Plot Your Profits
This lesson was developed by Farm Scholar, LLC.
Grade Level: Secondary
Objective: This lesson uses a real-world scenario of designing a garden with the hopes of selling the produce it generates. To successfully complete this activity, students should be able to:
multiply multi-digit numbers with decimals
compute percentages of a whole
create a pie-chart to represent those percentages with angles using a protractor
calculate increases/decreases in numbers by fractions and percentages
calculate area and perimeter of rectangles
You may pair this activity with lessons on economics (factors that affect supply and demand), plant science (what affects plant growth and production), meal planning (i.e., grow what you need to make a pizza), and business planning/financial literacy.
Materials
Procedures
Students will be given the Garden Plot Sheet, Garden Crop Data Sheet, Profit Sheet and Instructions Sheet.
Their task is to plan a commercial garden on the garden plot sheet, which represents 1 acre of land (43,560 ft2). Each square (there are 100) represents 1:100 of an acre, or 1%.
They will choose at least 5 different crops, but no more than 10, from the list of crops and decide how much area to plant of each in their garden.
The will create a color key to represent each crop to complete the legend, and/or label the sections of blocks on the grid to make the plot design clear.
They may also choose to create a logo for their garden in the block on the grid sheet.
Once the design is finished, they will fill out the Garden Crop Data Sheet by counting the number of blocks they chose for each crop, and then they will calculate the area and percentage of the acre. Numbers for conversions are provided in the NOTES section to help them.
You will then provide them with the most recent annual return per acre for each crop so they may calculate their profit and share with the class. You may choose to give a prize for the highest overall profit.
Student will then create two pie charts to represent 1) the area dedicated to each crop, and 2) the profit for each crop.
They will finish this exercise by answering the additional questions on the worksheet.
If you would like to continue this activity, you may give students random scenarios each week which may increase or decrease their profits depending on the crops they chose to grow (see Scenario Cards). Designate a day a week to draw a random crop card, and then a random scenario card. Students who have those crops on their plots will figure out how much they must increase or decrease their profits for that week. Students should keep a running total on the Garden Crop Profit sheet to keep track. A prize may also be given at the end of the 8 weeks for the highest profit.
Students will complete the activity by answering the assessment questions listed on the Garden Crop Profit sheet.
Extension 1: Students may use the Kentucky school garden calendar to determine how to grow more than one crop in a year on the same plot of land, then calculate their profits.
Extension 2: Students may use the crop budget sheets and develop a garden business plan they could implement based on the resources they have available. They may think about the areas where they could reduce expenses or ways to increase production, and they may also want to visit a farmer’s market to see what prices are received by marketing crops directly to consumers at the current time.