Education Programs & Resources
Alberta Pulse Growers are proud to support education and provide programs and resources designed for teachers, students and consumers to discover how pulses benefit our health, our food and our farms!
PULSE café
PULSE café – Bits and Bites for learning about Alberta pulse nutrition, food and farming is designed to support learning for teachers and students in Grades 1 to 6 Health/Wellness, Science, Social Studies, Math and Language Arts programs. Use the interactive student activity booklets to spark discussion, exploration and investigation of examples that illustrate decisions and understandings about nutrition, food and farming. These activities can be used as distinct lessons, a mini-unit or as part of a project. The student activity booklets have fillable fields for students to write in and save electronically or you can order hard copies for your class!
The Teaching Notes and Curriculum Notes provide teaching suggestions to integrate PULSE café into classroom learning activities. The teaching suggestions are organized around competencies, including critical and creative think, problem solving, information management, communication, collaboration and personal wellness. The activities in the PULSE café student booklets have been developed to support the competencies and cross-curricular learning in Alberta Health/Wellness, Language Arts, Social Studies and Science programs of studies.
Alberta Pulse Growers offers the following PULSE café resources at no charge:
- Teaching Notes – a teaching guide designed to be used with the PULSE café student booklets.
- Curriculum Notes – a partial list of links to learning outcomes in the Alberta program of studies for Health/Wellness, Language Arts, Social Studies and Science.
- Grades 1 to 3 Student Activity Booklet – available as a free download here with fillable fields or order copies for the whole class!
- Grades 4 to 6 Student Activity Booklet – available as a free download here with fillable or order copies for the whole class!
- Dry beans for Grade 4 to 6 bean growing activity
- Pulse variety poster
Classroom Support Program
Pulses – including dried peas, beans, chickpeas, and lentils – are healthy foods that are versatile for many classes including Junior High, intermediate and advanced Foods classes as well as CTEC Foods curricula, including FOD 1070 (Farm to Table), FOD 2130 (Vegetarian Cuisine) and FOD 2190 (Grains, legumes, pulses, nuts and seeds).
Alberta Pulse Growers (APG) is offering the following resources for junior and senior high Foods teachers:
- $25 gift card* per 25 students to purchase pulses (dry or canned pulses) from Loblaws stores such as Superstore, Extra Foods or No Frills Foods *Limits apply
- One copy for the teacher of the following APG resources:
- Recipe booklet: Tried & True: 22 tried & true recipes with peas, beans, lentils & chickpeas
- Colourful workbook: Pulses: from Farm to Table
- Informative handouts: Guide to Cooking, Buying, & Storing Pulses and Enjoying Canned Pulses!
- One pulse variety poster illustrating the different types of pulses
- Recipe cards for students on request (see list on the Application Form)
- Download the coordinating Pulses Farm to Table powerpoint presentation
Community Cooking Class Program
Alberta Pulse Growers (APG) offers a sponsorship for educators/leaders who are holding workshops or cooking classes that focus on teaching people in their community how to cook with pulses.
Sponsorship includes:
- $25 gift card to purchase pulses (dry or canned) from Loblaws stores such as Superstore, Extra Foods or No Frills Foods.
- One copy of the new APG workbook Pulses: from Farm to Table for the educator/leader.
- Copies for each participant of the new APG recipe booklet Tried & True: 22 tried & true recipes with peas, beans, lentils & chickpeas.
- Download the coordinating Pulses Farm to Table powerpoint presentation.
Elementary School Handouts
Magical Beans!
Ever wondered how beans grow? Download this colourful handout for instructions on how to grow beans in the classroom or at home!
Pulse Power!
This colourful 2-page handout talks about Alberta-grown pulses, has a fun pulse word search and pancake recipe featuring beans.
Pulse Lesson Plans
Pulse Lesson Plans Available!
Agriculture in the Classroom Canada partnered with Pulse Canada during 2016 International Year of Pulses to offer lesson plans for educators across Canada and bring curriculum-linked pulse concepts to the classroom.
Teacher Resource 1 Pulse Lesson Plans
Classroom Agriculture Program
The Classroom Agriculture Program (CAP) is a free one-hour hands-on presentation about agriculture. Delivered by volunteers across the province, CAP teaches grade 4 students the importance of agriculture in their daily lives. Following the classroom presentation, all students receive an Activity Book containing supplementary information. A package of resource material is also provided for each teacher. CAP is a multi-commodity initiative endorsed by Alberta Education and Alberta Agriculture and Forestry.
For more information about CAP, please visit www.classroomagriculture.com.