Agriculture in the Classroom | Ag Heroes procedure

Agricultural Heroes

1.	Introduce new vocabulary: Grades 1-3: hero, agriculture, cotton, gin, wheat Grades 4-6: invention, hero, reaper, combine
2.	Hero Sandwich. Introduce the lesson by asking, "What is a Hero?" Brainstorm with the students a working definition of a hero, and the qualities a hero must possess. Be sure to guide the students to include the following qualities: risk takers, responsible, honest, loyal, courageous, thinkers, problem solvers. After all the answers are included on the board, ask the students what type of food would be fitting for a hero. The discussion should lead into a hero sandwich. List the ingredients for a hero sandwich that should include a roll top, ham, pickles, lettuce, tomato, cheese, and the roll bottom. Associate the following terms as a memory technique: roll–responsible, ham–honest, pickles–problem solver, lettuce–loyal, tomato–thinker, cheese–courage, and roll–risk taker. Next, have the students construct a "hero sandwich" from construction paper using each ingredient and on the back of each ingredient define the hero term that goes with it. For example: ham–honest.
3.	Tracing the ingredients. Complete a discussion on the importance of the roll in the sandwich, tracing the roll back to the wheat plant. With the teacher's direction, guide the students in a discussion of how the wheat is harvested and the process it has to go through to become a roll. (See lesson, "Wheat–The Staff of Life".) Guide the students into a discussion on what types of harvesting equipment was used years ago up to the modern equipment we have now. Show pictures from the farm equipment brochures. Ask students if they know how the harvesting equipment was first invented or who invented it. A class discussion should occur with much guessing. Guide students to research how to find out by using encyclopedias, the Internet, and other resources. The class should create a chart of inventors and their inventions.
4.	Grades 1-2: After reading the biographies of several of the inventors, have students complete Ag Hero Match-Up, matching the inventor to his contribution to agriculture. Grades 3-6: Have students choose and research two of the inventors using the enclosed format.
5.	Assessment. The students will complete "Agricultural Heroes Research." They will choose two of the heroes to research using the included format. After the research and project are completed, they will be scored against the scoring rubric.
	Rubric:	oral presentation–20 pt. content facts–20 pt. changes made in ag–30 pt. poster, collage–20 pt. participation–10 pt.

Reteach
The teacher can use the same procedure to complete a class research project on another contributor to agriculture.