Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources

Career and technical education (CTE) teachers need to not only teach the technical and academic skills needed for their content area, they also need to teach students 21st century skills that will make them successful working in a global marketplace. Therefore, a substantive understanding of how local issues relate to global challenges is the foundation of global competence and is required in all career pathways.

Specifically, globally competent students are able to:

• Investigate the World. Students ask and explore questions that are globally significant.
• Weigh Perspectives. Students recognize they have a unique perspective and that others may not share it, but they are able to respect all perspectives and create a new point of view.
• Communicate Ideas. Students can effectively communicate, verbally and non-verbally, with diverse groups.
• Take Action. Student can weigh options for action based on evidence and insight, see the potential consequences, then act and reflect on their actions.

While it is important to examine the four capacities above individually, global competence is best seen as an integrated outlook on the world—not a collection of independent skills.

These skills are required and highly desirable when considering the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources pathway and there are a wide range of applications within it. We are reminded that the growing, cultivating, manufacturing, and transport of food is a global process. This reality requires a deep understanding of the global nature of this field for those who choose specialize in it.

These globally focused projects, written by CTE educators and aligned to the Common Core by ELA, math and science educators, can be used as stand alone projects in one CTE classroom or can be combined by multiple CTE educators in a building. These projects are based around themes and contain the lesson plans, assessment information, and auxiliary materials an educator needs for implementation. Listed below are themes and the projects relevant to the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources pathway.

UN Sustainable Development Goal #2: No Hunger

• Project on businesses buying local food (Word version)

Food Security

• Agriculture
  • Presentation Rubric
  • Student Assignment and Rubric
  • Student Reflection Worksheet
• Business
  • Example PACED
  • Student Learning Journal Template – Landscape
  • Student Learning Journal Template – Portrait
• Law/Government
• Culinary

Additional projects and ideas

Links to other global projects:

• Global Farmers Market Assignment from Mesa Community College
• Plant Growth and Development Assignment from Mesa Community College
• Growing Hope Globally provides projects that help students address world hunger issues.
• Smithsonian Science Education Center has curriculum focused on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, including: “Food! How Do We Ensure Good Nutrition for All?”.

Project Planning Template

Use this blank project planning template to plan your own global CTE project! (Can be used on your own, or in conjunction with Module 2 of the Global CTE PD Course).

Standards, Crosswalks, and Rubrics

The Common Career Technical Core is a common set of CTE standards created for each of Advance CTE’s 16 Career Cluster areas. This document crosswalks the Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources cluster with the four domains of global competence, demonstrating the clear alignment between global education and careers in this field. This crosswalk is also filled with ideas of global projects that can support the standards taught in each of the career pathways.

Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Standards Crosswalked to Global Competence

Corteva can provide guest speakers throughout their Corteva Grows Science Outreach program.

FFA AgExplorer: National FFA and Discovery Education have created a robust, comprehensive career resource to help you explore the broad range of careers in agriculture.

This section contains links to Career and Technical Student Organizations (CTSO) with global activity options. Remember, many activities allow some freedom for students to choose their focus – encourage them to choose a global issue.

1. FFA
2. SkillsUSA

• Global and Gourmet Foods curriculum from NY State.
• In Defense of Food curriculum from PBS Learning Media.