AGRICULTURAL ECOSYSTEMS - Amazon S3...Sustainable Farming Game: Group Discussion Directions: After...

AGRICULTURAL ECOSYSTEMSObserving Your Environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Roric’s Farming Goals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Sustainable Farming Game: Decisions and Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . 4

Sustainable Farming Game: Group Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Resource Scarcity Game Tasks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Graphing Relationships . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Unit Design Challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

The Engineering Design Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Ask: Identifying Criteria and Constraints of the Challenge . . . . . 10

Research: The Life Cycle of My Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Research: Identifying the Needs of My Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Research: Elements of a Successful Growing System . . . . . . . . . 13

Research: Precision Agriculture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

Research: Seeding Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Research: Agriculture’s Effects on Water Quality . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Imagine: Brainstorm potential design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Plan: Create a plan for providing a suitable environment . . . . . . 24

Test and Evaluate: Making Fair Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Test and Evaluate: Measuring Crop Productivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

Test and Evaluate: Measuring Limited Resource Use . . . . . . . . . . 27

Test and Evaluate: Data Collection Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Recommended Wisconsin Fast Plants Calendar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Improve: Self-Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

Real-World Reflection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

STUDENT NAME . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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CLASS PERIOD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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STUDENT NAME .......................................................................................... CLASS PERIOD .....................................................

Observing Your Environment

Directions: Record observations below about your environment.

What is the weather like?

Use all of your senses-- What sights, sounds, or smells are in your environment?

Look for one or several ways that humans interact with the environment.

What evidence do you see, hear, touch, or smell that shows human interactions impact the environment?

Note: It can be helpful to focus on describing what you observe rather than judging if the impact is negative or positive.

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Roric’s Farming Goals

Directions: Analyze the story to determine which economic, environmental, and social goals are important to Roric Paulman. In the table below, record which goals you identified and quotes that support your claim.

What can you infer from the text about Roric’s farming goals? Quotes to support your claim

Economic Goals

Environmental Goals

Social Goals

Other

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Sustainable Farming Game: Decisions and Outcomes

Directions:

1. Play the Grow Big Crops game.

2. Record your decisions and outcomes from each year of game play.

BUDGETBudget

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

CROPS PLANTEDField 1 Field 2 Field 3 Field 4 Field 5

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

MANAGEMENT PRACTICEDCenter Pivot

Irrigation Cover Crops Manure Fertilizer Pest Control Tillage Weed

Control Cost

Year 1

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Page 1 of 2

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Sustainable Farming Game: Decisions and Outcomes

GROW AND HARVEST (RANDOM EVENTS)

Event Protected by a management decision? Cost

Year 1 YES NO $

Year 2 YES NO $

Year 3 YES NO $

Year 4 YES NO $

Year 5 YES NO $

RESULTS

Net Profit Water Use Soil Health

Year 1 $

Year 2 $

Year 3 $

Year 4 $

Year 5 $

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Sustainable Farming Game: Group Discussion

Directions: After you have played the interactive farming game, get into groups of 3-4 students and complete the following discussion guide.

1. Did you have a strategy to do well in the game? What affected your strategy or decision-making?

2. A trade-off is a compromise. It is a situation in which you must choose between or balance two things that cannot be had at the same time. What were some of the trade-offs in the game?

3. In farming, there are some factors you can control, and others you cannot. In the game, which factors could you control? Which factors were out of your control?

4. Did you feel making decisions to make money or protect the environment were more important? Why do you think this was the case?

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Resource Scarcity Game Tasks

Construct productive farmland using your available resources. In order to complete this task, each group needs to gain access to:

Land (1) 4” x 5” brown square

Water (2) 1” x 5” blue strips, attached to land surface

Crops(2) 1” x 5” green strips, attached to land surface

Fertilizer(2) 1” x 6” yellow strips, attached to land surface in + shape

Herbicide, Fungicide, Pesticide(2) 1” x 4” red strips, attached to land surface in × shape

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Graphing Relationships

Directions:

1. Work with your group; draw two line graphs in your science notebooks to show relationships between the following…

• Resource availability and competition for resources• Competition for resources and market prices

HIGH

LOW

SCARCE ABUNDANT

Com

petiti

on fo

r res

ourc

es

Resource availability

Competition for resources

HIGH

LOW

LOW HIGH

Mar

ket p

rices

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Unit Design ChallengeGlobally, humans change the landscape and use available resources to meet our survival needs by growing food and raising livestock to eat. Agriculture provides us with livelihoods, economic stability, and food, fiber, and fuel for a growing world population. However, changing the landscape through agriculture also impacts natural ecosystems and the organisms that live within them.

