This resource details an important climate solution that positively impacts the environment and is projected to improve food supplies and food security, increase profits for farmers, reduce land clearing activities, and sequester carbon.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This article is a concise explanation of a complex concept.
Students will benefit from the text features included in the article, which include helpful headings and sidebars that do a good job of summarizing the concepts.
Additional Prerequisites
Students should have basic knowledge about the carbon cycle, climate change, and human impacts on the environment.
Differentiation
This resource could easily be integrated into a science, math, social studies, or language arts class.
After reading this article, have students brainstorm ways to implement the changes outlined in the article in a nearby community.
As an extension, have students research where farmlands like those described in the article are located. If any are in their area, students can advocate for policy or funding changes that would support restoring these abandoned fields.
Math, science, and economics classes can evaluate the methods used in this article to understand the many factors that were taken into account when coming up with this report.
Scientist Notes
This is a brief overview of how farmland restoration can sequester carbon and slow the effects of climate change. A solution to restoring farmland is presented along with a methodology, results, and discussion section. This proposal is a great way to get students thinking about what else can be done to combat climate change and how thinking outside of the box by restoring the land can lead to great changes in their communities. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
HS-ESS3-4 Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.1.9-12 Distinguish the powers and responsibilities of local, state, tribal, national, and international civic and political institutions.
Dimension 2: Economics
D2.Eco.1.9-12 Analyze how incentives influence choices that may result in policies with a range of costs and benefits for different groups.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Reading: Science & Technical Subjects (6-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10.1 Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of science and technical texts, attending to the precise details of explanations or descriptions.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.2 Determine the central ideas or conclusions of a text; summarize complex concepts, processes, or information presented in a text by paraphrasing them in simpler but still accurate terms.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.11-12.10 By the end of grade 12, read and comprehend science/technical texts in the grades 11-CCR text complexity band independently and proficiently.
