Day 2 Instructional Procedures

1. Write the following words on the board for students to see: business and hobby. Ask students, “Which word best describes the purpose of a commercial farm?” (business)
2. Follow-up with a discussion about what distinguishes a business from a hobby. As students offer ideas, guide the discussion towards economic principles, pointing out that farmers are business managers that need to make sound financial decisions in order to stay in business providing food for our population. Every decision on a farm has an economic impact that must be considered. Some decisions increase the profitability of a farm and other decisions or circumstances decrease the profitability of a farm.
3. To demonstrate the connection between business economics and farm management decisions and circumstances, hold up a pencil for the students to see. Set the pencil down on a desk or table and ask a student to pick up only the eraser. Once the student determines that this is not possible without breaking the pencil, ask them if they can pick up only the lead (they can’t). Explain that farm economics and farm decisions and circumstances are inseparable. Give the following examples:
   • If there is a severe storm (circumstance on the farm), the farmer will have an economic impact that could include the cost to repair damaged barns or machinery and/or loss of crops that could have been sold and income received.
   • If a farmer purchases a new piece of equipment (farm management decision), there will be an economic consequence of paying for the equipment, but hopefully there will also be a positive consequence to increase production and profitability.
   • If a farmer hires additional employees to harvest their field faster (farm management decision), they will spend more of their income on labor but may complete the harvest quicker.
4. Inform students that they are going to step into the shoes of a farmer by playing a simulation game called Farmers 2050. Each student will need access to their own device to play the game.
5. Give each student one copy of the Farmers 2050 Handout. As students play the game, they should pay close attention to their game bank accounts. What kind of activities add money to their bank, what activities subtract money, and what kind of investments increase the rate of their financial return?
   • Teacher tips:
     • You can assign students to play the game for a set period of time or until they reach a specific level.
     • Students can play in class or as a homework assignment depending on their access to devices.
     • You could consider a class competition to see which farmer can earn the most money.
6. After students complete their specified time playing Farmers 2050, have a class discussion about what the students learned about farming and economics (money) from the game.
7. Point out to students that the game didn’t simulate the need for farmers to pay their employees but in real life, labor is a significant business expense on a farm, just like purchasing land, tractors, and seed.
8. Assign students to research average labor expenses for a farm producing the crop they chose in Milestone 1. Have them find what percentage of business expenses labor accounts for. As an example, the USDA reports that labor costs represent 40% of expenses on fruit and tree nut farms (Farm Labor, 2022). Students will likely find specific statistics for their fruit/vegetable with a Google search. This number will become their focus throughout the project as they look for ways to decrease it and should be recorded in their project portfolio or folder.

Day 3 Instructional Procedures

1. To fully examine the opportunity for more mechanization in agriculture, students should find and research food products that have already been mechanized. This background knowledge will build a foundation for them to develop their final presentation. Use wheat as an example of a crop that is already highly mechanized to discuss as a class. Give each student one stem of wheat (from the Wheat Bundle). Ask, “Does anyone recognize what kind of plant this is?” Explain that it is wheat.
2. Ask, “What foods can we find in the grocery store that are made from wheat?” Brainstorm the foods made from wheat flour. Examples include bread, pasta, flour, tortillas, rolls, flatbread, cakes, brownies, etc.
3. Display the Wheat Life Cycle Image for the students to see. Explain that the process of growing wheat includes planting wheat seeds (left), the green plant grows to maturity (middle), and then the plant turns yellow as it matures, indicating that it is ready for harvest (right). Point out that the stem of wheat in their hand is exactly what a wheat plant looks like at harvest.
4. Explain that the wheat is harvested in two steps. First, the plant is cut at the base of the stem. Then, the wheat seeds that will be ground into flour must be removed and separated from the rest of the plant. This process is called “threshing.” Instruct students to thresh their head of wheat. Demonstrate by placing the head of the wheat between the palms of your hands and vigorously rubbing them back and forth. View a demonstration found in the first 1:15 minutes of the Wheat Grinding Tutorial Video.
5. Now that the students have manually threshed the wheat, show the first three minutes of the Wheat Harvest Video to see how a machine called a combine harvests wheat on a large scale. Point out that wheat is a crop that is planted, grown, and harvested with machine power, only requiring a driver for each truck, tractor, or combine harvester.
6. Ask students to be thinking about what characteristics of wheat have made it possible to mechanize the entire process from farm-to-fork. If needed, prompt students to think about what they learned about their crop in Milestone 1 to serve as a comparison.
7. Give each student one copy of the All Powered Up Handout. Read through the instructions as a class. If needed, help students get started using the example of wheat that has already been discussed in class. Characteristics of wheat that make it a candidate for mechanized harvest include the following:
   • An entire field can be ready for harvest at once.
   • Wheat kernels are hard and durable. They are not damaged easily like a fruit or vegetable could be.
   • Wheat has a long shelf life. It can be harvested and then stored for long periods of time without spoiling.
8. At the conclusion of the activity, students should be able to recognize crops that use the most mechanization and be able to correlate the plant traits that make it easier to mechanize their growth and harvest. Instruct students to keep their All Powered Up Handout and notes to include in their project portfolio or folder and to use as a reference throughout the project.