Balancing human needs with the needs of other living things is sometimes called “sustainable development”. This means meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

To explore sustainable practices on a small-scale, your challenge is to design, build, and test a growing system that can sustain plant life and produce a productive “crop” while also conserving water quality in the system.

The Engineering Design Process

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Ask: Identifying Criteria and Constraints of the Challenge

Directions: Work with a partner to brainstorm criteria or constraints for the unit challenge. If you have questions about limitations, make a list of questions to ask your teacher.

Criteria (What does a successful design need to do?)

Constraints (What are limitations for my design? Think about time, cost, what materials can be used, etc.)

What do I need to know to create a successful design?Break down the challenge into smaller parts. Start by brainstorming a list of questions you would like to answer that would be helpful in planning your design.

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Research: The Life Cycle of My Plant

Directions:

1. Watch the Wisconsin Fast Plants’ life cycle video: https://youtu.be/P_PFiuVsSDw. 2. In the space below, draw a diagram of the life cycle of the Wisconsin Fast Plant.3. Label the important processes that will occur in your plant’s life cycle to survive and produce seeds. (Be sure to include germination, photosynthesis, pollination, and reproduction.)4. In your own words, describe how you plan to meet the survival needs of your plant in your growing system.

My plant’s common name: .............................................................................................................................................

My plant’s scientific name: ............................................................................................................................................

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https://youtu.be/P_PFiuVsSDw.


Research: Identifying the Needs of My Plant

Directions: Use the space below to list the resource needs of your plants.

RESOURCE REQUIREMENTS FOR MY PLANTS (Be sure to include your recommendations for sunlight, water, planting substrate or soil, and nutrients)

Information Source:

How do I know I can trust this information?

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Research: Elements of a Successful Growing System

Directions:

1. Brainstorm what questions you have about designing a successful growing system

2. Conduct research to see how others have designed gardens, farms, terrariums, or other growing systems to successfully grow a productive crop, use limited resources, and protect environmental quality.

My question:

Successful growing system design:

My question:


My question:


My question:


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Research: Precision Agriculture

How can we construct a device to vary water flow using the engineering design process?

PROBLEM AND OBJECTIVE POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

CONSTRAINTS AND CRITERIA

TESTING

BRAINSTORMING

FINAL SOLUTION

Page 1 of 2

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Research: Precision Agriculture

How accurate was your design? Record the amount of water that went into each cup.

Page 2 of 2

Was your design successful?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What could you do to improve your design?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Why do you think that varying water amounts is useful?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Research: Seeding Rate

Directions:

1. Examine the following real-world soybean seeding rate data in the table below.

Seeding rate (# of seeds planted per acre of land)

Harvest population (# of plants per acre at harvest)

Yield (Bushels per acre)

90,000 83,167 76

120,000 111,500 77

150,000 136,500 77

180,000 165,000 76

2. Work with a partner to create a graph of seeding rate by yield.

3. What patterns do you notice in these data?

4. Do all seeds grow up to be successful plants? What evidence do you have?

5. Using these data as evidence, how does seeding rate affect crop productivity?

Work with a partner or small groups. Collaboratively develop a seeding rate recommendation for soybean farmers and use your data analysis to support your recommendation.

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Research: Agriculture’s Effects on Water Quality

Examine the photo below.

What do you think you are seeing in this picture?

How might agricultural practices upstream affect water quality downstream?

Brainstorm as a class and record questions you have on the board.

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INVESTIGATION 1: COMPARING TILLAGE PRACTICESDirections: Follow the lab procedures below to begin comparing two different tillage management practices, conventional tillage and no-till.

Materials needed:

• 2 disposable plates• Marker• 2 wire mesh strainers• 1 strainer-full each of soil samples A and B• 2 glass custard cups filled half-full with water• Extra water

Part 1 Procedures:

1. Label two disposable plates: one plate Sample A and the other plate Sample B2. Collect a “strainer” full of each type of soil and place on the appropriate plate.3. Make observations and record on your lab journal.

Part 2 Procedures:

4. Fill each custard cup about half way with water.5. Place each strainer into a custard cup.6. Add more water until the soil is saturated.7. Make observations and record in your lab journal.

Sample A

Sample B

Page 1 of 2

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INVESTIGATION 1: COMPARING TILLAGE PRACTICESDirections: Follow the lab procedures below to begin comparing two different tillage management practices, conventional tillage and no-till.

Part 3 Procedures

8. After the soils have become saturated, remove the strainers and invert them onto the appropriate paper plate. **Use a brisk movement so that all the soil falls out of the strainer.

9. Make observations and record in your lab journal.

Part 4 Procedures

10. Carefully tilt the two plates to observe any movement of the soil and water


Reflection Questions: Soil Stability

The quality and stability of the soil is affected during times of flooding, erosion, and water retention during droughts.

