model eliciting activities: life science and economics

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Design Process

Planting Vegetables After a Hurricane

Reading Passage 1: First Letter to Students

Dear Future Agricultural Engineers, I am Stella Sun, the owner of Sunshine State Farm. A hurricane brought big storms with lots of wind and rain to our town. The hurricane destroyed half of my farm. Now, I need your help to solve a problem.

My fields have been damaged and the crops I was growing are ruined. I need to replant, but the growing season is now shorter so that limits which crops I have time to grow. Can you help me pick the best ones to grow?

I am sending you a data table about vegetables that I can grow. Can you write a letter to tell me the order, from best to worst, of which plants I should grow? I also need you to tell me how you came up with your ranking so I can tell my farm hands. Please make it clear so I can understand it well enough to explain to them.

Thank you, Stella Sun

Data Set 1 Vegetable Vegetables

picked per planting

=10 pounds

Easy to grow (amount of labor required)

=labor/work

Cost to consumer

=lowest cost

People like the most (saleability)

= 10 pounds sold

Tomatoes

Lettuce

Carrots

Potatoes

Dear Future Agricultural Engineers,

I received your letter. Thank-you for your help with last season’s planting. I have some great news to share. My farm is back up to running at 100% so I can now plant on all 15 acres. Unfortunately, because of a nasty bug, I would need to use pesticides in order to plant some of my vegetables. When you look at the new data set, you will see the vegetables that are susceptable bugs. Also I have added green beans to the table to help make up for the vegetables I couldn’t plant last time around. Look at the new data; can you please help me choose what I should plant? Use the data in the chart to rank the vegetables from most important to least important. Next, please write a letter to me with the list of the ranking, and letting me know if your plan had to change from last time because of the new data.

Thank you, Stella Sun

Data Set 2 Vegetable Vegetables

picked per planting

=10 pounds

Easy to grow (amount of labor required)

=labor/work

Cost to consumer

=lowest cost

People like the most (saleability)

= 10 pounds sold

Amount of pesticide required to control insects.

=bugs Tomatoes

Lettuce

Carrots

Potatoes

Celery

Sweet Bell Peppers

Green Beans

Flower Garden Dear Students, Our class is planting a flower garden. We need your help in deciding which flowers to plant. Our garden is going to be in an area that gets lots of sun. We have enclosed data on 4 types of flowers. Please look at the data and make a plan to rank each flower from best to worst. In your letter to us, please include your plan and your ranking. Sincerely, Mrs. Petunia’s Class

Flower Choices

Type of Flower

Amount of

Sunlight Needed

Amount of Water

Needed

Number of Times

Plant Blooms Each Year

Number of Flowers per

Plant

Zippies

every 3 days 2 20

Bloomers

every 4 days 4 10

Fuzzies

every 4 days 5 10

Dollups

every 2 days 3 20

Our team, __________________, has decided the best way to rank the flowers is by: _______________________________________________ The order that we ranked the flowers from best to worst is: Sincerely,

Dear Mrs. Petunia’s Class,

Dear Students, Thank you for your hard work in figuring out which flowers would be the best to plant in our garden. We were told by our principal that the size of our garden is going to be about half the size we wanted. So, I have added data to help with this problem. Please look at the new set of data and make any changes needed to your plan so that we have a beautiful garden full of flowers. Remember to explain your process for ordering the flowers. Thank you for your time and we look forward to hearing from you. Sincerely, Mrs. Petunia’s Class

Flower Choices Type of Flower

Amount of

Sunlight Needed

Amount of

Water Needed

Number of

Times Plant

Blooms Each Year

Number of

Flowers per

Plant

Number of

Plants Fitting in the Space

Zippies

every 3 days

2 20 3

Bloomers

every 4 days

4 10 5

Fuzzies

every 4 days

5 10 3

Dollups

every 2 days

3 20 5

Dear Mrs. Petunia’s Class, Our team, __________________, has decided the best way to rank the flowers is by: _______________________________________________ Our procedure for ranking (did/ did not) change. (If it changed, explain how and why. If it did not change, explain why not). _______________________________________________ The order that we ranked the flowers from best to worst is:

Reading Passage 1 Our company specializes in landscaping, specifically, in planting bushes, plants, and trees for homes.

