Activities: "Improving Old MacDonald's Farm"

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For Grades 6 - 8

Improving Old MacDonald's Farm (Full Article)(PDF) (2 pp, 1.5MB)

Improving Old MacDonald's Farm (Activity Sheets)(PDF) (9 pp, 850K)

Exercises:

Exercise I. Old MacDonald's Farmland Fertilizer Dilemma

Objectives:

This exercise is designed to further explore topics addressed in the accompanying article. Students work through calculations to determine how much fertilizer is needed to meet a plant's nutrient requirements. From these calculations, students draw conclusions about the most cost-effective and environmentally sound farming practices.

Time Required:

Individual exercises are designed to be approximately 1/2 hour to 45 minutes long. These exercises are also ordered progressively: each builds on concepts introduced in the previous.

Curricular Standards and Skills:

Math:

word problems
addition
subtraction
multiplying decimals
working with money
order of operations

Thinking Skills:

deductive reasoning

Language Arts:

reading comprehension

Vocabulary:

dead zone
eutrophication
pesticides, herbicides, and fungicides
sedimentation

Middle Schools | Improving Old MacDonald's Farm | Exercises: I | II | Top

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