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SUBJECT: Environmental Science

LESSON PLAN: 1. Features of Sustainable Agriculture
DATE:
TEACHER: Mr. Samaroo
CLASS/FORM Upper 6
No. in class: 21 No. of period(s): 2 Duration: 80 minutes

Planning for the lesson

UNIT PLAN: Sustainable Agriculture

TOPIC: Features of Sustainable Agriculture

GEOGRAPHICAL CONCEPTS: Environment, Interconnection, Sustainability, Change

CURRICULUM INTEGRATION AREAS:

 Strategies for:
Planning for inclusiveness:
Lesson to meet visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and social learners using the KWL charts, social
interactions - group discussion, metaphor creation and description
Planning for literacy improvement:
Students will be required to read notes given out as well as read KWL charts.
Planning for VAPA integration:
Students may describe their metaphor using an VAPA mode
 Instructional strategies to be used and their rationale:
Group discussions and collaborative learning will allow students to share ideas and opinions
which will help students critically think about the features
KWL charts help students explore the topic and compare what they knew before and after
Modelling a metaphor to incorporate the features of sustainable agriculture will help students
internal the features in their own way.
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CONCEPT MAP:
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The lesson plan:

PRE-KNOWLEDGE: students should know that:
 Agriculture is the cultivation of land and breeding of animals and plants to provide food, fiber,
medicinal plants and other products to enhance and sustain life.
 The roles of agriculture in the region include food security, production of materials for agro-
processing industries, livelihoods, foreign exchange earnings and contribution to Gross Domestic
Product.
 Agriculture has negative impacts on the environment in terms of health risks, land take, pollution
from inappropriate use of agrochemicals, habitat destruction, and loss of biodiversity and land
degradation.

OBJECTIVES:
At the end of this lesson, pupils will be able to:

Objectives of the lesson Classification of objectives Domain

1. Define sustainable agriculture Remembering Cognitive

2. List the features of sustainable agriculture Remembering Cognitive

3. Explain ecological integrity, economic Understanding Cognitive

viability, social equity and adaptability

4. Discuss the features of sustainable Creating Cognitive

agriculture in the Caribbean

5. Appreciate the need for sustainable Valuing Affective

agriculture

SET INDUCTION Time allotted: 5 minutes

A short video entitled “The Future of Agriculture” produced by OECD highlight some of the challenges
and opportunities for the global agriculture sector in the future
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAM4Si_WhDk

Before teacher plays the video, students will be asked to think about the following question as they watch
the video: what are the challenges facing agriculture?
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SECTION 1- Time allotted: 20 minutes

Teaching points:

Sustainable agriculture is the production of food or animal products using farming techniques
that protects the environment and public health. It utilizes many different methods to prevent the
degradation of the quality of surrounding environments.

Sustainable agriculture seeks to: -

An agricultural practice is sustainable if it promotes ecological soundness, socially just,
economically viable, humane and adaptable.

METHOD
Teaching Strategy Student Activity Resources

Cooperative Learning The students will work in See APPENDIX I

groups of 4 to fill out the Know,
KWL charts Want to Know and Learned
charts located around the
Discussion classroom.

Effective Questioning “K” column – what you

know. Brainstorm words,
terms, or phrases that you
associate with sustainable
agriculture. Write as much as
you know on a sticky note(s)
and place it on the poster in
the “K” column.

“W” column – what you want

to know. What do you want
to learn about this topic?
What are you curious about?

“L” column, what they’ve

learned, will be filled out at
the very end, once they’ve
completed all of the lessons.

SECTIONAL REVIEW Time allotted: 5 minutes

Activity Sheet 1 (See APPENDIX II)

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SECTION 2 - Time allotted: 20 minutes

Teaching points:

Agriculture sustainability is all about balance and uses the analogy of a four-legged chair to talk
about balance. Each of the legs represents one of four objectives”:

o Ecological Integrity
o Economic viability
o Social equity
o Adaptability

Features –
Ecological integrity – techniques that minimises soil erosion and water quality degradation
- Maintaining and managing the health of crops and animals through sound biological
practices
- Use of local resources and renewable resources.

