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Post by Anthony Baker on Sept 13, 2017 18:18:19 GMT
Hey folks, please post links to any research materials you find in this thread, and make sure to add some commentary describing it and how you might use it.
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Post by Chris Midden on Sept 13, 2017 21:51:54 GMT
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Post by Anthony Baker on Sept 14, 2017 13:35:33 GMT
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Post by Chris Midden on Sept 15, 2017 11:10:43 GMT
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Post by Anthony Baker on Sept 15, 2017 14:03:04 GMT
Ok, potential phenomena/design challenge idea for our lesson. I see after a little Googling that Bluford has a pretty serious Ag/FFA focus (not surprising given its rural location), so it got me thinking about food chains, farming and efficiency. So, if we think about the use of agricultural lands, around here they are typically farmed for corn or soybeans, but neither of those for human consumption. In fact, all most all of the corn we grow is used for biofuels, feed for animals, or export, and then a tiny fraction for high fructose corn syrup. www.scientificamerican.com/article/time-to-rethink-corn/One could argue that by feeding animals, we are feeding humans, but animal feed is subject to "conversion efficiency" (for example, it takes about 6 pounds of feed to put 1 pound of weight on a cow). agricultureproud.com/2012/02/06/cattlemens-college-cattle-feed-efficiency/Other animals also have a "feed conversion ratio" salmonfarmscience.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/fcrs1.pngSo I'm thinking that the "feed conversion ratio" might be an interesting way to get some mathematical representations involved. If we pose this as some sort of challenge (what should a farmer grow, what kind of animals should we raise, etc etc) it might be a way for students to use practices like argumentation from evidence, analyzing and interpreting data and others, and it could also spark some classroom discussion that could involve Talk Moves. If we wanted to zoom out even further, we could ask if farming to feed animals is even a reasonable thing to do, as the agricultural land could just be used to farm food for humans and not subject to conversion efficiency. Some estimate we could feed 800 million with the land used to grain feed animals. news.cornell.edu/stories/1997/08/us-could-feed-800-million-people-grain-livestock-eatSo, just a brainstorm here, but I think there are some ways to reach our PE and be three dimensional. |
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Post by Zach Jones on Sept 15, 2017 15:02:12 GMT
I think the feed conversion ratio is perfect for the mathematical representation.
Also, bringing up your idea about sustainable farming also relates to the "Human impacts to environment" standard. (I totally paraphrased that) With 80% of harvested food feeding livestock, and another 10-15% being converted to High Fructose Corn Syrup, we could pose the question; "Is this a responsible sustainable way to distribute our crops to feed a global population?"
Not only are we reaching the mathematical representation PE, but we are also hitting multiple standards.
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Post by Anthony Baker on Sept 16, 2017 17:15:17 GMT
I think the feed conversion ratio is perfect for the mathematical representation. Also, bringing up your idea about sustainable farming also relates to the "Human impacts to environment" standard. (I totally paraphrased that) With 80% of harvested food feeding livestock, and another 10-15% being converted to High Fructose Corn Syrup, we could pose the question; "Is this a responsible sustainable way to distribute our crops to feed a global population?" Not only are we reaching the mathematical representation PE, but we are also hitting multiple standards. Yeah, I think the question "how do we feed the global population responsibly" is actually a pretty good driving question for a unit, and a lesson like this could fit in the storyline as a piece of the puzzle. Something like a video about starvation, or deforestation in South American rainforests for cattle raising could be a good anchoring phenomena. |
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Post by birknerc on Sept 18, 2017 22:24:28 GMT
Chris, I use that video in my class about how the wolves in Yellowstone changed the river.
We did an activity in a workshop recently about dynamic systems. I'll explain Wednesday how it works.
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Post by Zach Jones on Sept 19, 2017 18:16:04 GMT
I think the feed conversion ratio is perfect for the mathematical representation. Also, bringing up your idea about sustainable farming also relates to the "Human impacts to environment" standard. (I totally paraphrased that) With 80% of harvested food feeding livestock, and another 10-15% being converted to High Fructose Corn Syrup, we could pose the question; "Is this a responsible sustainable way to distribute our crops to feed a global population?" Not only are we reaching the mathematical representation PE, but we are also hitting multiple standards. Yeah, I think the question "how do we feed the global population responsibly" is actually a pretty good driving question for a unit, and a lesson like this could fit in the storyline as a piece of the puzzle. Something like a video about starvation, or deforestation in South American rainforests for cattle raising could be a good anchoring phenomena. Here is a 1:44 second video highlighting deforestation in Brazil, doesn't talk about cattle raising specifically, but it does talk about the soil not being sustainable for long term crop usage. |
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Post by Chris Midden on Sept 19, 2017 22:28:02 GMT
That looks like a great driving question and good local phenomena. Let's see where that leads us as we start this lesson study.
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Post by Erica Hicks on Sept 19, 2017 22:32:20 GMT
Here is a lesson we did on drilling in the ice core for Antarctica. (Amy did a great job teaching it!) I was reminded of the lesson with Chris' Cassini/Enceladus phenomena. The students could potentially use it for a math lesson to drill to the core of the moon... drive.google.com/open?id=0B0RgUBBLRbnWNWlBMU1fdzdpWjQ |
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Erica
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Post by Erica on Sept 19, 2017 22:55:56 GMT
Here is a Michael Jackson video on deforestation. It's catchy at least! I like the idea of looking at corn, cattle, etc. as it is a phenomena that hits close to home for the students! An opening question could even be something like, "Use data to show how the trophic systems would change from the bottom up if a natural disaster was to occur that eliminated all agriculture." youtu.be/XAi3VTSdTxU |
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Erica
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Post by Erica on Sept 20, 2017 16:01:51 GMT
Here are some things that we used during my West Ed training that might be able to be tweaked somehow to match our lesson. These items focus on energy and systems. |
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Erica
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Post by Erica on Sept 20, 2017 16:05:27 GMT
A few more...apparently I can only add 3 attachments at a time! |
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Erica
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Post by Erica on Sept 20, 2017 21:38:39 GMT
One more phenomena to add before I leave for the day...you guys got my brain in gear. If we want to look on a micro level, including hydrogen and so forth, we could look into phytoplankton. Phytoplankton contribute 50%-85% of the oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere and it is in slow decline due to global warming. What is going to happen to the Earth system when the phytoplankton gets to a certain percentage?
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