Lesson 5: The History of Agriculture and Project Management
Time: 1hr
Common Core:
Next Generation Science Standards: Grade 5
5-ESS3
Earth and Human Activity Students who demonstrate understanding can: 5-ESS3-1. Obtain and combine information about ways individual communities use science ideas to protect the Earth’s resources and environment.
Objectives: To describe how methods of farming have changed over hundreds of years. To evaluate evidence we have about farming in the past.
Key words: Agriculture; Reliability; Irrigation; Ploughing; Harvesting; Threshing
(Using Key words: Students can create a glossary, in books or on wall in classroom. Students are encouraged to practice using vocab in written or verbal sentences – perhaps writing example sentences and displaying them. Students could earn points for using the vocab in novel sentences each week)
Resources:
- PowerPoint – Ancient Egyptian farming
- Worksheet
- Ancient Egyptian Farming Photos (same ones that are in Ppt)
- http://www.mnn.com/leaderboard/stories/19-super-kids-who-will-save-the-world-from-adults – article for optional Enterprise Homework assignment
Activities
Introduction
Class Discussion
Q: Hundreds of years ago, why did people farm? (For food for their families).
Q: Nowadays, why do people farm? (To feed themselves, but also to earn money).
Q: How could we find out about how people farmed 10 years ago? (Ask some farmers, look on the Internet).
Q: How could we find out about how people farmed 100 years ago? (Read some books).
Q: How could we find out about how people farmed 1000 years ago? (Pictures)
(Further Discussion – As time passes, is the evidence more or less reliable?)
Group Activity
Give each group a couple of pictures of ancient Egyptian farming. (Also on slides 1-9 on PowerPoint)
Have them write all the information that they can get (especially linked to farming) from these images, then feedback to the class.
Go through key words: Ploughing; Harvesting; Threshing; Irrigating
Discussion:
How do we farm today?
Is this true for all countries?
Show PowerPoint slides: 10-17 and discuss alternative methods of farming via the Ppt
Further Activities or Homework
Research food crises from the past – causes and effects
Healthy Growing Session (if participating)
Enterprise Intro
Just like modern day farmers, you will be planning a business project to raise money. Perhaps selling your produce at a farmers market, working in a local cafe, selling produce at your baseball game, teaching people how to compost, selling seedlings, selling produce at recess to other students, etc – something revolving around the garden and/or what we’ve been learning.
What could it be?
Brainstorm ideas.
Enterprise Workshop:
Business representative(s) visits and discusses with class how to start with an idea and develop it into a successful project.
Step 1: Brainstorm – imagination, no ideas are bad, think big (ie. airplane made into a garden–>gave tours
Step 2: Narrow
Step 3: Market Research/Investigate
a) Has this been done before?
b) What’s the competition like?
c) Do people want/need it?
Step 4: Plan and Design/Create (who are your customers, when, why, where?)
Step 5: Market and Promote
Step 6: Prepare (people, place, tools)
Step 7: Implement
Homework
Using this article about “19 Superkids Who Will Save the World From Adults,” http://www.mnn.com/leaderboard/stories/19-super-kids-who-will-save-the-world-from-adults assign each student one of these 19 kids, in which they will report back to the class on. The report could include:
- Who the Superkid is
- How the Superkid developed their idea
- Some challenges the Superkid may have experienced
- Some reasons the Superkid’s idea was such a success
- How the Superkid has inspired the student
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