The Curriculum

K-12 AgTech STEM Curriculum

A standards-aligned, project-based curriculum spanning biology, chemistry, software engineering, and data analytics. Students don’t just grow plants — they engineer and optimize the biological systems sustaining them.

Elementary (K-5)High School Standards Alignment

Elementary (K-5)Middle School High School Standards

Elementary Â· K-5

The Magic Circle of Farming

Subject: Life Sciences & Earth Systems · Duration: 4 Weeks (3–5 days/week, 30–45 min periods) · Core Concept: Nature has no waste — fish, water, and plants work together in a connected loop to help each other grow.

Week 1

Meet the Team — Fish and Plants

Objective: Students will identify the living parts of the aquaponic ecosystem and understand what they need to survive.

Day 1
The Magic Living Machine
Gather around the fish tank. Introduction to teamwork in nature: plants need food, fish need clean water.
Day 2
The Life of a Fish
Observing Tilapia. Mapping the lifecycle (Egg â†’ Fry â†’ Fingerling â†’ Adult).
Day 3
The Life of a Plant
Planting seeds into the GS8 germination rack. Mapping plant lifecycle (Seed â†’ Sprout â†’ Seedling â†’ Mature).
Day 4 & 5
My Adopted Seed
Students label their seed slot, draw it on Day 1, and predict next week's growth in a science journal.

Week 2

The Secret Helpers (The Invisible Bridge)

Objective: Students will discover that microscopic living things connect the fish to the plants.

Day 1
The Mystery of the Dirty Water
Cloudy water poured through a sand/gravel filter to show how physical objects trap waste.
Day 2
Meet the Micro-Heroes
Introducing friendly bacteria on the biofilter media. Tiny chefs turning fish waste into plant soup.
Day 3 & 4
Water Tracking Game
Students pretend to be water droplets — picking up waste, getting cleaned by bacteria superheroes, feeding the roots.
Day 5
Sprout Check-in
Measuring tiny green sprouts with rulers, recording growth in journals.

Week 3

How Plants Eat from the Sky & Sea

Objective: Students will observe how plant roots drink nutrients and leaves capture light.

Day 1
The Hidden Root World
Safely lifting a plant tray to look at the bare, white roots beneath the rack.
Day 2
Drinking in Color!
Celery stalk in colored water — watching the color climb to show how roots push water up.
Day 3 & 4
The Power of the Rainbow
Why are grow lights pink/purple? Leaves as solar panels — photosynthesis simplified.
Day 5
Happy Ecosystem Check
Checking fish behavior and plant color. Bright green leaves + happy fish = balanced circle.

Week 4

The Harvest & The No-Waste Challenge

Objective: Students celebrate the circle by harvesting their food and understanding how to recycle leftovers.

Day 1 & 2
Big Harvest Day!
Harvesting microgreens or lettuce from the vertical towers. Tasting their pesticide-free food.
Day 3
What is a Circular Economy?
Leftover roots and old leaves feed worms, become compost, or make clean energy.
Day 4 & 5
Graduation — Keepers of the Circle
Students draw the full circular loop. Each receives a Junior Eco-Engineer certificate.

Middle School Â· Grades 6-8

Bridge modules: applied life science & systems thinking.

Middle school sits between the visual storytelling of the Magic Circle and the hands-on engineering of the high school tracks. Students transition from observing the ecosystem to actively managing it — data journals, water-chemistry testing, and their first programmable automations.

Living Systems Lab

Hands-on testing of pH, EC, and dissolved oxygen using consumer test kits. Students chart the nitrogen cycle in real time.

Intro to Microcontrollers

First Python scripts on a Raspberry Pi. Blink-an-LED â†’ temperature sensor â†’ simple automation rule.

Closed-Loop Design Sprint

Teams sketch their own micro-ecosystem and pitch how a school cafeteria could become a closed loop.

Note: The middle-school track is delivered as a flexible bridge curriculum built from elements of both the elementary and high-school modules — request the full teacher’s guide for the scope-and-sequence document.

High School Â· Grades 9-12

Two flagship 4-week modules.

Built for AP Biology, Environmental Science, AP Computer Science, and CTE-track engineering classrooms. Each module is 5 days/week, 50-minute periods.

Module Â· Biology & Life Sciences

Engineering the Nitrogen Cycle

How biological ecosystems utilize specialized bacteria to transform toxic waste into life-giving nutrients in a closed-loop system.

