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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

The Pulse café is available for Elementary and Junior high school. See below for more information!

Pulse café – Elementary School Program

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 thinking, 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 elementary school resources at no charge:

  • Teaching Notes – a teaching guide designed to be used with the PULSE café elementary 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 fields or order copies for the whole class!
  • Dry beans for Grade 4 to 6 bean growing activity
  • Pulse variety poster

 

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ORDER FORM

 

Pulse café – Junior High School Program

PULSE café – Bits and Bites for learning about pulse nutrition, cells and body systems was developed to build and reinforce understandings around concepts connected to body systems, nutrition and human health. Activities in the student and teaching resources are intended to spark discussion, exploration and investigation and support learning outcomes in Alberta Grade 8 Science Unit B: Cells and Systems. 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 information and activities provided focus on pulses – the dried seeds of legume plants – but also encourage students to apply what they learn to bigger ideas connected to the role of cells within living things, body systems, nutrition and health. They can be selected and used as part of Science lessons, mini-units or as support for a project. They can be used as-is, adapted or combined as appropriate to your curriculum.

Alberta Pulse Growers currently offers the PULSE café junior high school resources at no charge:

  • Teaching Notes – a teaching guide designed to be used with the PULSE café junior high student booklets.
  • Junior High Student Booklet – available as a free download here with fillable fields or order copies for the whole class!
  • Recipe cards for students on request (see list on the Junior High School Order Form) – a great way for students to learn how to incorporate pulses into their everyday meals!

 

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL ORDER FORM

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:

 

Application Form

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:

 

Application Form

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!

Grow Your Own Magic Beans

Pulse Power!

This colourful 2-page handout talks about Alberta-grown pulses, has a fun pulse word search and pancake recipe featuring beans.

Pulse Power!

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

Teacher Resource 2 Food and Sustainability

Teacher Resource 3 Pulses and Nutrition

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.