Investigating technologies in agriculture

• This resource is highly valuable due to its relevance to several content descriptions in years 5 and 6 Design and Technologies curriculum relating to technologies involved in the production of food and fibre. This resource supports the teaching about technologies used in a variety of agricultural industries including the development of past techniques and equipment as well as modern, innovative designs for improving production systems and processes.
• This resource is of significant value to content descriptions in the years 5 and 6 Design and Technologies Processes and Production Skills strand. This resource supports teaching skills relevant to developing and documenting design ideas and processes including planning the design, predicting the impact of the design, making improvements, and representing and communicating ideas through modelling and drawing. This resource contains many design briefs outlining specific tasks which teachers can use to set design projects. These project tasks require the application of practical skills including the selection and use of a variety of materials, tools, equipment and techniques.
• This resource is of great value for years 5 and 6 Science curriculum, particularly the Use and influence of science substrand. This resource is especially valuable for teaching about how scientific inventions have directly affected peoples' lives both in the past and in recent times. This resource contains material describing the technologies behind some Australian inventions including a link to a museum site showing the stump-jump plough invention of the 1870's, and links to recent inventions on the television programme 'The New Inventors'.
• This is a valuable resource for the critical and creative thinking general capability. There are  many inquiry-based design tasks and activities that support the teaching of critical and creative thinking skills including identifying the need for improvements, exploring potential alternatives, solutions, and impacts of designs, and reflecting on the thiniking behind design ideas and strategies.

5; 6