
SILO 4.4 (DRAFT) Year 4, Term 4: Precision agriculture Focus: Precision agriculture Scope and sequence: Precision agriculture
Learning intention: Students explore how agricultural processes are used to grow plants and raise animals.
Overview: Agriculture is another word for farming so it includes growing crops and well as raising livestock. This unit builds on prior knowledge from SILO F.3 'Living things' and SILO F.4 'Ecosystems' and leads into SILO 5.1 'Biochemistry'. The main focus is on introducing children to current farming practices and investigating how problem solving can be used to develop solutions for increased efficiency and yield. The concept of biosecurity is also introduced as another application of problem solving to reduce waste and disease.
NSW Syllabus	Australian Curriculum (version 9.0)
"A student describes how agricultural processes are used to grow plants and raise animals for food, clothing and shelter." (ST2-5LW-T)	"Students learn to explore how plants and animals are grown for food, clothing and shelter." (AC9TDE2K03)

Introduction to the topic

Agriculture is the art and science of farming so it includes growing crops and well as raising livestock. The main idea in precision agriculture is that measurement can be used to improve efficiency and increase yield.

Do plants eat dirt?

The proof that plants do not eat soil is attributed to Jean Baptiste van Helmont. In the 17th century Van Helmont weighed a willow tree before planting it in a known weight of dried soil and then re-weighed the tree five years later. The tree had increased in mass but, after drying the soil, the soil mass had hardly decreased at all. The following video (4:10) titled Where do trees get their mass? probes further into this question.

Using sensors for sustainable farming

The following video (5:17) featuring Walcha Central School shows Year 6 students designing their own greenhouse and using sensors as part of their study on sustainable farming practices.

The Cane Train

The following video (7:20) was made with the assistance of Northview State School in Mackay, Queensland, for National Science Week in 2021. It covers a range of activities for primary school as follows:

Lower primary: Place value activity use dice.
Upper primary: Sucrose measuring activity using portable refractometers.

Please note: The parents/guardians of the students in this video signed consent forms agreeing to their children being filmed for the online publication of this video. No students are named or identified in this video.

Regeneration

As early adopters of regenerative agricultural practices, Tim and Karen Wright began looking at a better way to manage their operation way back in the 1990's. This led to gradual changes across their properties as described in the following video (3:12). Their 'Lana' farm was also featured on the TV show Travel Oz (https://7plus.com.au/travel-oz) on 3rd August 2024. For more information see Natural Capital Farming (https://naturalcapitalfarming.com.au/).