Economic viability – allows for income generation

- Covers labour costs as well as costs of other inputs
- Conservation of resources to reduce expenses

Social equity – respect all forms of life

- Preserving the cultural and spiritual integrity of societies and their environments
- Ensuring all stakeholders have an input into decision making processes
- Assuring the right to land use, adequate capital, technical assistance and markets

Adaptability – develop, adapt and use new and appropriate technologies

- Farming methods can change to suit challenges the society might face, environmental
conditions, market demands, population growth and policies.
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METHOD
Teaching Strategy Student Activity Resources
Peer teaching / collaboration Students are required to work in White board
pairs together to create their
own analogy or metaphor for Marker
Modelling illustrating the connection
between the four sustainable
agriculture objectives and the
other ecological terms

SECTIONAL REVIEW Time allotted: 10 minutes

Groups of 2 will have two minutes to present their metaphors of sustainable agriculture and explain it.

CLOSURE – Time allotted: 5 minutes

 Students complete the ‘Learned’ Section of the KWL charts.

FINAL EVALUATION – Time allotted: 15 minutes

Reasonable level of achievement: 8 out of 12 marks.
Students write answers for the following questions

Task Related P1 P2 P3 total

Objectives
1. List 4 features 2 4 4
of sustainable
agriculture.
2. Describe ANY 3 4 4
2 of the features
identified in # 1.
3.Discuss ANY 1 4 4 4
of the feature
identified in # 2
within a
Caribbean
context.
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Total 4 4 4 12

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES/LESSON:

Lesson # 2 of Unit Plan: Threats to Sustainable Agriculture

APPENDIX I
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APPENDIX II
Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture Activity Sheet 1
What are some of the challenges we face today?
Directions
Match the words in the word bank to the appropriate definitions.
WORD BANK
Resistance Sustainable Agriculture
Agriculture Robustness
Resilience Sustainable
Adaptability Vulnerability

___________________ The science, art, or practice of cultivating the soil, producing crops, and
raising livestock and in varying degrees the preparation and marketing
of the resulting products.

___________________ The ability to meet core societal needs in a way that can be maintained
indefinitely without significant negative effects.

___________________ Satisfying production needs for human food, feed, fiber, and biofuel,
enhancing environmental quality and the resource base, sustaining the
economic viability of agriculture, and improving the quality of life for
farmers, farm workers, and society as a whole.

___________________ The quality or capability of a system to be exposed to risk and

uncertainty.

___________________ The ability of a system to evolve and change in response to long term
changes in the surrounding environment.

___________________ The ability of a system to resist being dislodged from a stable condition
by a disturbance such as some sort of system stressors and fluctuating
conditions.

___________________ The capacity of a system to absorb a spectrum of shocks or perturbations

and still retain and further develop the same fundamental structure,
functioning and feedbacks.

___________________ The ability of a system to withstand stresses, pressures, and changes in

circumstances.
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SUBJECT: Environmental Science

LESSON PLAN: 6. Environmentally Sustainable Practices Part 4- Hydroponics
DATE:
TEACHER: Mr. Samaroo
CLASS/FORM Upper 6
No. in class: 21 No. of period(s): 2 Duration: 80 minutes

Planning for the lesson

UNIT PLAN: Sustainable Agriculture

TOPIC: Hydroponics

CONCEPT map /graphic organizer of knowledge required for lesson or Unit (to be attached separately):

CURRICULUM INTEGRATION AREAS

 Strategies for:
Planning for inclusiveness:
Lesson to meet visual, auditory, kinaesthetic and social learners using the lecture, social
interactions - group discussion and building a system
Planning for literacy improvement:
Students will be required to read instructions to build the hydroponics system
 Instructional strategies to be used and their rationale:
The guest lecture will introduce students to developing trend in agriculture in a manner different to
what teacher does. Students will be taken on a Journey through their experience.

