Food and the Future Environment

Goals and Learning Objectives

PrintPrint

Goals and Learning Objectives

Goals

  • Describe key features of categories of crop plants and how they are adapted to environmental and ecological factors.
  • Explain how soil and climatic features determine what crops can be produced in a location, and how humans may alter an environment for crop production.
  • Classify environments as high or low resource environments and interpret how both environmental and socio-economic factors contribute to crop plant selection (coupled human-nature systems); and the pros and cons of the cultivation of various crop types.

Learning Objectives

After completing this module, students will be able to:

  • Define annual and perennial crops and list some examples of annual and perennial crops.
  • Distinguish and explain why annual or perennial crops are cultivated in high resource or resource-limited environments.
  • Explain some ways that farmers alter the environment to produce annual or perennial crops.
  • Name some major crop plant families with some example crops.
  • Explain the nutrient significance of legumes.
  • Describe key plant physiological processes and how climate change may influence crop plant growth and yield.
  • Classify major crop plants into types including plant families, temperature adaptation, and photosynthetic pathways.
  • Formulate an explanation of the advantages and disadvantages of producing annual and perennial crops.
  • Interpret what environmental, ecological, and socioeconomic factors influence what crops farmers produce.
  • Distinguish some environmental, ecological, and socioeconomic advantages and disadvantages of producing types of crops.