Lesson 2

Alyce Knoop

1. Grade level: 6

2. Title of the day’s lesson with a brief description:
What are some of the jobs associated with Minnesota’s natural resources? Students will be focusing on the jobs of farmers and miners in this lesson. They will examine their own biases about these jobs based on prior knowledge and secondhand information. They will investigate these jobs further to create new ideas and beliefs about these jobs.

3. Materials/resources needed:
• Paper
• Markers
• Crayons
• Colored Pencils
• Packets about farmers and miners

4. Teacher preparation (tasks the teacher must do ahead of time)
1. Create packet of information about farmers and miners for the students to use
2. Make sure paper and art supplies are available and accessible to students

5. Minnesota Academic Strand(s) and sub-strand(s) addressed by your lesson:
1. Historical Skills: Sub-Strand C: Historical Inquiry: The student will present and explain the finding of a research project.

6. NCSS strand(s) and sub-strand(s) addressed by your lesson:
1. Individual Development and Identity: Sub-strand F: identify and interpret examples of stereotyping, conformity, and altruism.
2. Individual Development and Identity: Sub-strand G: work independently and cooperatively to accomplish goals.

7. Goal(s) for today’s lesson:
1. Students will understand what bias is and everyone has different opinions and viewpoints on certain things.

8. Objective(s) for today’s lesson: (this tells people what kids will know or be able to do at the end of the lesson)
1. Students will be able to list the duties of a farmer and/or a miner.
2. Students will be able to define bias.
3. Students will examine their own biases.

9. Procedures
a. Introductory experiences (first few minutes to engage learners):
Students will be given a white sheet of paper, and markers, crayons and colored pencils. They will be given a number either 1 or 2 from the teacher. The students who are number 1 will be farmers, and the students who are number 2 will be miners. They will draw what they think a farmer or miner looks like, based on the number that they have been given. They will draw if it is a male or female, what kind of clothes they wear, and the setting that you would find these people in and what objects they would use to do their job. (5 mn)

b. Developmental experiences:
i. Students will be divided into two groups: the miners and the farmers. They will be given the packets of information that have been created and read through them together to come up with a list of job qualifications, tasks, wages, and risks associated with the job. (15 mn)
ii. Students will share their research to the class (10 mn)
iii. We will discuss students’ old and new perceptions on these two jobs. (10 mn)
a. What are things about this job that were the same as you thought they would be?
b. What are things about this job that were different than you thought they would be?

c. Culminating Experiences:
i. Have your views of farmers and/or miners changed? How?
ii. Tomorrow we will be learning about two more jobs, and the people who perform these jobs.

10. Assessment(s) used during lesson:
i. Group participation- is the student contributing their input during group discussion? Does the student share ideas with the whole class? Are the ideas thoughtful and sensible? Students will be rewarded 5 participation points if they are giving input, and sharing ideas. They will be rewarded 2 points if they are participating somewhat, but seem distracted and 0 points if they are not paying attention and contributing anything to the group.


Farmers:

• A farmer is a person who is engaged in agriculture, raising living organisms for food or raw materials.

• Farms are complex businesses. Farmers use computers to keep records. Many farmers also supervise other workers. During busy seasons, a large farm can have more than 100 workers.
• Farmers use machines to plant and harvest crops. Some also use machines to feed or milk animals.

• Crop farmers grow grains, fiber, fruits, and vegetables. They till soil, fertilize, plant, spray, and harvest. Then, they make sure the crops are properly packaged and stored.

• Livestock, dairy, and poultry farmers feed and care for animals. They fix barns, pens, and other farm buildings. They choose which animals to breed and sell.

• Horticulture farmers grow flowers, shrubs, and grass called sod. They also grow fruits and vegetables in greenhouses.

• Aquaculture farmers raise fish and shellfish. They take care of ponds and floating net pens. They stock, feed and care for fish.

• A farmer's work can be very hard. Hours are long, often sunrise to sunset. During planting and harvesting seasons, crop farmers rarely have days off. The rest of the year, they sell their crops, fix machinery, and plan for the next year.
• On livestock farms and ranches, work goes on all year. Animals, unless they are grazing, must be fed and watered every day. Dairy cows must be milked every day. Farmers also must keep their herds healthy.
• Many people learn farming from growing up on a family farm. Young people also learn in farming clubs like FFA and 4-H.

• Modern farmers make complex scientific and business decisions so even people who grew up on farms often need more education. More farmers are getting college degrees. Some farms offer apprentice programs.

• Common programs of study in college include agronomy, dairy science, agricultural economics and business, horticulture, crop and fruit science, and animal science. For students interested in aquaculture, classes in fisheries biology, hatchery management and maintenance, and hydrology are helpful. Farmers must know enough about crops, growing conditions, and plant diseases to make good decisions. A basic knowledge of veterinary science and animal care is important for livestock and dairy farmers. Farmers also need to be good at using tools and fixing things.

• Farmers need business skills, too. They need to know accounting and bookkeeping. Classes in economics and marketing are useful. Being able to manage people and resolve conflicts is also important.

• Incomes of farmers and ranchers vary from year to year. A farm may show a profit one year and a loss the next. Farmers often get government payments to supplement their incomes and reduce the risk of farming. Some farmers run farms for other people and get a salary. The middle half of these farm managers earned between $766-1382 a week in 2006. The lowest paid 10 percent earned less than $572. The highest paid 10 percent earned more than $1,924 a week.

• There were about 1.3 million farmers, ranchers, and agricultural managers in 2006. About 80 percent were self-employed. Most grew crops

• Low prices for agricultural goods will cause some farms to go out of business. Small farms are being combined into bigger farms. The number of farmers and ranchers who own their own farms is expected to go down through 2016. There is expected to be little or no change in the number of agricultural workers who work for other people.
























Miners:

• A miner is a person who helps in the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth.

• Most miners learn their work on the job by helping experienced miners. Nevertheless, formal training is becoming more important, because miners are starting to use more complex machines and methods. Many companies offer special courses to their workers. Beginning miners can start in training mines where they learn the skills safely, or they can go through a classroom program before they work in mines.

• Miners today do more than just dig tunnels in the Earth's subsurface. There are many different jobs, direct and indirect, in the mining industry, ranging from engineers and lab technicians to geologists and environmental specialists. Beyond employment directly linked to mine-site activity, the modern mining industry also employs many other professionals, including accountants, lawyers, sales representatives, public relations specialists, not to mention thousands of men and women involved who manufacture the machines and equipment necessary to mine minerals.

• Employment in the mining industry offers highly competitive wages and benefits, especially in rural or remote areas. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), wages for coal miners are 30% higher than the wage earned by the average American. Employees possessing at least a bachelor's degree in mining or geological engineering can earn a median pay of over $80,000 annually.

• Often companies prefer to hire those who already have training in mining methods, so associate degrees in mining are often important. Candidates must pass a basic skills test in math and English to obtain this degree.

• On the average miners work a forty-hour week. Underground miners work a few more hours a week than surface miners because of the time spent traveling to and from the surface of the mine. Many miners belong to labor unions.
• Miners’ average age is 50 and the median is 48. The industry will require new employees to meet future, demand, but the industry is struggling to meet that demand due to current low enrollment levels in mining education programs at American colleges and universities.