Farming Prairie Flowers
This video shows Prairie Flower Farm, a northwest Iowa farm that grows native plants instead of corn or soybeans.
Location
Spencer, IA
Possible Guiding, Compelling and/or Anchoring Questions
- Why don’t prairie flowers grow everywhere in Iowa?
- What does burning do?
- How does growing new prairie affect the environment?
Classroom Suggestions
Students could:
- Use a site like https://www.scribblemaps.com/ to digitally map and animate the extent of native prairie over time.
- Evaluate what Prairie Flower Farm is doing in comparison to other prairie restoration programs.
- Compare the biodiversity in a prairie environment to a typical corn or soybean field.
- Analyze data on water quality over time in areas with and without prairie.
- Research how native wildlife has been affected by depletion of prairie.
- Design posters educating the community on local prairie restoration projects.
Related Resources
- Iowa Living Roadway Trust Fund: Iowa DOT program to plant native plants alongside highways.
- Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation: Remnant Prairie: A Closer Look at Iowa's Rarest Landscape: Blog post on remnant prairie.
- Iowa PBS: Iowa Prairie Restoration: Iowa Land and Sky segment on prairie restoration.
- UNI Tallgrass Prairie Center: Information on prairies and restoration.
- Iowa Prairie Network: Organization dedicated to Iowa’s prairie heritage.
Iowa Core Alignment
MS-LS2-5:Evaluate competing design solutions for maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services
Credit Info
Media produced for Iowa Outdoors by Iowa PBS.
Submitted by Dan Voss and Madison Beeler as part of their Iowa STEM Teacher Externship experience at Iowa PBS.