Course: / Introduction to Agriscience (6th Grade) / Course Number: / 8002
Textbook: / Exploring Agriscience
Required Fee/Supplies: / $5.00 / Student Organization: / FFA
Prerequisite:
Dual Enrollment Credit:
Industry Certification:
I. COURSE DESCRIPTION
Middle school students develop an awareness of the relationships between agriculture and science. Major concepts covered in the course include awareness of agriculture, the world of work, agribusiness careers, human relations, and scientific principles applied in agriculture.
II. COURSE CONTENT
Task Area / DaysImplementing Virginia's CTE Course Requirements / 2
Participating in the Student Organization / 4
Becoming Oriented to Agriscience / 2
Describing Agriscience / 1
Introducing Plant and Animal Life Cycles / 5
Communicating with Others / 3
Introducing Agricultural Mechanics Technology / 8
Introducing Ecology and Conservation / 3
Identifying Career Opportunities / 2
Total / 30
III. EVALUATION/GRADE PROCEDURES
- Laboratory Work and Projects
- Teacher Observation
- Tests
- Quizzes
- Daily Grades
- Class Participation
Introduction to Agriscience - Related Standards of Learning
English
6.1 / The student will analyze oral participation in small-group activities.a. Communicate as leader and contributor.
b. Evaluate own contributions to discussions.
c. Summarize and evaluate group activities.
d. Analyze the effectiveness of participant interactions.
6.2 / The student will listen critically and express opinions in oral presentations.
a. Distinguish between facts and opinions.
b. Compare and contrast viewpoints.
c. Present a convincing argument.
d. Paraphrase what is heard.
e. Summarize what is heard.
f. Use grammatically correct language and vocabulary appropriate to audience, topic, and purpose.
6.3 / The student will read and learn the meanings of unfamiliar words and phrases.
a. Identify word origins, derivations, and inflections.
b. Identify analogies and figurative language.
c. Use context and sentence structure to determine meaning and differentiate among multiple meanings of words.
d. Use word-reference materials.
6.5 / The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of a variety of informational selections.
a. Identify questions to be answered.
b. Make, confirm, or revise predictions .
c. Use context to determine meanings of unfamiliar words and technical vocabulary.
d. Draw conclusions and make inferences based on explicit and implied information.
e. Organize the main idea and details to form a summary.
f. Compare and contrast information about one topic contained in different selections.
g. Select informational sources appropriate for a given purpose.
6.6 / The student will write narratives, descriptions, and explanations.
a. Use a variety of planning strategies to generate and organize ideas.
b. Establish central idea, organization, elaboration, and unity.
c. Select vocabulary and information to enhance the central idea, tone, and voice.
d. Expand and embed ideas by using modifiers, standard coordination, and subordination in complete sentences.
e. Revise writing for clarity.
6.7 / The student will edit writing for correct grammar, capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and sentence structure.
a. Use a variety of graphic organizers, such as sentence diagrams to analyze and improve sentence formation and paragraph structure.
b. Use subject-verb agreement with intervening phrases and clauses.
c. Use pronoun-antecedent agreement to include indefinite pronouns.
d. Maintain consistent tense inflections across paragraphs.
e. Choose adverbs to describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.
f. Use correct spelling for frequently used words.
History and Social Science
USII.1 / The student will demonstrate skills for historical and geographical analysis, including the ability toa. analyze and interpret primary and secondary source documents to increase understanding of events and life in United States history from 1877 to the present;
b. make connections between past and present;
c. sequence events in United States history from 1877 to the present;
d. interpret ideas and events from different historical perspectives;
e. evaluate and debate issues orally and in writing;
f. analyze and interpret maps that include major physical features;
g. use parallels of latitude and meridians of longitude to describe hemispheric location;
h. interpret patriotic slogans and excerpts from notable speeches and documents.
