🌾 Let’s Learn About Rice! 🌾
K-12 STEM Curriculum
Celebrate AAPI month with K-12 science lessons about agricultural ecosystems, food webs, seed banks, plant genetics, and more – all centered around rice!
Lunas Global Health Network is a non-profit organization focusing on advocacy and education around issues facing marginalized communities in Southeast Asia. Lunas partners with farmers and teachers in addressing the impacts of climate change, unequal access to education, food insecurity and health disparities.
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The materials below are organized by grade level, with the corresponding Massachusetts-compliant Department of Education standards. We encourage you to submit the artwork your class makes here! We'll share it on our social media for AAPI month.
Grades K-2
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Massachusetts Learning Standards:
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K-LS1-2 Recognize that all plants and animals grow and change over time.
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1-LS1-1 Use evidence to explain that (a) different animals use their body parts and senses in different ways to see, hear, grasp objects, protect themselves, move from place to place, and seek, find, and take in food, water, and air, and (b) plants have roots, stems, leaves, flowers, and fruits that are used to take in water, air, and other nutrients, and produce food for the plant.
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2-LS2-3(MA) Develop and use models to compare how plants and animals depend on their surroundings and other living things to meet their needs in the places they live.
Grades 3-5
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Massachusetts Learning Standards:
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3-LS3-1 Provide evidence, including through the analysis of data, that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exist in a group of similar organisms.
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3-LS3-2 Distinguish between inherited characteristics and those characteristics that result from a direct interaction with the environment. Give examples of characteristics of living organisms that are influenced by both inheritance and the environment.
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3-LS4-4 Analyze and interpret given data about changes in a habitat and describe how the changes may affect the ability of organisms that live in that habitat to survive and reproduce.
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4-LS1-1 Construct an argument that animals and plants have internal and external structures that support their survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
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5-ESS3-1 Obtain and combine information about ways communities reduce human impact on the Earth’s resources and environment by changing an agricultural, industrial, or community practice or process.
Grades 6-9
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Massachusetts Learning Standards:
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6. MS-LS1-2 Develop and use a model to describe how parts of cells contribute to the cellular functions of obtaining food, water, and other nutrients from its environment, disposing of wastes, and providing energy for cellular processes.
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7. MS-LS2-4 Analyze data to provide evidence that disruptions (natural or human-made) to any physical or biological component of an ecosystem can lead to shifts in all its populations.
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7. MS-LS2-5. Evaluate competing design solutions for protecting an ecosystem. Discuss benefits and limitations of each design
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7. MS-LS2-5. Evaluate competing design solutions for protecting an ecosystem. Discuss benefits and limitations of each design.
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8. MS-LS1-5. Construct an argument based on evidence for how environmental and genetic factors influence the growth of organisms.
Grades 9-12
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Massachusetts Learning Standards:
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HS-ESS3-1 Construct an explanation based on evidence for how the availability of key natural resources and changes due to variations in climate have influenced human activity.
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HS-ESS3-2 Evaluate competing design solutions for minimizing impacts of developing and using energy and mineral resources, and conserving and recycling those resources, based on economic, social, and environmental cost-benefit ratios.
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HS-ESS3-3 Illustrate relationships among management of natural resources, the sustainability of human populations, and biodiversity.
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HS-LS1-5 Use a model to illustrate how photosynthesis uses light energy to transform water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and chemical energy stored in the bonds of sugars and other carbohydrates.
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HS-LS1-6 Construct an explanation based on evidence that organic molecules are primarily composed of six elements, where carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms may combine with nitrogen, sulfur, and phosphorus to form monomers that can further combine to form large carbon-based macromolecules.
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HS-LS2-1 Analyze data sets to support explanations that biotic and abiotic factors affect ecosystem carrying capacity.
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HS-LS2-7 Analyze direct and indirect effects of human activities on biodiversity and ecosystem health, specifically habitat fragmentation, introduction of non-native or invasive species, overharvesting,pollution, and climate change. Evaluate and refine a solution for reducing the impacts of human activities on biodiversity and ecosystem health.
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HS-LS3-4 Use scientific information to illustrate that many traits of individuals, and the presence of specific alleles in a population, are due to interactions of genetic factors and environmental factors.
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HS-LS4-5 Evaluate models that demonstrate how changes in an environment may result in the evolution of a population of a given species, the emergence of new species over generations, or the extinction of other species due to the processes of genetic drift, gene flow, mutation, and natural selection.