Recently, the Perez family called our company because they bought a house that has an acre of land. The house is located in South Florida. They want to have a section dedicated for a vegetable garden. The vegetable garden section should measure 30 feet long by 30 feet wide. They want a variety of vegetables, but are not sure what grows best in South Florida. They also want to know the best use of the vegetable garden and they want to have at least 5 different kinds of vegetables in their garden.

We want your help in ranking the 5 best choices of vegetables the Perez family should plant in their vegetable garden. We also want a model of a good way to plant them in the space provided for the vegetable garden. We have included information on the next page of the choices the Perez family wants you to consider for the garden. Write me back to let me know the ranking and how you made the ranking. I also want a model to show where in the garden should the family plant each vegetable

Plant Mature Height

Plant Spacing Sunlight requirements

Amount of Water Required

Red bell pepper

Red

2 – 3 feet

18 in. - 24 in. apart Full sun

 Water every 2-3 days

Yummy Snacking Pepper

Green

1 ½ - 3 feet


Water every 2-3 days

Tomato

Orange

6 – 10 feet

36 in. apart Full sun.


Bonnie pepper

Yellow

1 ½ - 2 feet

 18 in. - 24 in. apart Full sun to partial shade


Eggplant

Purple

2 - 3 feet

24 in. - 36 in. apart Partial shade

Water daily

Jalapeno-Mucho Nacho Pepper

Black

1 ½ - 2 feet



Letter Template 1 Dear Mrs. Tamera Ross,

We are sending you a design for the vegetable garden.

We are also including the steps we took to make our choices.

First, we _____________________________________________________.

Then, we ______________________________________________________.

Next, we ______________________________________________________.

Finally, we ____________________________________________________.

Respectfully,

(Map of the garden should be included as an attachment.)

Reading Passage 2 We thank you for your interest in helping us out. The problem is that we will need to take out one row of vegetables in order to include two herbal plants in its place. Please review the map you submitted. Eliminate one row of vegetables. Add the two herbs we want to include. Please write us a letter listing and ranking the herbs and vegetables you chose, as well as, the process you used to rank choices. We are looking forward to your results.

Plant Mature Height

Plant Spacing Sunlight requirements


Red bell pepper

Red

2 – 3 feet


 Water every 2-3 days

Yummy Snacking Pepper

Green

1 ½ - 3 feet



Tomato

Orange

6 – 10 feet

36 in. apart Full sun.


Bonnie pepper

Yellow

1 ½ - 2 feet

 18 in. - 24 in. apart Full sun to partial shade


Eggplant

Purple

2 - 3 feet

24 in. - 36 in. apart Partial shade

Water daily

Jalapeno-Mucho Nacho Pepper

Black

1 ½ - 2 feet



HerbsHerb Plant Mature Height Plant

Spacing Sunlight requirements


Lemon thyme

3 ½ inches 12 in. - 18 in. apart

Full sun to partial shade


Sweet Basil 3 ½ inches 12 in. - 18 in. apart

partial shade


Letter Template 2 As you requested, we are sending you a revised design of the vegetable garden

with the herbs included. We took out _______________________ to make space

for __________________ and ______________________.

We are also including the steps we took to make our choices.

First, we _____________________________________________________.

Then, we ______________________________________________________.

Next, we ______________________________________________________.

Finally, we ____________________________________________________.

Respectfully,

(Map of the garden should be included as an attachment.)

We have a school garden and we want to plant two different crops this year. That means we need one crop to finish growing and be harvested before we can plant the second crop. We can only plant one type of plant at a time.

Plants only grow during certain seasons because of the different amounts of sunlight and heat available during different seasons.

There are so many things to consider when planting a garden. We are stuck and cannot make up our minds!

• Seedlings need to be started indoors a month before we plant them.

• If plants can be planted closer together we can have more plants, but that means they will cost us more money.

• Kids like some of these foods better than others.

We need your help! We are sending you a data table along with this letter. The data table shows the types of seeds we have available to plant this year. The types of seeds available each year changes, so we need instructions from you on how to use different sets of data to choose which crops to plant each year.

Please keep in mind that we start school during the last week of August and school closes for summer from May until late August.

Please keep in mind that the seeds available may change, so what we need is a system for figuring out which plants to choose.

Thank you so much for your help!

Letter Template 1 Our team, ____________________________________________, decided that you should plant _____________________________ in the month of __________________ and then plant ________________________ in the month of ____________________________.

