Vegetable Production Enterprise - Experimental Design
| Grade | Work Samples |
|---|---|
| End of Stage 5 (end of Year 10) | |
| Grade C | Huong |
| Grade D | Lindsay |
Description of activity
Students are required to identify a limiting factor associated with a vegetable production enterprise. Common limiting factors include pests, disease, climate, management and plant nutrition.
After identifying a limiting factor associated with a vegetable production enterprise students are to suggest a management practice to overcome its negative effects. They then design an experiment to test the proposed management practice.
Students will be assessed on a written report that outlines the hypothetical experiment and the predicted results.
Context
Designing, conducting and analysing experiments in agricultural production systems are important skills. Students are using the Vegetable Production Enterprise to develop the concepts of experimental design. The Vegetable Production unit requires that students develop an understanding of the factors that limit the growth of vegetables and some management practices that may be employed by farmers to overcome a limiting factor. In this activity, students use their knowledge of experimental design to write a report on how to design an experiment that could test a limiting factor of plant growth.
Areas for Assessment
Outcomes
A student:
5.5.1 designs, undertakes, analyses and evaluates experiments and investigates problems in agricultural contexts
5.5.2 collects and analyses agricultural data and communicates results using a range of technologies.
Criteria for assessing learning
(These criteria would normally be communicated to students with the activity.)
Students will be assessed on their ability to:
- identify and describe the impact of a suitable limiting factor
- design a suitable experiment to test a possible management practice, using appropriate experimental technique
- design a suitable experiment using appropriate experiment format (aim, method, equipment, results and conclusion)
- predict results for experimental work.