Indoor Pests and PathogensCarley Pavan

Activity Title: Identify common pests in the greenhouse.

Skill Level: Beginning Intermediate (High school)
Learner Outcomes:
1) Students will
pathogens
2) Students will
identify them
3) Students will
and pathogens
4) Students will
and pathogens

understand the difference between pests and

understand the different types of pests and how to
understand the harmful effects of the different pests
understand how to properly remove or dislocate pests

Education Standard(s) VA SOL: CTEsource.org

Identify greenhouse and garden pests.
Definition
Identification should include:
a selection of the following tasks:
List common greenhouse and garden pests.
Classify pests (e.g., insect, mite, rodent, weed, disease).
Collect and organize images of the pests and the damage they generate.
List plants that attract particular pests.
Examine health, safety, and environmental issues related to an industry/organization.
Identify pest control programs for greenhouse and landscape crops.
Definition
Identification should include:
scouting for pests
controlling pests by hand collection
spraying contact poisons
spraying systemic poisons
dusting garden crops
applying granular pesticides to greenhouse crops
applying granular pesticides to outdoor crops and plantings
calculating, measuring, and mixing pesticides, according to specifications
controlling greenhouse weeds.

Life Skills
Decision Making
Collaboration
Goal making
Team work
Pest identification
Tags:
Horticulture
Indoor plants
Indoor plant pests and pathogens
Time Needed: one class periods
Introduction Ask students to answer the questions on the board and then
take 5 minutes to discuss their answers.
Opening Questions: What pests may become established in the
greenhouse?
What are the major categories of plant pests?
Background information:
PowerPoint labeled Pests unit lesson
Experience explain the step by step process of what the facilitator would
do.Follow the experiential learning cycle. Explain:

Before the Activity

o Begin the lesson with a presentation (PPT, Prezi, etc.)
introducing what pests are and pathogens. Going through the
presentation with the students.
o During presentation
o Following the presentations, ask students:
Why is it important to scout for pests?
What are the methods for scouting?
How can you tell the difference between a chewing pest
and a piercing and sucking pest?
o Once the presentation is done students will be instructed to go
into the greenhouse.
o See if students can identify what types of pests or pathogens are
on the plants if any. Have the students write down what they
think with the number of the plant. Collect this as a participation
grade. Then go over with the students the correct answers to

what pests and pathogens are on the plants if any. Some plants
might have nothing wrong with them.

Share
At the end of the greenhouse pest identification have students do a
quick recap of what noticed and thought about the different pests.

Reflect:
Reflect on what the students thought about the pests. See if any
students noticed these pests before in the greenhouse.

Generalize
Do you have any personal experience with these pests at your house?

Term and Concept Discovery:

pests
pathogens
The Big Three
The Big Three
Piercing and sucking types
Sooty mold
Fungi
Bacteria
Cultural
Mechanical
Chemical
Apply
How can you take what you learned today and apply/ improve your
home?
References (this is essential if any sources were used to develop and/or
adapt the activity) *
PowerPoint referred from Indoor Plants Horticulture 2144
Learn More/ Virtual Fun/News/Did You Know
Youth Handouts with answer keys