We have determined the following procedure deciding which crop to plant: (List the steps to follow to decide when and which plants from the data table)

Dear Students, Thank you so much for your letter! You are so helpful! We are hoping you can help us again. It turns out that water is more expensive than plants. Our water bill has been very high lately. We want to use less water if possible.

We have sent you a new data table. This one includes the amount of water that each type of plant needs.

Low = Plant only needs to be watered once a week. Moderate = Plant needs to be watered 2-3 times a week. High = Plant needs to be watered daily and kept moist.

We are also sending a graph showing the average daily rainfall in Florida. If the plants are growing when it rains a lot they will not need to watered as often.

Can you see if this changes your system for choosing plants and let us know what you recommend? Thank you so much for your help!

Fruit or Vegetable

Plant when Average

temperatures are no higher

than

Plant when Average

temperatures are no lower than

Type of planting

Time until Harvest

Space Water needs

1 Beans 83 60 seeds 8 weeks 6 inches apart

Low

2 Blueberries 79 49 seedlings 3 months 2 and ½ feet apart

High

3 Cabbage 90 49 seedlings 3 months 12 inches apart

High

4 Sweet Corn 78 52 seedlings 8-12 weeks 18 inches apart

Moderate

5 cucumbers 78 49 seeds 6 weeks 12 inches apart

Moderate

6 Lettuce 92 49 seeds 6 weeks 6 inches apart

High

7 peanuts 88 60 seeds 10 weeks 12 inches apart

High

8 Peppers 78 49 seedlings 12 weeks 12 inches apart

High

9 Potatoes 74 49 Seed potatoes 12 weeks 24 inches apart

High

10 Squash 78 49 seedlings 8 weeks 12 inches apart

Moderate

11 Strawberries 85 59 seedlings 16 weeks 18 inches apart

Moderate

12 Watermelon 78 49 seedlings 13 weeks 18 inches apart

High

*The school year begins in August and ends in May.*Temperatures are shown in degrees Fahrenheit.

Temperature

Aug Sept

Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb March

April May June July

Avg.High

92 90 85 79 73 71 74 78 83 88 91 92

AvgLow

74 73 66 59 52 49 52 56 60 66 72 74

Average Monthly Temperatures August through May The school year begins in early August and ends in May.

Dear Students of Green Thumb School,

After reviewing the water needs of the plants and average monthly rainfall added to the data, our team decided that you should plant __________________ in the month of ______________ .

and then plant _________________ in the month of ____________. We decided this because ______

Our procedure for ranking (did / did not) change. (If procedure changed, explain how and why. If procedure did not change, explain why not.)

Dear Contest Winner, Thank you very much for your winning contest entry. We were about to introduce your flower to the Everglades ecosystem when the local park rangers told us that there has also been a decline in the hummingbird population. Additionally, there have been budget cuts and we need to consider cost of purchasing the plants. Please send us a letter that explains which flower would be best to replant into the Everglades. Include a step-by-step method for selecting a flowering plant. If our budget increase gets approved we can use your system to choose another plant. Thank you very much for your help! Generations to come will benefit from your contributions to our environment!

Dear Engineering Team,We are a non-profit organization that helps start school gardens for students all across Florida. We are looking for a new tomato seed to use in garden projects. We are specifically looking for organic heirloom tomato seeds and we have narrowed down our choices to 4 different seed selections. Since we are a non-profit we need to have a good cost of seeds ratio, hardiness, watering requirements and how high the germination rate is. The last but very important factors are taste and versatility. We want our students to love to eat what they grow and allow each school to use the tomatoes is salads, pasta sauces, etc. I will give you the information on the next page. Can your team please rank the best seeds for our organization and provide us with an explanation as to how you arrived at your decisions?

Letter Template 1 Dear Sally,

Our Team, _____________________________________, has determined that you should use _______________________as the seed for your school gardens. The ranking of the seeds are as follows:

1.

2.

3.

4.

We made this decision by:

Letter Template 2 Dear Sally,

Our Team, _____________________________________, has determined that you should use _______________________as the seed for your school gardens. The ranking of the seeds are as follows:

1.

2.

3.

4.

We did/ did not have to change our original procedure. We made our decision using the following procedure:

model eliciting activities: life science and economics

Education