Farming and Climate Change

• In this lesson, students learn about the effects of agriculture and climate change by listening to a podcast, assessing the geographic change in plant hardiness zones in the United States, and learning about agroecology as a solution.
• The resource includes a teacher's guide, student worksheets, case studies, and suggestions for implementation and curriculum connections.

Positives

• The map comparison activity may help visual learners and all students visualize the rapid change in climate already occurring in the United States.
  
• Each section can be used as a stand-alone, in sequence, or integrated into other curriculum needs.
  

Additional Prerequisites

• Before starting the lesson, students should already know that agriculture includes any activities related to providing food for humans (e.g., growing crops, raising animals, etc.). Students should also understand that agriculture is impacted by extreme heat, growing seasons, rainfall, flooding, pests, drought, and disease (all of which are affected by climate change).
• Although the information about hardiness zones can be applied elsewhere, the maps in the first activity are only of the United States.
• The second activity requires online research and, therefore, access to the Internet.

Differentiation

• Students can listen to the podcast at home to save class time and prepare for the lesson and activities.
• Following the case study activity, have students discuss what they learned with the class. Students can then identify patterns about which areas are most affected and why.
• This resource can also be used in social studies classes during lessons about the social impacts of food insecurity and famine.
• To learn more about how food is connected to climate change, use this lesson about food waste, plant-based diets, and crop varieties.

This resource addresses the listed standards. To fully meet standards, search for more related resources.