As part of Agriculture Victoria‘s ‘Get into AgSTEM program,’ senior students from Derrinallum P-12 College recently spent a day at the Hamilton SmartFarm learning about gathering imagery from the ground, air, and space.
Agriculture Victoria Community Education Manager Anna-Leisa Vietz stated that students toured the SmartFarm to learn from experts working on new agricultural and forage technologies.
“The day included a ‘hands on’ science workshop where students constructed and trialled digital soil moisture sensors and learnt about digital data collection, processing and precision agriculture applications to save important resources such as water to minimise environmental impacts,” Vietz said.
According to Vietz, the students saw firsthand how sensor technologies are utilised in the field to evaluate pasture biomass and nutritional properties.
“They also enjoyed seeing a remotely piloted ground vehicle in action, a field-spec instrument capturing data on plant characteristics and hear about drones which are now routinely used in Agriculture Victoria’s pasture research,” she added.
Vietz stated that ‘Get into AgSTEM’ is a free education program established and provided by Agricultural Victoria and linked to the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority’s curricula.
“The program is made up of workshops run at AgriBio and SmartFarms across the state, which showcase Agriculture Victoria’s research and innovation initiatives and so far in 2023 the program has delivered workshops in Hamilton, Tatura, Ellinbank and our AgriBio Centre in Bundoora, as well as being offered online,” Vietz said.
Teachers from Derrinallum P-12 College, Greater Shepparton Secondary College, and Cathedral College Wangaratta collaborated on a School Assessed Coursework (SAC) based on the digital agricultural workshop, according to Vietz.
“For us this was a great endorsement of the program and how it’s working in with real-life to help students identify and prepare for a career in AgSTEM,” she said.
She believes Agriculture Victoria’s research division is uniquely positioned to give real-world context to help teachers achieve technical criteria outlined in curricula.
“For example, the Get into Digital Agriculture workshop, designed around the Digital Technologies curriculum, can also be used to meet the ‘innovations, technology and data’ section of the Agricultural and Horticultural VCE Study Design,” she stated.
She added, “The workshop provides the schools’ community with both the technical content and the interesting context of real-world problems that Agriculture Victoria researchers are working to solve.”
