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Iowa State University Extension (ISUE) 4-H Youth Connecting Learning and Living (CLL) includes six engaging, hands-on, multi-subject, deeply aligned, easy-to-do, current, research based curricula resources and fun, hands-on, youth development and education training. Approximately 7,000 Iowa educators have received at least one of the CLL curricula through training. They have the potential of reaching more than 200,000 youth annually with at least ten hours of agriculture, environmental, food and nutrition lessons and activities that connect classroom learning to living on planet Earth. Please click here for detailed description

Each of the CLL lessons aligns with the following youth development and education models. Click on Growing in the Garden Introduction, where you can find out more about these models on pages V through IX.

• Iowa State University 4-H Youth Development’s Vision, Mission, Values,  Developmental Needs of Youth, and Essential Elements of the 4-H Experience
• Targeting Life Skills Model  (ISU Extension) – How to teach critical thinking, communication, learning to learn, decision-making, problem-solving, responsibility, respect, citizenship, cooperation, healthy lifestyle choices, service learning, leadership, and other life skills.
• Character Counts as it relates to the life skills mentioned above.
• Experiential Learning Model (Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension Service) – Hands-on activities and processing questions arranged into Introduction, Do, Reflect, and Apply sections.
• Every Learner Inquires Five E Learning Cycle (Iowa Science Education Program)  The five E’s – engage, explore, explain, expand/extend/elaborate, evaluate – align with the Introduction, Do, Reflect, Apply sections.
• Howard Gardener’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences or Learner Types – Every lesson covers multiple learner styles including linguistic-words, logical-mathematical, musical, spatial-visual, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and natural (recently introduced)
• Blooms Taxonomy and other question strategies – There are bolded questions in each lesson to guide students to higher level thinking.
• National Standards and the Iowa/Model Core Curriculum – Lessons are aligned with national standards which are also part of the Iowa or Model Core Curriculum for science, literacy, math, social studies, and 21st Century skills.
• Iowa Test of Basic Skills – CLL lessons align with more than 50% of the science, social studies, reading, and math processing skills questions from Tests 1 and 2.
• Garden-based learning, improving science and math literacy, no child left inside, nature deficit disorder, reconnecting children with nature, President Obama’s support for improving science and math literacy, USDA Secretary Vilsack’s focus on gardens – CLL curricula are tools to address these national trends to help youth reach their full potential in any school or after school program.

There are options about how these curricula resources can be purchased. Please go to Forms and find the form that suits your situation. The Order Form for CLL Participants is for educators that have already purchased one of the curricula at CLL training. The New CLL Order Form is primarily for educators outside of Iowa. The CLL Training forms are for setting up trainings and purchasing curricula through training. Training is the preferred method and is supported by grants and sponsors that help participants purchase the curricula and supplemental books, cds, tapes, posters, and banners at greatly reduced prices.

Growing in the Garden: Grades PreK- 3 Curriculum, Revised 2008
Growing in the Garden is the most popular Connecting Learning and Living curricula resource. GITG includes forty classroom and after school program lessons with more than one hundred hands-on activities intended to grow curiosity about agriculture, natural resources, food and people. Six of the lessons include garden plans and activities. The activities could be modified for any age. Click on GITG Scope and Sequence to review the topics. In each unit, the lessons are arranged from the easiest to the hardest.

Growing in the Garden: Outdoor Classrooms for Young Gardeners, Leader’s Guide
and Garden Journal
This is collection of more than 36 hands-on activities for adult leaders and youth to use when they plan, plant, maintain, and harvest gardens. It enhances the outdoor classrooms suggested in Growing in the Garden: Grades PreK-3 Curriculum.  Click on GITG Outdoor Classrooms for Young Gardeners to see the list of activity ideas. The Garden Journal is a plastic coated 32-page student activity sheet booklet that youth can take with them to the garden. It also includes an award certificate at the end. These are being offered at a SPECIAL PRICE right now.

The Where We Live series connects grades 4 – 8 students to the natural resources, plants, animals, food and people where they live, demonstrating respect and responsibility for our planet Earth. Click on WWL Scope and Sequence to review the lesson titles in each of the three curricula resources.

Where We Live: History of the Land
Are you teaching Iowa history? This curriculum will connect the past to the present through fun hands-on activities about rocks, soil, prairies, grains, trees, animals, food sources and how people have learned to live with Iowa’s valuable resources. If you are from Iowa, you really need the entire kit of banners, posters, books, and maps for the complete experience. Curriculum directors and teachers highly approve this curricula as their Iowa History unit. If you are from another Midwestern state, these lessons will apply to you, too.

Where We Live: Weaving Food Webs
Are you teaching about food chains, energy sources, genetics, food safety, food production and consumption? These lessons weave their way around the food production web starting with the natural resources that are already available and then plants, animals, harvest, processing, distribution, marketing, and you – the consumer. They inspire youth to make more informed decisions and open their eyes to the ways they can be involved in their food and energy supply.  At trainings, you can purchase the entire kit of supplemental posters, banners, cds, videotapes, and books.

Where We Live: Living with the Land
Youth can work on their critical thinking, decision-making, citizenship and stewardship, and communication skills as they discover how people value the land and the methods we use to grow food and protect our natural resources. Four critical agricultural and environmental issues are examined: soil conservation, water quality, pest management, and animal care. This curriculum is used for grades 6 through college. A new energy lesson is being developed to go with this curriculum. At trainings, you can purchase the entire kit of posters, videotapes, and books.

Food, Land & People: Resources for Living
FLP is a national curriculum with 55 awesome hands-on lessons that “develop citizens literate about the relationships between agriculture, the environment and human populations.” The lessons are for Pre-K through Grade 12. It is primarily delivered through training. Iowa State University Extension 4-H Youth Development Connecting Learning and Living is the Iowa contact. If you would like more information, please go to www.foodlandpeople.org.

The Iowa Agriculture Awareness Coalition offers the following resources that supplement the Where We Live curricula or can be used on their own. Please go to Forms and find the Order Form for IAAC Resources to order copies. You can also download the Ag Times student magazines or the Agricultural Issues publications at www.agaware.org.

The Ag Times are interactive student magazines
Volume 1: Past to Present History of Iowa Agriculture includes twelve pages of timelines, maps, recipes, charts, and puzzles that help students explore where  their food and fiber comes from and how agriculture has changed over the years.

Volume 2: Agriculture Products, By-products and Co-products includes
twelve pages of fun activities, including a form of bingo, that will help students
make connections to the agricultural products they use.

Iowa Food Production Web is a 16.5 minute dvd, poster, and lesson plan that features
Sammy the Spider and two Iowa students who explore the entire food web in
Iowa. You’ll see places in Iowa that you’ve never been before!

Agricultural Issues Where We Live includes four informational booklets and thought-
provoking activity sheets that focus on agricultural practices regarding the
following current topics in Iowa: Soil Conservation, Water Quality, Pest
Management, and Animal Care.