USII.2 / The student will use maps, globes, photographs, pictures, and tables for
a. explaining how physical features and climate influenced the movement of people westward;
b. explaining relationships among natural resources, transportation, and industrial development after 1877;
c. locating the 50 states and the cities most significant to the historical development of the United States.
USII.3 / The student will demonstrate knowledge of how life changed after the Civil War by
a. identifying the reasons for westward expansion;
b. explaining the reasons for the increase in immigration, growth of cities, new inventions, and challenges arising from this expansion;
c. describing racial segregation, the rise of "Jim Crow," and other constraints faced by African Americans in the post-Reconstruction South;
d. explaining the rise of big business, the growth of industry, and life on American farms;
e. describing the impact of the Progressive Movement on child labor, working conditions, the rise of organized labor, women's suffrage, and the temperance movement.
USII.5 / The student will demonstrate knowledge of the social, economic, and technological changes of the early twentieth century by
a. explaining how developments in transportation (including the use of the automobile), communication, and rural electrification changed American life;
b. describing the social changes that took place, including prohibition, and the Great Migration north;
c. examining art, literature, and music from the 1920s and 1930s, emphasizing Langston Hughes, Duke Ellington, and Georgia O'Keeffe and including the Harlem Renaissance;
d. identifying the causes of the Great Depression, its impact on Americans, and the major features of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal.
USII.8 / The student will demonstrate knowledge of the key domestic issues during the second half of the twentieth century by
a. examining the Civil Rights Movement and the changing role of women;
b. describing the development of new technologies and their impact on American life.
Mathematics
6.4 / The student will compare and order whole numbers, fractions, and decimals, using concrete materials, drawings or pictures, and mathematical symbols.6.8 / The student will solve multistep consumer-application problems involving fractions and decimals and present data and conclusions in paragraphs, tables, or graphs. Planning a budget will be included.
6.9 / The student will compare and convert units of measure for length, area, weight/mass, and volume within the U.S. Customary system and the metric system and estimate conversions between units in each system:
a. length-part of an inch (1/2, 1/4, and 1/8), inches, feet, yards, miles, millimeters, centimeters, meters, and kilometers;
b. weight/mass-ounces, pounds, tons, grams, and kilograms;
c. liquid volume-cups, pints, quarts, gallons, milliliters, and liters; and
d. area-square units.
* The intent of this standard is for students to make ballpark comparisons and not to memorize conversion factors between U.S. Customary and metric units.
6.18 / The student, given a problem situation, will collect, analyze, display, and interpret data in a variety of graphical methods, including
a. line, bar, and circle graphs;
b. stem-and-leaf plots; and
c. box-and-whisker plots.
Circle graphs will be limited to halves, fourths, and eighths.
6.20 / The student will
a. make a sample space for selected experiments and represent it in the form of a list, chart, picture, or tree diagram; and
b. determine and interpret the probability of an event occurring from a given sample space and represent the probability as a ratio, decimal or percent, as appropriate for the given situation.
Science
6.1 / The student will plan and conduct investigations in whicha. observations are made involving fine discrimination between similar objects and organisms;
b. a classification system is developed based on multiple attributes;
c. precise and approximate measures are recorded;
d. scale models are used to estimate distance, volume, and quantity;
e. hypotheses are stated in ways that identify the independent (manipulated) and dependent (responding) variables;
f. a method is devised to test the validity of predictions and inferences;
g. one variable is manipulated over time with many repeated trials;
h. data are collected, recorded, analyzed, and reported using appropriate metric measurement;
i. data are organized and communicated through graphical representation (graphs, charts, and diagrams);
j. models are designed to explain a sequence; and
k. the nature of science is developed and reinforced.
6.2 / The student will investigate and understand basic sources of energy, their origins, transformations, and uses. Key concepts include
a. potential and kinetic energy;
b. the role of the sun in the formation of most energy sources on Earth;
c. non-renewable energy sources (fossil fuels, including petroleum, natural gas, and coal);
d. renewable energy sources (wood, wind, hydro, geothermal, tidal, and solar); and
e. energy transformations (heat/light to mechanical, chemical, and electrical energy).
