This hands-on (and delicious) lesson will teach students about where food comes from, how to save seeds, the history of bean cultivation, and nutritional benefits of beans.
Students will make a seed saving packet using the included PDF diagram, perform a taste test of different bean varieties, and learn how to preserve and plant seeds.
Teaching Tips
Positives
This lesson plan includes learning opportunities, vocabulary lists, reproducible worksheets, templates for bean seed packets, and step-by-step teacher directions.
Students will enjoy the opportunities for creativity and the hands-on nature of the lesson.
Additional Prerequisites
This lesson plan requires quite a few materials to complete, including printed worksheets, dry beans, clear cups or containers, and potentially cooking materials for a bean taste test.
You can substitute beans from your local area instead of California-grown beans.
Differentiation
Cross-curricular connections can be made in health classes studying nutrition or social studies classes considering the types of produce grown in different locations.
This lesson would work well in the spring when students can grow their beans in an outdoor garden, if available.
As an extension, have students create seed packets for other types of produce that grows in their area.
Scientist Notes
This resource is an in-depth lesson on beans: their history, health benefits, and cultivation. This resource is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
LS3: Heredity: Inheritance and Variation of Traits
3-LS3-1 Analyze and interpret data to provide evidence that plants and animals have traits inherited from parents and that variation of these traits exists in a group of similar organisms.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Writing (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.3.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.4.7 Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.