Agriculture and Land Use Critical Thinking Prompts | Earth Science | Grades 6–8

This set of Critical Thinking Prompts pushes grades 6–8 Middle School Earth Science students past recall to evaluate the trade-offs of Agriculture and Land Use.

Prompt topics: land clearing on 40% of Earth's ice-free land, Dust Bowl lessons, conservation practices, fertilizer runoff and dead zones, deforestation, urban runoff and heat islands, overgrazing and desertification, crop rotation and legumes, feeding 10 billion people, and drone-based precision agriculture. Sample prompt: "What historical lessons can modern farmers learn from the 1930s 'Dust Bowl' disaster across the American Great Plains?"

What's inside: 10 open-ended questions, each with a follow-up prompt, a lined student response section, an answer key, and teacher notes for independent, small-group, and Socratic discussion.

Resource type: Critical Thinking Prompts (.docx). Format: editable Microsoft Word handout with approximately 1,190 words (~7 pages).

Classroom use: written analysis, discussion prep, or a Socratic seminar in a Middle School Earth Science course. Grades 6–8.

Format note: These files are delivered in Microsoft Office formats (Word and/or PowerPoint). If you open a worksheet that includes tables in Apple Pages or another non-Microsoft app, table formatting may not display correctly. For best results, use Microsoft Word or PowerPoint (or upload the file to Google Docs). If you run into any formatting issues, contact us and we can send a PDF version.