Hand-on learning allows students to better familiarize themselves with the components as well as
processes occurring within a hydroponics system
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CONCEPT MAP
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The lesson plan:

PRE-KNOWLEDGE

- Agriculture is the cultivation of land and breeding of animals and plants to provide food, fiber,
medicinal plants and other products to enhance and sustain life.
- The roles of agriculture in the region include food security, production of materials for agro-
processing industries, livelihoods, foreign exchange earnings and contribution to Gross Domestic
Product.
- Agriculture has negative impacts on the environment in terms of health risks, land take, pollution
from inappropriate use of agrochemicals, habitat destruction, and loss of biodiversity and land
degradation.
- The features of sustainable agriculture include ecological integrity, economic viability, social
equity and adaptability.
- Contour farming, terracing, crop rotation, conservation tillage, agroforestry, integrated pest
management, organic farming and post-harvest management are other sustainable practices in
agricultural systems.

OBJECTIVES:
At the end of this lesson, pupils will be able to:

Objectives of the lesson Classification of objectives Domain

1. Define the term hydroponics Remembering Cognitive

2. List 4 advantages of hydroponics Remembering Cognitive

3. List 4 disadvantages of hydroponics Remembering Cognitive
4. Outline 4 features of hydroponics Understanding Cognitive
5. Explain why hydroponics is an environmentally Understanding Cognitive
sustainable practice
6. Follow instructions to build a hydroponics system Manipulate Psychomotor
5. Develop a sense of appreciation for positives Valuing Affective
associated with sustainable agricultural practice
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SET INDUCTION - Time allotted:5 minutes

Students will view a short video entitled “Hydroponics” produced by NIHERST and be asked to think
about the question rolling across the screen while it is being played.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TcZhfq22FZU&t=42s

SECTION 1- Time allotted: 50 minutes

Teaching points:

Dissolved nutrients in water that meets all the plant nutrient requirements.
A steady supply of water and nutrients are pumped through a piping system in which the plants
are placed and held in position by an artificial substrate. This occurs in artificial environments
such as a greenhouse.
With this setup, crops can be cultivated throughout the year, they will always have a steady
supply of water and nutrients, since there is no soil, habitats for pests is reduced, harvesting will
not be difficult, shorter growing periods since artificial light can be used, weeds and pests are
eliminated

METHOD
Teaching Strategy Student Activity Resources

Guest Speaker Students must take short notes White board, markers, speakers,
Lecture on the lecture done by the guest projector
(Teacher introduces a guest speaker and partake in
speaker, a hydroponics discussions and questions the
professional to explain the guest speaker may have.
concept of hydroponics using a
working system model) Students will construct a simple
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hydroponics system
Graphic Organizer (to
summarize components,
advantages and disadvantages)

Hands on learning

SECTIONAL REVIEW Time allotted: 5 minutes

Students will answer questions asked by the guest lecturer.

CLOSURE - Time allotted: 10 minutes

A short discussion as to the sustainability of hydroponics in Trinidad

FINAL EVALUATION – Time allotted: 10 minutes

Reasonable level of achievement: 7 out of 11 marks.
Students write answers for the following questions

Task Related P1 P2 P3 total

Objectives
1. Identify the 1 1 1
agri. Practice
shown
2. Outline 4 4 4 4
features of
hydroponics
3. Suggest 4 6 6
reasons why
hydroponics is
sustainable
Total 1 10 11

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES/LESSON:

Lesson 7 of the Unit on Sustainable agriculture

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APPENIX I

Final Evaluation

1. Identify the agricultural practice shown above ……………………………..

………………………………………………………[1 mark]
2. Outline FOUR features of this agricultural practice
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3. Farmer smith believes his method of cultivation is sustainable. Suggest three reasons why
this may be so [6 marks]
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