Middle School Curriculum

Integrated Pest Management and Apple Growing Unit Plan:
Developed by Nate Ware

Developmental Level/Grade Level: 7th or 8th

Topic: Incorporate the important aspects of IPM into a unit on apple growing

Discipline Focus: Mutualistic and Parasitic relationships among insects and plants, importance of proper chemical application and use, and the fundamentals of an apple growing.

Goals and Rational: The broad goals of this unit are to teach middle school students about pomology, or the science of apple growing and the relationship among organisms in the apple orchard community. It is very important that students understand the positive and negative roles played by the different species interacting in the ecosystem. Humans play the largest detrimental role in the destruction and pollution of the environment, so incorporating IPM and teaching students about environmental ethics should help make for a more conscientious society. Overall this unit provides an interesting way to teach students about the many pesticides that harm the earth, while at the same time, giving students a first hand look at how an apple tree grows and develops. The growth of an apple is not a seasonal process, it takes a full year and incorporates many complicated agricultural techniques and pest control methods. Hopefully after implementing this unit, students will walk away with a higher understanding of the apple orchard and the importance of IPM.

Unit Objectives:

By the end of the unit, students will be competent with:

• Community interactions
• Proper usage of chemicals
• Pomology
• Beneficial and harmful bugs in the orchard
• Apple tree development

Unit Assessment: There is no formal unit assessment for the plans provided, each lesson has its own assessment plan, however one idea is to have groups of students compile a children's book based on apple growing and IPM.

Overview: The unit begins with the growth of an apple tree and traces the path of development through reproduction. There is a lesson incorporating the beneficial impacts and uses of honeybees in the apple orchard, and one, which analyzes the impacts of pests and agricultural methods of controlling them.

Lessons:

The Birth of an Apple Tree

Lesson Questions

Beneficial Bugs

Lesson Questions

Adopt an Insect

Background: Please see What is IPM?

References: Please see my Consulted Sources

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