Activity 1.1.3Surrounded by Plants

Name: / Date:

Purpose

How many times a day do you touch or eat things derived from plant materials? Your world consists of an unimaginable number of products made from plant material. Your body is likely touching several as you sit in a chair and read this activity sheet. Plants are a major part of daily life in several forms.

The United States is a plant wealthy nation that produces an array of plant based products and distributes them across the country as well as around the world.

This activity has you identify some everyday products and classify those products into the various categories used to distinguish plant materials. You will also investigate the important crop growing regions and understand why certain plant products are grown in that region and not other parts of the country.

Materials

Per student:

  • Pencil
  • Agriscience Notebook
  • Plant and Soil Science: Fundamentals and Applications textbook
  • Computer station with Internet access
  • Colored pencils

Procedure

UseFigure 1to record items around your home and neighborhood that would represent the categories of food, fiber, fuel, medicine, and aesthetics. Once this list is complete, you will research these crops and plot them on a United States map to determine the regions of the country the crops are most commonly grown. The final part of this activity will be to investigate how environmental factors determine which crops can be grown in different regions of the country.

Part 1 – Survey Personal Plant Exposure

Survey your home and neighborhood to determine the plant products you are exposed to everyday. Complete the lists for the categories of plant products in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Crop Commodity Triangle

Part 2 – Identify Crop Regions

  1. Use the USDA Census website to locate the growing regions forONE CROP from EACH CATEGORY listed in Figure 1.
  2. Print off the map of the United States from the 50states.com website at and use it as the template.
  3. Shade in the growing regionof each category of crop using a specific color of pencil to indicate each crop. Be sure to include a key off to one side of the map that identifies which color represents which crop.

TheUSDA 2007 Agriculture Census data will provide you information related to crop growing regions:

For information related to forestry products, use the following URL:

Part 3 – Identify Growing Conditions

Once your map of crop growing regions is complete, use the following websites to investigate what environmental influences, such as temperature and rainfall affect plant production.

For plant hardiness zones, view the following website:

For rainfall data related to crop regions, see the NRCS website:

For additional references to climate data, read pages 247-257 in your Plant and Soil Science: Fundamentals and Applications textbook (Introduction to Plant Science pages 174-184).

Conclusion

  1. What environmental factors have the greatest effect on determining regions for crop production?
  1. What are the predominant crops grown in your region?
  1. Why do you suspect a large number of cattle and hogs are raised in the MidwestUnited States?
  1. List a few plant products that you feel do not fit into any of the categories identified on the pyramid.

Curriculum for Agricultural Science Education– Copyright 2012

ASP – Unit 1 – Lesson 1.1 – Activity 1.1.3Surrounded by Plants – Page 1