6.5 / The student will investigate and understand the unique properties and characteristics of water and its roles in the natural and human-made environment. Key concepts include
a. water as the universal solvent;
b. the properties of water in all three states;
c. the action of water in physical and chemical weathering;
d. the ability of large bodies of water to store heat and moderate climate;
e. the origin and occurrence of water on Earth;
f. the importance of water for agriculture, power generation, and public health; and
g. the importance of protecting and maintaining water resources.
6.7 / The student will investigate and understand the natural processes and human interactions that effect watersheds systems. Key concepts include
a. the health of ecosystems and the abiotic factors of a watershed;
b. the location and structure of Virginia's regional watershed systems;
c. divides, tributaries, river systems, and river and stream processes;
d. wetlands;
e. estuaries;
f. major conservation, health, and safety issues associated with watersheds; and
g. water monitoring and analysis using field equipment including hand-held technology.
6.9 / The student will investigate and understand public policy decisions relating to the environment. Key concepts include
a. management of renewable resources (water, air, plant life, animal life);
b. management of nonrenewable resources (coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear power, mineral resources);
c. the mitigation of land-use hazards through preventative measures; and
d. cost/benefit tradeoffs in conservation policies.
Introduction to Agriscience - SOL Correlation by Task
006 / Explore agriculture/agriscience/agribusiness. / History and Social Science USII.5Mathematics 6.18
English 6.1, 6.3, 6.5
008 / Describe the impact of agriculture on the economy. / History and Social Science USII.3
Mathematics 6.8, 6.18
English 6.1, 6.3, 6.5
009 / Identify the key factors that have shaped the agricultural industry. / History and Social Science USII.1, USII.3, USII.8
English 6.5
010 / Describe the interdependency of agriculture and other segments of society. / History and Social Science USII.3
Mathematics 6.8, 6.18
English 6.2, 6.5
011 / Identify current research and development activities in agriculture. / Science 6.1
English 6.3, 6.5
012 / Identify and explain functions of plant systems. / English 6.1, 6.3, 6.5
013 / Identify basic requirements for plant growth and development. / Mathematics 6.18, 6.20
English 6.5
Science 6.2, 6.9
014 / Identify plants of economic importance to the community. / Mathematics 6.8
English 6.5
015 / Identify basic requirements for animal growth and development. / Science 6.9
English 6.5
016 / Explain the importance of effective communication. / English 6.5
017 / Participate in a group discussion. / English 6.1, 6.2, 6.5
018 / Communicate in person, in writing, and via electronic means. / English 6.1, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7
019 / Communicate through print media, radio, television, and electronic formats. / History and Social Science USII.8
English 6.5, 6.6, 6.7
020 / Explain the importance of agricultural mechanics technology. / History and Social Science USII.1, USII.3, USII.8
English 6.3, 6.5
022 / Describe new agricultural engineering technologies. / History and Social Science USII.2, USII.8
English 6.3, 6.5
023 / Identify and use basic hand tools for woodworking. / Mathematics 6.4, 6.9
024 / Explain the interdependency of organisms and the environment. / English 6.3, 6.5
025 / Identify conservation measures. / Science 6.7, 6.9
English 6.3, 6.5
026 / Identify ecological and conservation concerns in the community. / Science 6.9
English 6.5
027 / Identify clean water needs of society. / Science 6.5, 6.7
English 6.5
028 / Explain methods of conserving water. / Science 6.5, 6.7
English 6.5
029 / Describe how agriculture and the environment are interrelated. / Science 6.7
English 6.5
030 / Identify career opportunities in agriscience in Virginia. / English 6.5
031 / Determine the educational requirements for agriscience occupations. / English 6.5
032 / Describe the historical development of the FFA. / History and Social Science USII.1
English 6.5
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