Virtual Tour of Wal-Mart

Georgia Agriculture Education Curriculum Office - September, 2006

Written by Dr. Frank Flanders and Adrienne Gentry

Purpose:
To help students understand the broad range of agriculture and the vast number of products
manufactured from agriculture products.
Teacher Notes:
This lesson is best suited for first-year Agriculture Classes.
Instruct the students to close their eyes and tell them that you are going to take them on a virtual
tour of Wal-Mart. (Any general type of retail store like Wal-Mart will work as long as it is
frequented often by students and they can get a good visualization of the store - - K-Mart, Fred’s,
Target, etc.)
Procedure and Instructions:
1. With the student’s eyes closed, ask them to walk through the front doors of Wal-Mart.
What do you see? Turn to the left and think of what you see. Ask a few of the students
to say out loud what they are imagining. Ask questions that relate specifically to your
store. For example, do you see the Coke Machine there on the left? Really get the
students visualizing the store.

2. Travel through all the different sections of Wal-Mart.

Children’s Pharmacy Pet Food
Hardware/Paints Floral Meats
Jewelry Books/Magazines Home Decorations
Bakery Toys Garden Center
Sea Food Auto Section Hunting, Fishing, &
Sporting
Cereals/Breakfast Food Electronics Clothing
Coffee/Tea/Drinks Canned Foods Produce
School/Office Health and Beauty Home Improvement
Paper Products Furniture Arts and Crafts
Dairy Frozen Foods Bedding
On Each aisle, ask the students what products they are seeing. Ask them if that product
relates in any way to agriculture products. What raw material is it made from? Give all
or most students a chance to name a product they see.

3. Ask the students to open their eyes and complete the study sheet provided. Instruct the
students to write down twenty items that they saw in the virtual Wal-Mart. After each
item is named, take time to tie each item back into agriculture. For example, if a student
said Tylenol, then you could talk about how plants are used for medicines and medicines
are tested on animals. If the student said dog food, then you could talk about small
animal production and by-products of plant and animal processing. You can even tie in
electronic items into agriculture. For example; the paper in the front of the CD cases
utilizes trees to produce the paper. It is difficult to think of an item at Wal-Mart that
doesn’t involve some facet of agriculture.

Virtual Tour of Wal-Mart

Georgia Agriculture Education Curriculum Office

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 Virtual Tour of Wal-Mart
Study Sheet
Name: ____________________
Date: _____________________

1. Make a list of twenty items that you saw on your virtual journey through Wal-Mart. List the
raw materials used in the product.
Wal-Mart Item Raw Material
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.

2. List the four agriculture raw materials that are most common in the items you saw on your
virtual tour of Wal-Mart.

1. 3.
2. 4.

3. List some of the items you saw on the virtual tour that do not relate directly to agriculture.

Virtual Tour of Wal-Mart

Georgia Agriculture Education Curriculum Office

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 Virtual Tour of Wal-Mart
Study Sheet Key
1. Make a list of twenty items that you saw on your virtual journey through Wal-Mart. List
the raw materials used in its products.

Sample Responses
Wal-Mart Item Raw Material
1. Bananas Food/Produce
2. Tylenol Plants/Animals
3. Yarn Plants/Cotton
4. Shirts Plants/Cotton
5. Cereal Food/Row Crops
6. Milk Food/Animals/Dairy Products
7. Fish Food Animals/Plants
8. Pillow Plant/Cotton
9. Poster board Trees
10. Folders Trees
11. Ice Cream Food/Animals/Dairy Products
12. Fishing Pole Animals
13. Paper in CD Case Trees

2. List the four agriculture raw materials that are most common in the items you saw on your
virtual tour of Wal-Mart.

Sample Answers
1. Cotton

2. Dairy Products

3. Plants

4. Trees

3. Can you think of any items that do not relate to agriculture?

It may be hard for students to think of items that use no agricultural materials. You can
tie most items to some agricultural material. For example, even light bulbs are wrapped
in cardboard which utilizes trees.

Virtual Tour of Wal-Mart

Georgia Agriculture Education Curriculum Office

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