High school students, as scientists, investigate changes in coffee plant populations in order to answer the following driving question: Why might there be a future without coffee and can we do anything about it? Students figure out that there are a number of environmental changes that have threatened coffee plants. Students will explore more about a disease called Coffee Leaf Rust (CLR) that is becoming more common in coffee plants. Students will learn that some coffee plants are more resistant to rust than others. Students will model their initial ideas about how wild and cultivated coffee populations are changing and why the future of these populations looks bleak. Students will create a list of ideas about what we would need to know about coffee plants in order to protect them in the future.

This is Lesson 1 of the A Future Without Coffee Playlist.

Click the Download PDF button above for the complete Lesson Plan.

Student Materials

Per Student

• NIH EV PLAY Handout 1.1 Coffee Study
• NIH EV PLAY Handout 1.2 Wild Coffee Vs. Cultivated Coffee
• NIH EV PLAY Handout 1.3 Tool for Obtaining Information from Text
• NIH EV PLAY Handout 1.7 Coffee Plant Population Initial Model

Per Small Group (2 to 4 students)

• NIH EV PLAY Handout 1.4 Climate Change Prediction on Coffee Plants in Ethiopia
• NIH EV PLAY Handout 1.5 Rust Disease in Coffee Plants
• NIH EV PLAY Handout 1.6 Effects of Deforestation on Wild Coffee Plants

Teacher Materials

• L1 Slides
• A Future Without Coffee Front Matter
• A Future Without Coffee Model Tracker
• A Future Without Coffee Storyline