Agricultural Careers WebQuest

Agricultural WebQuest Series

Missouri Farm Bureau and

Missouri State University

"Ag"citing Career Exploration
A WebQuest for 8th - 12th Grade

Introduction

Every day our lives are affected by agriculture by the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the roof that is over our heads, plus much more. With the agriculture industry having such a big impact on our lives many people are choosing to enter the agricultural workforce. When we say agricultural workforce we don't just mean farming, but as you will soon see it is a very diverse industry with lots of opportunities.

Overall Task

By the end of this lesson students will be exposed to the opportunities that are available to them in the agriculture industry. They will be able to categorize careers and be able to explain what each career involves.

Process

Step 1: Get out a sheet of paper. You will be creating a graphic organizer. Draw or write a food item in the middle of the paper. Draw lines out from the item and name industries that affect, influence or depend upon that food item.

Step 2: Question Set 1
1. What food item did you choose?
2. What industries affect that item?

Step 3: Ask your school counselor about tests that could to see what career you should go into.

Step 4: Question Set 2
1. Do you agree with the results?
2. What careers would you like to enter that are not in the field you were selected for?

Step 5: Conduct activities in different career areas:
                                - Soil Testing
                                - Plant Activity
                                - Engineering Activity - Conduct a timeline of agricultural machinery changes
                                - DNA Activity
                                - Economic Activity - Use own state information to put ag facts and numbers in brochure

Step 6: Question Set 3
                    1. What skills did you need to conduct the activity?
                    2. Where will you learn these skills?
                    3. Why are these skills important?
                    4. What skills are employers looking for?
                    5. Where will you learn skills that employers are looking for?

Step 7: To go to college or not to go to college: that is the question
- College locator and degree programs
- Income differences (this is a large PDF file, so if you have a slow connection, be patient)

Assignment 1: Job Shadowing
Assignment 2: Agricultural Career Research Paper- reference job shadowing in paper

Conclusion

Now that you have explored agriculture careers you have seen the "ag"citing opportunities that are ahead.

Evaluation

Rubric for Assignment 1 and 2

Assignment	Yes	No	Points Possible	Points Earned	Comments
Job Shadowing
Research Paper

Teacher Page

Credits

Photos compliments of USDA Agricultural Research Service.

This WebQuest was created by teachers participating in Missouri's Agriculture in the Classroom program at Missouri State University through a USDA grant. The template on this site was adapted from a template from The WebQuest Page and the original was designed by Dr. Lyndon Irwin. Assistance for this project was provided by Mrs. Barbara Irwin, M.S. and Mrs. Diane Olson, M.S.

Teachers are encouraged to adapt this lesson for classroom use only. No part of this publication may be transmitted, stored, recorded or published in any form without written permission from Missouri Farm Bureau.

This page was developed by Ashley Noblitt, reviewed by Lyndon and Barbara Irwin and maintained by Missouri Farm Bureau.

Please address questions to Diane Olson at Missouri Farm Bureau or Dr. Lyndon Irwin at Missouri State University.

Last revised on November 12, 2006