Task Library

Why Can Cattle Live on Grass, but Humans Cannot?

In this multi-day science task, students will investigate a biological phenomenon: why cattle and other ruminants can survive on grass while humans cannot. Students will explore how digestive structure, microbial fermentation, and energy transformation allow ruminant animals to access chemical energy stored in cellulose-rich plant material. 

Task Library

Soil Your Undies for Healthy Soil

In this middle school task, students explore how soil health is maintained by understanding the complex interactions between living and nonliving factors in a soil ecosystem.

Task Library

Genetics Task

This task is intended to be used as a formative assessment to identify student strengths and weaknesses with the ideas of genetics and heredity and evaluation of possible solutions considering sustainable practices. The use of this task will help to identify students’ strengths and needs to provide feedback to students. This will support shifts in instructional practice during a mid-unit assessment. 

In this middle school task, students will write an argument that justifies the selection of a particular bull to be mated with a group of cattle to meet the criteria set forth by the producer.