Day 4 Instructional Procedures

1. Read or listen to the Robots are Trying to Pick Strawberries Podcast Episode from NPR. Discover the challenges engineers face in developing a strawberry-picking robot that can compete with the speed and efficiency of hand picking strawberries.
2. While students listen to the podcast, discuss the challenges. They include:
   • The robot can’t always find the berries when they are hidden behind leaves.
   • The robot is slower than human hands.
   • The robot doesn’t pick as many strawberries as human workers do.
3. Give each student one copy of the Challenges to Mechanization Handout. Have each group of students research their own food crop to discover the challenges that need to be overcome in order to decrease the need for human laborers in one or more steps from planting to harvest. Allow students time to research and make notes on their handout. This milestone prepares students to identify the capabilities their robot will need to possess for success.
4. Explain to students that they will be watching two different video clips showing a harvesting process. As they watch, they should be taking note of the similarities and differences between the two harvest processes and the machines that perform them. Begin with the Georgia Peanut Harvest Video. Stop the video at 3:10.
5. Continue with the Pepper-Picking Robot Video.
6. After watching both videos, ask the following questions:
   • What similarities and differences did you notice between the peanut and pepper harvesting process?
   • Which crop was harvested all at once? (peanuts) Which harvester had to determine if each individual item was ripe? (pepper)
   • Which harvester likely required higher levels of sophistication and technology? (pepper)
   • What is the difference between a machine and a robot? (All robots are machines, but not all machines are robots. Robots take inputs from the environment and use those inputs to make decisions. Robots are reprogrammable and multipurpose.)
7. Send students to research the difference between a machine and a robot. Have students take notes on the back of their Challenges to Mechanization Handout or another sheet of paper. Encourage the use of a Venn diagram or other graphic organizer. Remind students that this stage of research is laying out the blueprints for their final product. Write the following three steps on the board to give students direction during independent work time:
   • Compare and contrast a machine versus a robot.
   • Determine if they will need a machine or a robot for their farm.
   • Backup their decision by outlining the precise tasks their machine/robot will need to perform.
8. Instruct students to keep their Challenges to Mechanization Handout and notes to include in their project portfolio or folder and to use as a reference throughout the project.
   • Teacher tip: Throughout the PBL, recognize that the line between crops that are harvested by hand versus those harvested by machine isn’t always clear. In some cases a harvesting machine/robot might exist, but it isn’t used widely due to its expense or efficiency. The use of machine harvesters may also depend on the use of the end product. For example, crops destined for processing (jams, sauces, or frozen foods) may be picked by machine, but crops destined for raw sale in the produce department may need to be hand picked to preserve quality.

Instructional Procedures

1. With all of the research complete, students are ready to organize what they have learned into a presentation for an agricultural engineering company who they would like to contract to design and build the prescribed robot/machine to perform the labor.
2. To help students understand the intended audience of their presentation, share the Mechanical Engineering: Crash Course Engineering #3 Video (stop at 2:00 if time is short) and introduce opportunities for the Robotics Careers Video. Explain that individuals in these career areas would be doing the actual designing and building of a machine or robot. The students’ role as researchers so far has been to collect and gather all of the information necessary for the engineers to be successful.
3. Give each research group one copy of the Robots Wanted! Final Presentation Outline Handout. This checklist will assist students in organizing and preparing their final presentation.
4. Allow students time and resources to prepare their final presentation.
5. Each group should share their presentation with one other team to be critiqued. Taking turns, each team will present their findings and recommendations and answer clarifying questions. The audience will use the sentence starters, “I like…” to describe the strengths of the proposal, and “I have…” to offer ideas that might improve the proposal. Remind the students that feedback should be kind, helpful, and specific.
6. After reflecting on the feedback they received during the critique, the teams should refine their final presentation.

Instructional Procedures

1. Each group should be given an opportunity to present their proposal to the class. If possible, invite agricultural scientists/researchers or local farmers to join the audience and provide feedback either in person or virtually.
2. Provide each guest with a copy of the Rubric and Checklist for PBL Presentation to provide feedback for each presentation they will view.
3. Each team member is required to contribute to the presentation.
4. Each team member should submit their project portfolio or folder for summative grading.
5. All students should complete a Peer Collaboration Evaluation.
6. Have students fill in the Fillable Career Grid with careers from the clusters explored in this plan. If students need ideas, provide examples from Connections → Related Career Opportunities. Students can use the career information websites for details like education and salary. You can also show them the Example Career Grid (Product Design & Manufacturing).