California Career and Technical Education Standards

• ANR.C.C3.3 Understand public concern for technological advancements in agriculture, such as...
• ANR.C.C3.4 Understand the laws and regulations concerning biotechnology.
• ANR.FS.11.0 Demonstration and Application
• ANR.FS.4.3 Understand the influence of current and emerging technology on selected segments...
• ANR.FS.4.5 Determine the validity of the content and evaluate the authenticity, reliability...
• ANR.FS.5.3 Use critical thinking skills to make informed decisions and solve problems.
• ANR.FS.9.3 Understand how to organize and structure work individually and in teams for effe...
• ANR.FS.9.5 Understand how to interact with others in ways that demonstrate respect for indi...
• ANR.FS.9.6 Understand leadership, cooperation, collaboration, and effective decision-making...

California Academic Content Standards (Reinforced)

• ELA.9-10.LS.C.1.1 Formulate judgments about the ideas under discussion and support those judgments...
• ELA.9-10.LS.ODOC.1.3 Choose logical patterns of organization (e.g., chronological, topical, cause and...
• ELA.9-10.LS.ODOC.1.6 Present and advance a clear thesis statement and choose appropriate types of pro...
• ELA.9-10.LS.ODOC.1.8 Produce concise notes for extemporaneous delivery.
• ELA.9-10.R.CAGT.2.3 Generate relevant questions about readings on issues that can be researched.2
• ELA.9-10.R.EC.2.8 Evaluate the credibility of an author's argument or defense of a claim by critiq...54

• Set Activity - Hooks / Set

  Day 1 of this activity will require the use of the computer lab. You can either start in the classroom and move to the computer lab depending on the proximity to your lab. Or you can start in the computer lab.
  
  Using the take away activity (index cards) from the Benefits and Public Concerns of Technology in Agriculture, tape the cards around the room.
  
  As students enter the room, hand them a strip of 5 small stickers. As they are seated, inform them that they have 5 minutes to read the posted answers to the question "Is all technology good? Why or why not?" After reading through all of them one time, they need to place their voting stickers on the top five responses. At the end of five minutes, have them be seated while you collect the cards.
  
  Share the top 5-8 responses.
• Analyzing Technology in Agriculture - Lecture

  Using the attached power point, review the benefits of technology in agriculture. The slides will then lead you to explore Public Concern Areas of Agriculture Technology in relationship to the factors of production: land, labor, capital, and enterprise. It is recommended that you review these and modify/revise them to fit the level of your class. Prior knowledge will be drawn upon from CA & US Ag, niche markets, minimum wage, and family farm versus corporate farms. The final component to discuss in this section is the Controversial Ag Technology Topics.

  • Analyzing Technology Power Point Day 1 [ Download ] Power Point for Analyzing Technology in Ag
• Group Debate - Group Work

  After presenting the controversial ag tech topics, use the power point to guide you through the set up of the teams, topic selection, their position/stance (In Favor/Pro OR Opposed/Con), their task (questions to answer: what is it?, laws governing it (if any)?, when did it start?, who is doing it?, etc... After seeing their task, discussion about reliability of Internet resources will be covered. This will be followed with an overview of the class agenda for tomorrow and the debate format for organizing their information and team member responsibilities.
• Closure - Closure

  In the last 7 minutes of class while the students are working, hand out the Debate Order Worksheet.
  Today you have spent the period researching your agriculture technology. In the last five minutes of class, your team will complete the debate order paper that was handed out a few minutes ago. As you will recall, the debate has a specific order which is similar to this paper. To organize your presentation for tomorrow, identify the speaking responsibilities of all team members. Each team member must speak twice. This will be your exit ticket today.
  
  With two minutes remaining.
  Remember to close out your Internet Browser, log off the computer, push in your chair and take all of your materials and any garbage you may have created while you were here.
  
  ****END OF DAY 1 ****

  • Debate Order Worksheet - Print, Cut & Hand Out [ Download ] Debate Order Worksheet - Print, Cut & Hand Out
• Group Debate - Assessment - Assessment

  As students walk in the room, the power point should be up and running with the class agenda on the first slide. At the end of five minutes, review the debate order on the second slide. Review the attached voting card that they will submit at the end of the period after all debates are complete. Ask for volunteers, have them draw for order or assign the order of the debates.
  Attached is a sample scorecard. Depending on the criteria you want to use for evaluation, you can create a rubric that coincides with this scorecard.
  
  On average, each team will take 11 minutes for their debate. Most do not use the full minute for the debate. As such, usually 6 debates can be concluded in a class period. If not, you may need to carry this into a third day.

  • Debate Day - Public Concern for Technology [ Download ] Power Points for Debate Day
  • Debate Score Card [ Download ] Debate Score Card -- Sample