Through project-based learning, students examine fruit and vegetable farms to discover the amount of manual labor required to plant, grow, and harvest some of our food. They research the business economics of farm management, the plant life cycle, and the requirements and challenges faced in reducing manual labor through mechanization or robotics. Students present their findings to an agricultural engineer to begin developing a solution to farm labor shortages.
Students discover the four main components of robots, explore how robots are used in agriculture, and program and operate a robot to address a farming challenge.
Students discover the four main components of robots, explore how robots are used in agriculture, and program and operate a robot to address a farming challenge.
Students explore how dominant and recessive traits are expressed and discover how knowledge of heredity is important to agriculture.
Students explore how genes affect important traits such as growth, reproduction, disease resistance, and behavior and discover the responsibilities of an animal geneticist.
Explore protein, discover the role of amino acids, identify dietary sources of complete and incomplete proteins, and make fresh mozzarella cheese—a food science experience where students will observe the protein in milk (whey and casein) separate from water in the creation of cheese.
Students explore the scientific processes used to make the crops we grow and the livestock we raise (commodities) into some of the foods we eat every day. Students will discover how science and technology work together to create foods like pickles, bread, yogurt and more! To engage further in the topic, students will make their own cheese using enzymes produced through the fermentation of genetically engineered yeast.
Students explore the almond tree life cycle including tree dormancy, pollination, bloom, and kernel development of an almond.
Students determine that the diversity of life in soil contributes to soil fertility.
Students dissect seeds, identify the anatomy and function of seed parts, and classify seeds as monocots or dicots.
Students will develop an appreciation for the extensive materials and career fields provided by agriculture, specifically as related to cereal grain production, processing, and consumption. Activities include playing a game in which students become agronomy specialists, mapping the top grain-producing states, and watching videos about careers related to grain production.
Students explore the difference between inherited and acquired traits and discover why knowledge of inherited and acquired traits is important to agriculture.