from the farm to their dinner plate.
Farm to School Videos — Use these videos in your classroom or kitchen to promote the use of Minnesota Grown foods.
Dig In! (grades 5 or 6) — United States Department of Agriculture — Dig In! helps kids, teachers, and parents explore a world of possibilities in the garden and on the plate using ten inquiry-based lessons that engage 5th and 6th graders in growing, harvesting, tasting, and learning about fruits and vegetables. This curriculum also includes a gardening guide, booklets for parents/caregivers, and posters encouraging fruit and vegetable choices using themes that appeal to older elementary school children.Great Garden Detective Adventure (grades 3 or 4) — United States Department of Agriculture — This 11-lesson curriculum is focused on discovering what fruits and vegetables are sweetest, crunchiest, and juiciest through a series of investigations and fun experiences connecting the school garden to the classroom, school cafeteria, and home.
Linking Food & the Environment (LiFE) Curriculum Series — Teacher’s College, Columbia University — A research-based science and nutrition curriculum, the LiFE Curriculum Series addresses both a major science education goal to promote scientific literacy for all Americans and major national health goals for people to eat healthful diets and lead physically active lives. LiFE uses the study of food and food systems to address national science standards in the areas of science as inquiry; life sciences; and unifying concepts such as understanding systems as interacting parts and understanding the flow of energy and matter through systems.
- Growing Food (grades 4, 5, or 6): How does nature provide us with food?
- Farm to Table & Beyond (grades 5 or 6): What is the system that gets food from farm to table, and how does this system affect the environment?
- Choice, Choice & Change (grades 6, 7, or 8): How can we use scientific evidence to help us maintain energy balance?
Got Veggies? (grades 2 and 3) — Wisconsin Department of Health Services — Got Veggies? is a garden-based nutrition education curriculum created with the goal of getting children to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables. Got Veggies? features seven full lesson plans that are aligned with Wisconsin's Model Academic Standards for Nutrition, Health, Science, and other related subjects. A series of shorter garden-based activities are also included, as well as fun recipes and helpful tips for cooking and eating in the garden.
Cooking with Kids — Motivates and empowers elementary school students to develop healthy eating habits through hands-on learning with fresh, affordable foods from diverse cultural traditions. Through cooking classes and tasting classes, students explore varieties of foods using all of their senses, have fun, and exercise choice.
Junior Master Gardener — AgriLife Extension Service, Texas A&M University System — This youth gardening program engages kids on novel, hands-on group and individual learning experiences.
Nutritious Delicious Wisconsin: Connecting Nutrition Ed and Local Foods Curricula — Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction — Uses local foods to teach nutrition concepts to elementary students, broaden their food experiences, and connect local foods to their state's history, culture, and people.
Kidchen Expedition — Oklahoma Farm to School — A packet of educational materials to promote healthful eating. Offers simple, creative ways to use Oklahoma-grown produce. Includes a series of five 22-minute videos to use in the classroom to educate students grades 2-5.
Nourish Middle School Curriculum Guide — Center for Ecoliteracy — A rich set of resources to open a meaningful conversation about food and sustainability. The materials contain a viewing guide, six learning activities, action projects, student handouts, bibliography, and glossary. Nourish curriculum aligns with national curriculum standards and benchmarks of the National Council for the Social Studies, National Research Council, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Committee on National Health Education Standards.
Teaching the Food System — Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future — A free, downloadable curriculum that emphasizes the relationships among food, public health, equity, and the environment. This multidisciplinary curriculum explores topics appropriate for integration into classes covering social studies, environmental science, biology, and nutrition.
Discovering our Food System (DFS) — Department of Horticulture, Cornell University — An interdisciplinary, community-based exploration of the people and processes that shape our food system. DFS will help youth better understand what the food system means to them, how it affects their community and their health, and ways in which they can influence the food system.
Towards a Sustainable Agriculture — Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems, University of Wisconsin, Madison — The curriculum is divided into five modules. Each module is designed to be taught in as little as 5 hours of class time (or one week).
The Whole Plate: A Return to Real Food — A four unit nutrition and food based curriculum based on work done at Youth Initiative High School in Viroqua, WI. This curriculum could be adopted in a Family and Consumer Science class. Explore the science and health of foods from a whole systems perspective.
French Fries and the Food System: A Year Round Curriculum Connecting Youth with Farming and Food — The Food Project — This agricultural curriculum features powerful, original lessons written and developed by The Food Project's growers and educators. Organized by season, the material teaches youth how to develop a deep understanding of and appreciation for the land and local food systems. Lessons can be done both indoors and outdoors and can be easily adapted by instructors working in school-based plots, urban food lots, and environmental education programs.
Food for Thought Curriculum — College of Agricultural Sciences, Oregon State University — The curriculum incorporates reading comprehension and hands-on activities for science, social studies, and language arts, all linked to the state’s educational benchmarks. Most of the 20 activities can be completed during one class period; they are flexible enough to fit into existing lesson plans.