Find your Future in Agriculture

Categories: Worksheets , Introduction to Agriculture , Food Science , Spanish , Agriculture , Animals , Plants , Soils

Students will explore the costs associated with their desired futuristic lifestyle while identifying potential agricultural careers available to them in Oregon that align with their interests.

Part I: Reality Check
Students will get the opportunity to investigate their average monthly salary needs based on their lifestyle expenses through this virtual reality check. Students will make basic decisions about their lives such as how much they are going to eat out, what type of house they will live in, types of entertainment expenses they will have and more.
1) Have students go to the Education Quest Foundation’s Reality Check. Have students select the option “Select My Expenses” to begin.
2) Students will be prompted through a number of questions and will be brought to a final screen that will tell them their monthly salary needed based on their decisions.
3) Have students print out or record on a separate sheet of paper the breakdown of their monthly expenses to put aside for later use.

Part II: Mystery Agricultural Career Bags
1) Distribute the 13 career bags around the room. Each bag should contain objects or the attached clue cards that give hints to the careers each represents. The cards have numbers to distinguish between each group. Designate one number per bag and include all the cards of that number into the same bag.
2) Provide each student with the Careers in Agriculture pamphlet, have students review each of the booklets that highlight careers in a variety of different agricultural sectors. Students should specifically review each career description as this will help them in the next part of the activity.
Tell students: Today we are going to take a look at several different careers related to agriculture. First we will start by reviewing the Careers in Agriculture pamphlet that highlights agricultural careers in Oregon. Make sure to pay close attention to the career and its description because you will need that information for our next activity.
3) Divide students into pairs, students will work their way around the room to each bag, empty its contents and use the hints to determine the career it represents from the Careers in Agriculture pamphlet.
Tell students: Working with your partner, you will have 2 minutes at each station to look at the contents of the bag, determine the career it represents and return the cards to the bag. Record the career each bag represents on your worksheet with the corresponding number that’s labeled on the bag. Try to determine the career without referring to the guide at first, if you find yourself stuck, refer to the guide. We will review each of the bags and the careers they represent at the end as a class.
4) After students have been to each station, review the contents of each bag and have a volunteer from each group reveal their career guess. The answers are as follows:
Station 1: Agronomist
Station 2: Ornamental Plant Breeder
Station 3: Diesel Mechanic
Station 4: Ecological Engineer
Station 5: Dairy Cattle Feed Specialist
Station 6: Fisheries Extension Agent
Station 7: Registered Dietitian Nutritionist & Chef
Station 8: Food Safety Specialist
Station 9: Lawyer
Station 10: Publications and Web Coordinator
Station 11: Reporter/Journalist
Station 12: Legislative Advocate
Station 13: Veterinarian
Consider giving students a treat if their group identified each of the careers correctly.

Part III: Tracking Your Path
1) Have students pick one of the careers they saw in the Careers in Agriculture pamphlet(E-book -or- Order a class set!) that interested them to explore in depth.
2) Provide each student with a copy of the Tracking Your Path worksheet, have students research the career of their choice and complete the worksheet.