This video explains how hemp, a non-psychoactive strain of cannabis, can sequester large amounts of carbon, improve soil quality, and be used to produce a wide range of products.
Students will learn that American farmers stopped growing hemp in the early 1900s because of its association with psychoactive cannabis use.
Hemp farming is now on the rise again, but some fear that the surge in interest will lead to unsustainable farming techniques.
Teaching Tips
Positives
The video is broken up into labeled sections, making it easy to navigate.
The video description contains a link for "further reading and resources", offering a wide variety of articles and videos that will help students learn more about the topics covered in the video.
This in-depth look at hemp covers history, economics, science, climate justice, and human rights topics.
Additional Prerequisites
The video contains commercials or ads.
The content of the video ends at 10:52 and the rest of the video is sponsored content.
Students will need to be familiar with the terms psychoactive, cannabis, weed, sequester, crop rotation, commodities, and regenerative farming.
Differentiation
Social studies and history classes could make a timeline (digital or paper) detailing the history of hemp farming.
Science and math classes could learn more about carbon sequestration using Trees From Thin Air, a video and activity that quantifies the amount of carbon a tree can sequester by measuring its circumference.
Economics and ethics classes could discuss how the cotton and nylon industries played a role in the destruction of the hemp market.
Social studies classes could learn more about the Tribal Hemp Initiative and the positive economic and environmental effects that hemp farming could have on Indigenous communities.
Other resources on this topic include this Hot Mess video on the importance of soil and this experiment about soil and the carbon cycle.
Scientist Notes
This resource gives a detailed explanation of hemp cultivation, its numerous applications, and competitive advantages in carbon sequestration and regenerative agriculture. This is recommended for teaching.
Standards
Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)
ESS2: Earth's Systems
HS-ESS2-6 Develop a quantitative model to describe the cycling of carbon among the hydrosphere, atmosphere, geosphere, and biosphere.
ESS3: Earth and Human Activity
MS-ESS3-4 Construct an argument supported by evidence for how increases in human population and per-capita consumption of natural resources impact Earth's systems.
HS-ESS3-4 Evaluate or refine a technological solution that reduces impacts of human activities on natural systems.
HS-ESS3-6 Use a computational representation to illustrate the relationships among Earth systems and how those relationships are being modified due to human activity.
LS2: Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
HS-LS2-5 Develop a model to illustrate the role of photosynthesis and cellular respiration in the cycling of carbon among the biosphere, atmosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere.
College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Standards
Dimension 2: Civics
D2.Civ.1.6-8 Distinguish the powers and responsibilities of citizens, political parties, interest groups, and the media in a variety of governmental and nongovernmental contexts.
D2.Civ.12.6-8 Assess specific rules and laws (both actual and proposed) as means of addressing public problems.
D2.Civ.13.9-12 Evaluate public policies in terms of intended and unintended outcomes, and related consequences.
D2.Civ.6.9-12 Critique relationships among governments, civil societies, and economic markets.
Dimension 2: Economics
D2.Eco.1.6-8 Explain how economic decisions affect the well-being of individuals, businesses, and society.
Dimension 2: History
D2.His.1.6-8 Analyze connections among events and developments in broader historical contexts.
D2.His.14.9-12 Analyze multiple and complex causes and effects of events in the past.
D2.His.4.9-12 Analyze complex and interacting factors that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras.
D2.His.7.9-12 Explain how the perspectives of people in the present shape interpretations of the past.
Common Core English Language Arts Standards (CCSS.ELA)
Speaking & Listening (K-12)
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.3 Evaluate a speaker's point of view, reasoning, and use of evidence and rhetoric, assessing the stance, premises, links among ideas, word choice, points of emphasis, and tone used.
