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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!

For elementary school teachers and students, check out APG’s Pulse café for grades 1-6 and our handouts Pulse Power and Magical Beans.

For junior high school teachers and students, we have APG’s Pulse café for grade 8.

For junior & senior high school CTF/CTS Foods classes, APG offers the Classroom Support Program. 

If you’re an educator or health professional planning a workshop or cooking class to teach people in your community how to cook with pulses, check out our Community Cooking Class Program.

APG also partners with other Alberta organizations to bring agriculture into the classroom with Project Agriculture, Classroom Agriculture Program, Know Your Food and Ag for Life. See which program works for you!

 

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.
  • Grades 1 to 3 Curriculum Notes – a partial list of links to learning outcomes in the Alberta program of studies for Physical Education & Wellness, Language Arts & Literature, Math, Science and Social Studies for Grades 4 to 6.
  • 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 Curriculum Notes – a partial list of links to learning outcomes in the Alberta program of studies for Physical Education & Wellness, Language Arts & Literature, Math, Science and Social Studies for Grades 4 to 6.
  • 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:

 

JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL ORDER FORM

Classroom Support Program

Pulses – including field peas, dry 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).

**NEW FOR 2025** The APG Google Classroom featuring FOD 2190 Grains, legumes, pulses, nuts and seeds program! Includes curriculum planning documents, PowerPoint presentations, evaluations and recipes. Complete the Classroom Support Program Application form and click “yes” to receive the link to this free resource!  

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:

  • $50 gift card to purchase pulses (dry or canned) from Loblaws stores such as Superstore, Extra Foods or No Frills Foods.
  • One copy of our APG workbook Pulses: from Farm to Table for the educator/leader.
  • Copies for each participant of our APG recipe booklet Explore the Pulse-ibilities with peas, beans, lentils & chickpeas.
  • Download the coordinating Pulses: from Farm to Table PowerPoint presentation that provides information on what pulses are, which pulses are grown in Alberta, why farmers grow pulses, as well as the nutrition and health benefits of pulses. All the background information is included in the “notes” pages on each slide and the presentation coordinates with the Pulses: from Farm to Table workbook. 

 

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!

Partner Programs

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 classroomagricultureprogram.ca.

Project Agriculture provides opportunities to explore agricultural themes, topics, issues and challenges in local and global contexts and encourages junior and senior high school students to interact with each other, their school community, farmers and content experts. Encourage students to look for original video interviews and the many photos on this website and in the learning sources that represent current Alberta farms and farmers.

For more information, please visit projectagriculture.ca

Know Your Food Mobile Exhibition is the ultimate food truck! Explore Alberta agriculture, food literacy and the relationship between agriculture and our daily lives with a visit through this all-new interactive mobile trailer. The Know Your Food exhibit introduces students to Alberta’s very own farm-to-table story, engaging them with interactive education stations that deliver curriculum, science-based, fun and relevant agriculture and food knowledge. The delivery format offers a blend of digital, tactile and conversational style learning, appealing to junior and senior high teachers and students.

For more information, please visit knowyourfoodab.ca

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