Quick Summary
Minitex staff and librarians who work with eLibrary Minnesota, Ebooks Minnesota, Minnesota Digital Library, and Resource Sharing create monthly Resource Packs for Minnesota schools to highlight content that can be used in the classroom. This month's pack features fiction, nonfiction, and primary sources about Agriculture.
Fall is in the air, and the combines are rolling out across the fields to harvest their crops. What better time to think about the enormous impact that farming and agriculture has on our lives and wellbeing?
This month, our Resource Pack team has curated selections of learning resources related to agriculture from eLibrary Minnesota, Ebooks Minnesota, and the Minnesota Digital Library. These primary sources, secondary sources, ebooks, and research databases are grouped by grade level and can be used in a variety of classrooms. Check out September's Agriculture resource pack, which includes the highlights below.
Most students who live in Minnesota have driven by a field of crops at one time or another, and the topic of farming is a rich base for lessons about social structures, science, food supply, ethics, and much more. Use Britannica’s Elementary, Middle, or Secondary level articles on Agriculture and Ag Science to start them down the path that interests them. The youngest learners may be interested in PebbleGo’s center on farm animals and EBSCO Explora's articles all about farming, while older students may be interested in learning about how the earliest societies’ development of agriculture shaped their societies in Gale In Context. For those who are ready to debate issues such as factory farming and farm subsidies, look to Points of View Reference Center’s carefully laid out articles to include perspectives on all sides of many important issues.
As always, Ebooks Minnesota is an excellent resource for finding books that discuss topics related to agriculture in relatable ways, with pictures and read-aloud functions to draw students in. Students can read titles such as Farmers: then and now to learn about what it’s like to be a farmer, or John Deere’s powerful idea: the perfect plow for a picture book about the first tractor. These titles and many more are available for your younger students to enjoy, while older students can dig deeper into the processes behind farming in titles such as The complete illustrated guide to farming and Beginner’s illustrated guide to gardening: techniques to help get you started.
The Minnesota Digital Library contains many primary sources that highlight the importance of agriculture to our state’s history and development. The sources featured in this month’s pack illustrate a wide variety of crops, livestock, farm equipment, and facilities. Students can practice their critical thinking and analysis skills while examining these historical photographs and documents. They can also dig deeper into the sources with MDL’s curated resources: a Mechanization of Farming primary source set, and a Farm to Table online exhibit.
These items and so many more are in this new Resource Pack, and more can be found in the e-resources themselves.
Image credit: Sunny Side Farm, Nobles County, 1913. Nobles County Historical Society via the Minnesota Digital Library: https://collection.mndigital.org/catalog/p15160coll4:127