Week 1

The Chemistry of Waste & The Unseen Heroes

Day 1 — Introduction to Closed-Loop Biologics. Dissecting the IAS1200 system layout.
Day 2 — Phase 1 Nitrification: Nitrosomonas consume Ammonia, oxidize it to Nitrite.
Day 3 — Phase 2 Nitrification: Nitrobacter & Nitrospira convert Nitrite into Nitrate (plant food).
Day 4 & 5 — Lab: Inoculating the Biofilter. Baseline water chemistry, bacterial colonization, surface-area dynamics.

Week 2

Macro-Biology — Fish-Plant Dynamics

Day 1 & 2 — Fish Physiology & Feed Conversion Ratios (FCR). Grams of feed â†’ ppm of ammonia.
Day 3 & 4 — Plant Assimilation & the Root Rhizosphere under microscopes.
Day 5 — The pH Tightrope: fish prefer 6.5–8.0, plants 6.0–6.5, bacteria above 7.0. Design a buffer strategy.

Week 3

Real-Time Data & Ecosystem Troubleshooting

Days 1–3 — The Cycling Lab. Measure & graph Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrate using IoT sensors.
Day 4 & 5 — System Sickness Case Studies. Diagnose mock datasets, write corrective action plans.

Week 4

The Circular Economy Challenge

Day 1 & 2 — Solid Waste Digestion. Heterotrophic mineralization, anaerobic digestion, biogas.
Day 3 & 4 — Designing a Campus Closed-Loop System (cafeteria scraps â†’ fertilizer or energy).
Day 5 — Capstone Presentations on resilient urban food security.

Module Â· Computer Science, Robotics & Engineering

Automated Ecosystems & IoT Systems Design

Using Raspberry Pi microcomputers, sensor calibration, and automated relays to monitor, stabilize, and optimize a closed-loop aquaponic facility.

Week 1

The Brain of the Facility — Raspberry Pi & Architecture

Day 1 — Smart Ag Systems Design. Inputs (sensors), processing (Pi), outputs (relays).
Day 2 — Raspberry Pi OS & Linux Terminal basics (cd, ls, mkdir, nano).
Day 3 & 4 — GPIO breadboard circuits. Control an LED with Python.
Day 5 — Block Diagrams: data flow from sensor â†’ Pi â†’ pump relay.

Week 2

Sensor Calibration & Data Acquisition

Day 1 & 2 — Wiring analog pH and EC sensors. Voltage â†’ digital data.
Day 3 — Calibration math. Submerging sensors in pH 4.0, 7.0, 10.0 buffers; Python mapping scripts.
Day 4 & 5 — DS18B20 temp sensors + dissolved oxygen inputs. Log data to .csv every 60s.

Week 3

Automation, Relays & Closed-Loop Control

Day 1 — Relays & high-voltage safety. 5V signal controlling a wall outlet.
Day 2 & 3 — Threshold scripts (if water temp < 68Â°F â†’ heater on; if > 75Â°F â†’ off + alert).
Day 4 — Automated lighting cycles for vertical racks (circadian rhythms).
Day 5 — Failure-State Drill. Write fail-safe code for sensor disconnects.

Week 4

Data Dashboards & Cloud Integration

Day 1 & 2 — Building a local dashboard with Flask or Dash. Live graphs of pH and temp.
Day 3 & 4 — API webhooks. Automated SMS/email alerts on anomalies.
Day 5 — Capstone presentations. Live code running a mock system.

Standards Alignment

Mapped to NGSS, ISTE, and CTE pathways.

Every module ships with a crosswalk document showing exactly which Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), ISTE Student Standards, and state CTE pathways the lessons fulfill.

NGSS

Next Generation Science Standards

Disciplinary Core Ideas in Life Sciences (LS1, LS2, LS4), Engineering Design (ETS1), and Earth Systems (ESS3). Cross-cutting concepts: Systems & System Models, Energy & Matter, Stability & Change.

ISTE

ISTE Student Standards

Empowered Learner, Knowledge Constructor, Innovative Designer, Computational Thinker. Direct evidence through Python automation scripts and dashboard projects.

CTE

CTE Career Clusters

Agriculture, Food & Natural Resources Â· STEM Â· Information Technology Â· Manufacturing. Perkins V-eligible workforce competencies in CEA, robotics, and data analytics.

For your educators

Request the full teacher’s guide.

Lesson-by-lesson scope and sequence, printable student worksheets, sample code repositories, rubrics, and the NGSS/ISTE/CTE crosswalk — sent directly to your CTE director.

Request the teacher’s guide

See it in action