• Which soil would be more stable during extreme conditions such as flooding, a heavy rainstorm, or a drought?

• Which soil would be more stable on a steep slope?

• What qualities of the soil make it stable?

Page 2 of 2

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INVESTIGATION 2: RAINFALL SIMULATOR

Watch as the conventionally tilled and no-till soils are placed into identical rainfall simulators. Your instructor will simultaneously add 250 ml of water into each container. This simulates about 1 inch per acre of rain.

1. Record your observations in your lab journal.

Your instructor will simultaneously add another 250 ml of water into each container. What differences do you see?

2. Record your observations in your lab journal

Reflection Question: Infiltration

Imagine these soils come from neighboring farm fields. Field A soil receives no-till management. Field B soil receives conventional tillage management. If a heavy rainstorm were to move into the area…

Where do you predict the rainfall would go from these two fields?

Gathering more information about soil structure and soil aggregates

1. Read the section entitled “Soil Aggregation: the Basis of Soil Health” found here: http://ucanr.edu/sites/Nutrient_Management_Solutions/stateofscience/Soil_Health_894/

2. Add notes to your science journal about how soil aggregates are formed and how sustainable farming practices help to form soil aggregates.

Organic matter in the soil

Organic matter is an important part of soil. Soils with greater amounts of organic matter are better at holding moisture. This moisture can be stored and used when it is most needed, such as during a drought.

How might a farmer increase organic matter in the soil?

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http://ucanr.edu/sites/Nutrient_Management_Solutions/stateofscience/Soil_Health_894/



INVESTIGATION 3: THE CLOD TEST

Materials needed:

• 2 soil clods (one from each soil type)

• Marker

• 2 tall containers

• 2 pieces of wire mesh

Part 1 Procedures:

1. Collect a clod from each type of soil.


Part 2 Procedures:

3. Label two tall containers: Sample A and Sample B

4. In each container, place the mesh screen across the top to form a shelf. Note: The shelf should be deep enough in the container that when a dirt clod is placed on the shelf, it will be completely covered with water.

5. Fill the containers nearly to the top with water.

6. Simultaneously, add each clod to the appropriate container.

7. Make observations and record in your science journal.

Turbidity is the cloudiness of water caused by particles in the water. It is a measurement of water quality where high turbidity = low quality of water.

8. Compare the effect of water on clod A and clod B. Write your observations in your science journal.

Discuss with your group:

1. What effect do the different tillage practices appear to have on soil erosion?

A B

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EXPLAINING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SOIL HEALTH AND WATER QUALITYEach year, the Mississippi River carries approximately 500 million tons of sediment into the Gulf of Mexico. This image shows the murky brown water of the Mississippi mixing with the dark blue water of the Gulf two days after a rainstorm. The river brings enough sediment from its 3,250,000 square km (1,250,000 square mi) basin to extend the coast of Louisiana 91 m (300 ft.) each year.

Think about how soil loss such as this affects water quality.

Discuss the following as a whole class:

• If soil loss continues, what effect(s) do you predict this will have on the water quality in the Gulf of Mexico?

• What effect do you predict this will have on soil quantity on our farms?

• What other materials besides soil might be entering the Gulf of Mexico due to erosion?

As a class, read about The Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico or listen to the story: http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/08/03/541222717/the-gulf-of-mexicos-dead-zone-is-the-biggest-ever-seen

Discuss with a partner:• How is water run-off from agricultural fields related to dead marine life in the Gulf of Mexico?

REFLECTING ON SOLUTIONS TO NUTRIENT POLLUTIONThe Chesapeake Bay had a similar problem, but in 2010, despite protest from farmers, the government stepped in creating regulations restricting the amount of nutrient pollution that could enter the bay. Today, the bay is starting to recover.

Discuss your thoughts about the following questions. Select one question and write a brief reflection in your science journal.

• If sediment and pollutants from the Midwest continue to flow into the Gulf of Mexico, do you think the government should step in and regulate? Why or why not?

• One way to prevent government regulation is for farmers to proactively solve the problem. What strategies could a farmer implement to reduce erosion and minimize impact on the Gulf of Mexico?

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http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/08/03/541222717/the-gulf-of-mexicos-dead-zone-is-the-biggest-ever-seen

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/08/03/541222717/the-gulf-of-mexicos-dead-zone-is-the-biggest-ever-seen


Imagine: Brainstorm potential design

Directions: Apply what you have learned about successful growing system features to sketch potential designs (feel free to use additional paper if you need more space). Select your favorite. Describe your proposed growing system to be tested and list the materials you will need to build it. Be sure to label your sketch with important design features.

