Prairie Protector - Video Tutorial
Need a quick start guide before playing the Prairie Protector digital game? Watch the video below to see a quick walk-through tutorial to learn a bit about the game and some useful tips.
Feeding a Growing Population - GMOs and Food Security Storyline
Feeding a Growing Population: GMOs and Food Security is a standards-aligned life science unit to help students understand GMOs and their benefits in feeding the future.
How Can We Reduce Food Waste? – Food Waste Storyline
How Can We Reduce Food Waste is a standards-aligned science unit that helps students understand how environmental conditions affect the growth of organisms, which can then lead to food spoilage and waste.
Nicky Case
LOOPY - Video Tutorial
This 6-minute video tutorial introduces the basics of getting started with the LOOPY tool for modeling systems. This tutorial is targeted at students in grades 6 and up and can be used with undergraduate students or the general public.
Systems Thinking for Resilience - Digital Lesson
Looking for a way to get started with the LOOPY tool? The Systems Thinking for Resilience learning module will provide a short video introduction to systems thinking and a quick LOOPY tutorial to help you start modeling a system that is personally meaningful to you. Participants will be asked to engage in reflective practice as they create a system model that answers the question, "How might a big change send ripple effects through your life and what actions can you take to build or maintain resilience during uncertain times?".
Waters Center for Systems Thinking
14 Habits of a Systems Thinker - Card Set
Practicing systems thinking habits can change the way you see the world and influence the actions or decisions you make. This card set from the Water Center for Systems Thinking introduces 14 habits of a systems thinker that you can start practicing today!
Prairie Protector - Lesson Set
The following four lessons are provided to connect the Prairie Protector digital game with broader learning objectives.
Prairie Protector - Video Game
The Sandhills and other grasslands in the Great Plains are currently threatened by what is being called "the green glacier"-- a slow but steady encroachment of invasive tree species into ecosystems which have traditionally been dominated by grasses and wildflowers. These invasive species not only threaten the habitat of native wildlife but also threaten the livelihood of ranchers who depend on the vast grasslands to feed their livestock. In Prairie Protector, test your skills at defending the High Plains from this threat!
Beyond the Box - Interactive Career Exploration
Beyond the Box is an interactive career exploration resource that leverages Museum-in-a-Box technology to bring to light the achievements of Black scientists in Agriculture and Natural Resource fields.
AgPocalypse - Tutorial Videos
Need a quick start guide before playing the AgPocalypse digital game? Watch the video tutorials below led by game developer, Chloe Lehnert, in which she explains a bit about the game and provides some useful tips.
Prairie Protector - Supplemental Materials
The following resources provide more information about the phenomenon at the heart of the Prairie Protector digital game-woody encroachment in the Great Plains- and its social, economic, and environmental impacts.
Nicky Case
LOOPY: A Digital Tool for Thinking in Systems
LOOPY is a tool for thinking in systems created by Nicky Case. It allows you to quickly sketch system components (as circles) and their interactions (as arrows) and press play to simulate how a system behaves. In no time at all, you will be experimenting with negative and positive feedback loops, testing predictions, and, most importantly, having fun playing with your system creations.
AgPocalypse - Video Game
Farming is a balancing act. Are you ready to take on the challenge of maximizing production while using limited resources like land and water? Play AgPocalypse to test your skills!
AgPocalypse - Lesson Set
The following lessons are provided to connect the Agpocalypse gameplay scenarios with broader learning objectives.
What's Going on in This Graph? - Nebraska Edition
Looking for a flexible way to practice noticing and wondering with your middle school or high school students? Check out this collection of graphs, maps, and charts! Each highlights a FEWSS (food, energy, water, and societal systems) topic and can be used as a focal point for students' sense-making discussions. You can use these as a bell-ringer, anchoring or investigative phenomenon, exit ticket, etc. Additional resources (notice and wonder t-chart template and class slide deck template) are provided to help you and your students get started!
What's Going on in This Graph - Nebraska Edition - Supplemental Materials
Need a template for students to share out their noticings and wonderings? We've got you covered with our Husker Wonder Notice and Wonder template and Husker Wonder Slide Deck template.
Increasing Production with Precision Agriculture - Lesson Plan
In this hands-on lesson, students will learn how precision agriculture uses geographic information systems (GIS) to help farmers and manufacturers make smart, efficient, and responsible decisions about how and when they plant, grow, irrigate, harvest, and transport crops.
Apple Genetics - Lesson Plan
In this standards-aligned, 5-E life science lesson plan, students will learn that the goal of apple breeding is to continuously produce quality apples with desirable traits. Cross breeding and genetic engineering are two methods that have allowed breeders to produce better quality apples.
Grow Stand Math - Lesson Plan
In this standards-aligned, 5-E lesson, students will learn about artificial lighting and its use in agricultural production, they will use engineering design principles and mathematics to design a model using plastic straws and tape and build a grow light stand out of PVC piping and connectors.