Download This Full Lesson: Till We or Won’t We?
Lesson Description: Students construct and perform experiments simulating rain on a field, investigating how soil preparation, tillage techniques, and mulches affect soil erosion and water runoff.
Resource Document: Apple Diagram (pdf)
This apple represents the earth.
cut into 4 equal slices
Three of these slices represent the oceans.
This slice represents the land.
slice that piece in half lengthwise
1/8 represents deserts, swamps, mountaintops, and the Artic and Antarctic regions. The other 1/8 represents where people can live.
slice into 4 equal pieces
Three of these slices represent cities and towns and areas where the climate is too dry or too wet to grow food.
peel the remaining 1/32
This peel represents the soil on which we grow almost all of our food for the entire world’s population!
Eat it
And if we waste it there is no more!
It takes nature 500 years to create 1 inch of topsoil.
From the lesson, “Till We or Won’t We?”
Project Food, Land & People Resource For Learning,
DID YOU KNOW?
- World food demand will increase 70% in the next 30 years.
- A farmer in 1900 produced enough food for 10 people. Today’s farmer feeds over 120 people.
- Worldwide one of every three jobs is related to agriculture.
- No-till farming can reduce soil erosion by 90 to 95 percent or more compared to conventional tillage practices.
- One tree can remove the same amount of carbon dioxide from the air that is emitted from a car driving 17,700 km.
- Half a billion people live in countries chronically short of water; by 2050, the number will rise to more than four billion.
- 71% of our earth is covered by water but only 3% is fresh water such as lakes and streams.
Maine Learning Results
| Career Preparation | A. Preparing for the Future | Elementary Grades 3-4 | 2,3 |
| Middle Grades 5-8 | 2 | ||
| Secondary Grades | 1 | ||
| D. Balancing Responsibilities | Elementary Grades 3-4 | 1 | |
| Middle Grades 5-8 | 1,4,5 | ||
| Secondary Grades | 1 | ||
| English Language Arts | A. Process of Reading | Elementary Grades 3-4 | 5 |
| Middle Grades 5-8 | 2,8 | ||
| Secondary Grades | |||
| D. Informational Texts | Elementary Grades 3-4 | 3,4 | |
| Middle Grades 5-8 | 5,6 | ||
| Secondary Grades | 5 | ||
| E. Processes of Writing & Speaking | Elementary Grades 3-4 | 4,6 | |
| Middle Grades 5-8 | 3 | ||
| Secondary Grades | 4 | ||
| Mathematics | C. Data Analysis & Statistics | Elementary Grades 3-4 | 1,2 |
| Middle Grades 5-8 | 3 | ||
| Secondary Grades | 1,2 | ||
| F. Measurement | Elementary Grades 3-4 | 1,2 | |
| Middle Grades 5-8 | 1-3 | ||
| Secondary Grades | |||
| J. Mathematical Reasoning | Elementary Grades 3-4 | 1 | |
| Middle Grades 5-8 | 1 | ||
| Secondary Grades | |||
| K. Mathematical Communication | Elementary Grades 3-4 | 1 | |
| Middle Grades 5-8 | 2 | ||
| Secondary Grades | |||
| L. Communication | Elementary Grades 3-4 | 1,2,3,7 | |
| Middle Grades 5-8 | 1,6 | ||
| Secondary Grades | 2,3,4 | ||
| M. Implications of Science & Technology | Elementary Grades 3-4 | 4 | |
| Middle Grades 5-8 | 1,4,7 | ||
| Secondary Grades | 2,4,6 | ||
| Social Studies | Geography-B. Human Interaction w/Env’ts | Elementary Grades 3-4 | 3 |
| Middle Grades 5-8 | 1 | ||
| Secondary Grades | 1 |
Next Generation Science Standards
| Till We or Won’t We? 4-9 | 4 | 4-ESS2-1 | Make observations and/or measurements to provide evidence of the effects of weathering or the rate of erosion by water, ice, wind, or vegetable. |
| 5 | 5-ESS3-1 | Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment. | |
| Extension 2 & 3 | 3-5 | 3-5ETS1-3 | Plan and carry out fair tests in which variables are controlled and failure points are considered to identify aspects of a model or prototype that can be improved. |
Common Core Standards
| Grades 3-5 | Writing: Text Types and Purposes – 2 | |
| Production & Distribution – 4 | ||
| Grade 3 | Measurement & Data -3.MD.3 | |
| Grades 6-8 | Writing: Text Types and Purposes – 2b | |
| Production & Distribution – 4 | ||
| Grades 9-10 | Writing: Text Types and Purposes – 2 | |
| Production & Distribution – 4 |