Nourishing The Planet: Theme of New School Curriculum Available Through Nutrients for Life Foundation.

Teachers excited about standards-based, field-tested materials.

Washington, D.C. — Answering the call from teachers eager for standards-based programs students will enjoy, the Nutrients for Life Foundation announced the availability of its middle and high school curriculum supplements, Nourishing the Planet in the 21st Century.

The free curriculum, created by the respected science curriculum developer Biological Sciences Curriculum Study, and underwritten by the Nutrients for Life Foundation, provides hands-on classroom applications to help tomorrow's generation realize that the challenge of feeding our growing population can be solved with science.

In development and field-testing for two years, the curriculum has received favorable reviews from the Smithsonian Institution and is already generating enthusiastic response from educators.

“The students enjoyed the hands-on activities, and the curriculum makes a connection to real problems we are dealing with today,” said Tammy Brown, a seventh grade teacher at Granard Middle School in Gaffney, S.C.

Each of the lessons connects the nutrients in soil to nutritious food and a healthy environment. In lesson one, for example, students compare the 23 essential elements necessary for human life to the 17 plant nutrients and realize that many are as important for plant health as they are to human health.

Lesson four features an interactive web module used to demonstrate plant nutrient deficiencies. With this lesson students go online and embark for Africa as virtual volunteers for an organization called Humanity Against Hunger. While there they help African farmers diagnose and solve crop nutrient deficiencies. According to Foundation Executive Director Kathy Mathers, “The web module gives educators a technique for teaching soil science in a way they haven't been able to do before.”

In the concluding chapter, students discuss the challenges needing to be met in order to feed the world's population in 2050. Ultimately, the students apply what they have learned about soil, plant growth and plant nutrients, and make three recommendations that will best solve world hunger.

In all, six lessons are contained in the curriculum, each addressing key objectives established by the National Science Education Standards.

Nourishing the Planet in the 21st Century is free to educators and can be downloaded at nutrientsforlife.org/curriculum.aspx.

Nutrients for Life Foundation is a tax-exempt organization as described in Section 501( c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code and is incorporated in the State of Delaware. The Foundation was formed to disseminate educational information to the general public, including policy makers, about fertilizers, modern agriculture and the role plant nutrients serve in improving people's lives.