Fields of Opportunities – bESTology Week 5

Fields of Opportunities – bESTology Week 5

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Farmers can be ranchers, grazers, goatherds, shepherds, sharecroppers and more, but no matter what a farmer grows or manages, knowledge of chemistry, business, management, weather, biological sciences, engineering and technology are a must.

A farmer must be a highly skilled problem-solver and critical thinker. In addition, he or she must be able to apply the engineering design process or scientific method, sell their product(s), write clear and concise documents and have the spirit of farming. Since BEST teaches these skills, let’s plant the seed for a career in farming and agriculture.

Resources

• Farmer – Wikipedia
• U.S. Department of Labor – Career Information
• Women in Agriculture
• Become a Farmer – How to Guide by the USDA
• USDA Jobs and Careers
• Careers in Farming and Agriculture – five (5) videos
• Explore Careers – Study.com
• Creating an Organizational Chart – four (4) videos
• Create an Organization Chart using Microsoft Office
• Food Supply Chain – From Farm to Market

Grainstorming

Reference your BEST Farm Journal and the Silo activity from bESTology Week 2. Add two new silos labeled direct and indirect farming careers. Grainstorm all of the ways people are directly employed on a farm or earn a living indirectly as a result of farming. For example, a farm hand would be a person directly connected with the farm but the realtor who sells the farm or the grocer who sells the milk are associated indirectly. Begin filling your silos with careers! Compare your list of careers with others on your team.

Challenge: Add a Department of Labor Classification to each career. Enjoy exploring and classifying!

BEST Farm Journal

Choose one career from a Grainstorming silo and write a job description including the skill sets and education required to successfully fulfill the job. Next, contact and interview someone who has the job in your community. Once the interview is complete, edit your job description to include points learned in your discussion.

BEST Connection

Begin growing your BEST team for Bet The Farm 2016. Generate a list of jobs required for your team and the skill sets needed for each. Mimicking industry, create an organizational chart for your company (team). As team members are hired (chosen) for each job, add their photo and a short bio into the graphics. Incorporate the organizational chart into your BEST marketing presentation. Using the above resources, estimate a real-world salary for each job and then calculate the overall budget for your employees (team members). To determine a sales price for your robot, add the budget of your employees to your R&D budget (designing and building your robot). You may just have a million dollar robot!

Community Connection

Meet your grocer! Plan a field trip to your local grocery store and ask the grocer to help you identify careers associated with products on the store shelves. Divide into teams, with each team investigating a specific area of the store — produce, meat, dairy, dry goods, etc. An example of your task would be: ground beef requires a rancher, farm hand, truck driver, meat processer, packager, butcher and others. For a special treat, include the bakery and enjoy a delicious cookie while speaking with the baker of how farming contributes to this section of the store.

Before exiting, name all of the jobs required to sell the products within the grocery store. As you travel back to your school, discuss how the cost of food is directly related to the salaries of employees and the distance from the farm to market.

Enrichment (Fertilizer for the Brain)

Thank A Farmer Day! During the next 24 hours, give thanks for the food we eat and generate awareness for the farmers who grew the food. Before eating each meal, analyze the food and state out loud each type of farmer who helped grow the food. Discuss with others during the meal the challenges and rewards of a career in farming.

The official Thank A Farmer Day is October 12^th. Plan an event at your school to coincide with Bet The Farm 2016!

Bloom’s Taxonomy: add, analyze, ask, brainstorm, calculate, choose, classify, compare, contact, create, determine, discuss, edit, estimate, fill, generate, identify, include, incorporate, interview, investigate, label, name, plan, reference, state, write

Workforce Skills: reading comprehension, active listening, critical thinking, speaking, active learning, coordination, writing, social perceptiveness, mathematics, science

Download a PDF copy of Fields of Opportunities – bESTology Week 5  Click HERE

Have you told your friends about bESTology?  Help us spread the word and be your BEST!

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