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Background Resources for Teachers

• How Reliable Are Your Sources?

General Agriculture

• Census of Agriculture
• Community Data Center (by county, Southern Rural Development Center)
• Glossary of Agricultural Terms (USDA)
• National 4-H Curriculum
• National Agricultural Library, USDA, ARS
• National Agricultural Library, Special Collections
• Oklahoma Agricultural StatisticsClick on "Oklahoma Annual Statistics Bulletin" - a pdf file
• Oklahoma 4-H Literature Online
• OSU Extension Fact Sheets

Agricultural Economics and Trade

• Census of Agriculture
• Food, Ag and Natural Resource Careers (USDA and Purdue University)
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• International Food Policy Research Institute
• International Trade and Tariff Data

Agriculture and the Environment

• Climate Change Resource Center (USDA - Forest Service)
• The Dust Bowl in the ClassroomPBS education site in connection with the Ken Burns film The Dust Bowl
• Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
• How to Make Pop Bottle Biodiesel (from cooking oil)
• The Great Backyard Bird Count
• Harvest of Fear: Exploring the Growing Fight Over Genetically-Modified Food (PBS Nova/Frontline Special Report)
• Irrigation Museum
• Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture (Iowa State University)
• Oklahoma 4H20 Youth Water Education Program
• Oklahoma Ag Weather (Oklahoma Mesonet)
• Oklahoma Forestry Services
• Oklahoma Water Science Center (US Geological Survey)
• Old Farmer's Almanac for Kids
• The Prairie Project (OSU Natural Resource Ecology & Management)
• Science in Your Watershed (US Geological Survey)
• The Science of Soil Health: Nightcrawlers and Soil Water Flow (video - National Resources Conservation Service)
• The Soil Order Song
• Soil Map of Oklahoma (Also includes vegetation and weather maps)
• Soil Science Teacher Resources (Soil Science Society of America)
• What is Groundwater? (video from Quest Science)

Animal Agriculture

• Animal Science Image Gallery (National Agricultural Library)
• Beef: From Farm to Table (USDA Fact Sheet)
• Breeds of Livestock (OSU Animal Science)
• The Chemistry of Cheese (National Science Foundation)
• Dairy Discovery Zone (Dairy Max Crafts and Fun)
• Embryology in the Classroom (Penn State)
• Explore Beef: The People. The Land. The Legacy. (Cattlemen's Beef Board and National Cattlemen's Beef Association)
• Genes for Cowboys
• Goats
• How pig parts make the world turn (Ted Talk)
• The Incredible Egg
• Sheep 101 (University of Maryland)
• Southwest Dairy Museum (Mobile Dairy Classroom Program)
• Where is My Milk From?
• Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg? (Sesame Street You-Tube video)

Crops

• Cotton Campus
• From Cotton to Denim movie
• CropScape (interactive crop map from National Agricultural Statistics Service)
• Harvesting: Crops and CareersLessons for Grades K-12 related to careers in wheat production, with videos from the Grammy-nominated Great American Wheat Harvest
• The History of Cotton in Oklahoma
• Irrigation Museum
• Peanut Butter Lovers
• Popcorn (Popcorn Board)
• The Potato Museum

Food and Nutrition

• The Chemistry of Cheese (National Science Foundation)
• The Food Museum
• The Food Reference Website
• Food Safety
• Food Safety Music (UC Davis)
• The Food Timeline
• The Fruit Pages
• Hungry Planet: What the World Eats (NPR)
• The Incredible Egg
• Inside Insides: Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Foods
• Peanut Butter Lovers
• The Science and the Scientists Behind Our Food lessons
• The Story Behind a Loaf of Bread
• USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service: Fact Sheets
• What's in the Food You Eat?USDA barcode data base search engine for nutritional information about foods commonly eaten in the US

History

• Antique Farm Tools
• The Food Timeline
• Historical Agricultural News (search site)
• A History of American Agriculture
• Irrigation Museum
• Photographs of the American WestNational Archives. Includes many photos from early Oklahoma.
• The Story Behind a Loaf of Bread
• A Timeline of Tractors
• War Era Food Posters (From the Collection of the National Agricultural Library)

Insects

• Bugscope (University of Illinois)
• Iowa State University's Tasty Insect Recipes
• Monarch Watch (University of Kansas)
• The Pollination Home Page
• Resources on Pollinators

Plant Science and Gardening

• Average First and Last Frost Dates (Victory Seeds)
• Garden ABCs
• Economically Important Plant Families
• Getting Started: A Guide for Creating School Gardens as Outdoor Classrooms
• Junior Master Gardener
• Kinder GARDEN
• Mushrooms, Fungi, Mycology
• Plants Database
• Plant Explorer (Longwood Gardens, Pennsylvania)
• A Recipe for Success: Kids, Dirt and Gardening (edutopia)
• School Gardens
• Seed Starting video (Colorado State University)
• Seeds and Seedpods (Database for identifying all kinds of seeds)
• Successful Container Gardening (University of Illinois Extension
• USDA Plant Hardiness Zones (average annual minimum winter temperature)
• Why Leaves Change Color

Additional Resources

• Earthstorm (lessons from Oklahoma Mesonet)
• Geographic Names (Search Engine, US Geological Survey)
• Integrating Geospatial Technology
• Kids.gov
• National Science Foundation Podcast Zone
• Phases of the Moon
• Quilting With Children
• Regulating GenesPBS Nova: Interactive site shows how mutations in different regions of the DNA impact the expression of genes
• World Fact Book
• Worldometers (Real Time World Statistics)