My design sketches

Materials needed

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Plan: Create a plan for providing a suitable environment

Directions: Apply what you have learned about your plants’ needs to create a plan for providing a suitable environment.

My plan for creating a suitable environment

What soil or planting mix will I use?

How many seeds will I plant?

How much fertilizer will I use?

How much water will I add? When will I know to add more?

How will I provide adequate light?

How will I limit my use of resources?

How will I protect environmental quality?

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Test and Evaluate: Making Fair Comparisons

Imagine the following farming scenario.

Jim has two fields, Field A and Field B, and he wants to compare their productivity. After harvest, Jim calculates how much grain was grown on each field. On Field A, 1500 bushels of corn were grown on 10 acres of land. On Field B, 2000 bushels of corn were grown 15 acres of land.

Jim thinks to himself, clearly, 2000 bushels is more than 1500 bushels, so Field B must be more productive.

With a partner, discuss the following:

1. What do you think? Is Jim making a fair comparison?

2. What information do you think is needed when determining how productive a field is?

3. Would it make a difference if one field was irrigated and the other was not?

Field A10 acres

1500 bushels

Field B15 acres

2000 bushels

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Test and Evaluate: Measuring Crop Productivity

Productivity is a measure of how many units of output (or production) you can produce per unit of input (such as land). In a farm system, the yield, or amount produced, is sometimes measured in bushels per acre. By measuring productivity this way, a farmer is able to make fair comparisons of productivity in fields of various sizes.

Productivity = Yield =OutputInput

Productivity = Yield = = 57 bushels per acre570 Bushels

10 Acres

Divide into groups of 3-4. With your group, brainstorm a reasonable way to measure productivity in the growing systems.

Land Input Crop Output

10 acres of land

570 bushels of soybeansFarm System

Land Input Crop Output

Your Growing System

How does your group propose calculating the productivity of growing systems?

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

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Test and Evaluate: Measuring Limited Resource Use

While productivity and efficiency are similar, they are not measured in exactly the same way. In both cases, we are talking about a ratio of outputs to inputs. However, in agriculture, productivity is generally a measurement of unit of crop produced per unit of land such as bushels per acre. This is also known as yield.

Water use efficiency is a measurement of yield (productivity) per unit of water applied. When we talk about having limited resources such as in arid regions with limited water resource, we may be especially concerned about water use efficiency in our system.

Limiting Use of Resources = Efficiency =Productivity

Inputs

What would your water use efficiency be if you applied 12 acre-inches of water instead of 10? Would your water use efficiency be higher or lower?

It wouldn’t make much sense to measure the amount of water applied to your system in acre-inches (the amount of water needed to cover an acre of land with one inch of water) because your system is much smaller. In addition, you will not be measuring crop output in bushels per acre. With your group, brainstorm reasonable units of measurement for both water applied and productivity in your system and record your ideas below.

Water Input Productivity

10 acre-inches

57 bushels per acreFarm System

Water Input Productivity

Your Growing System

Water Use Efficiency = = = 5.7Productivity

Inputs57 bushels/acre10 acre-inches

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Test and Evaluate: Data Collection Plan

What question will I answer?

What will I measure?When will I measure it?

What tool(s) will I be using?

What data will I collect?

Prod

uctiv

ityLi

miti

ng U

se o

f Res

ourc

esEn

viro

nmen

tal Q

ualit

y

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Recommended Wisconsin Fast Plants Calendar

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

0Plant seedsObserveMeasure

1Tend

2 3 4Thin plants TendMeasure

5 6

7ObserveMeasure

8Tend

9 10 11TendMeasure

12 13

14 15Tend

16 17PollinateMeasure

18Cut off unpolli-nated budsTendMeasure

19 20

21 22Tend

23 24 25Tend Measure

26 27

28 29Tend

30 31 32Tend Measure

33 34

35 36 37Stop wateringMeasure

38 39 40 41

42 43 44Harvest plantMeasure

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Improve: Self-Assessment

Directions: Using observations and measurements as evidence, write a 1-page summary of the design and implementation experience.

1. How well did your solution address the challenge?

2. What worked well? What did not work?

3. What would you change for next time? Why?

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Real-World Reflection

1. Would access to resources in your system be a good model for crops accessing nutrients on a real farm? Why or why not?

2. How might environmental conditions in your system differ compared to a farm? How might they be similar?

3. How was your decisions making similar or different to a farmer’s decision making?

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AGRICULTURAL ECOSYSTEMS - Amazon S3...Sustainable Farming Game: Group Discussion Directions: After...

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Transcript of AGRICULTURAL ECOSYSTEMS - Amazon S3...Sustainable Farming Game: Group Discussion Directions: After...