Tuesday, February 22, 2011

February- Supply/Demand/Input costs

Although these three topics don't sound highly entertaining to the average 10 year old, I was surprised to find out how much my group of 4th grade agriculture enthusiasts actually knew about them!  It seems hard for me to keep up, for each class I go to with these kids I find that they have recently studied the topic we are discussing and they are so knowledgeable!

Today we started with a discussion on Supply and Demand.  Supply and Demand are so important to farmers because it is what drives the price of their commodities they sell each year.  We discussed the relationship between supply and demand and also the relationship of price to each of these.  When we were done with our discussion each student was given an arrow and we too a short quiz where they were asked questions like: What would happen to the demand for milk if it went on sale for $.25/ gal.  I'm pleased to say these kids are quite smart and did a great job!

Our next activity focused on input costs.  The class was split into 3 teams and were given 25 seeds in a cup.  they were given 10 situation cards which had scenarios such as: "Rainstorm hit your crop- remove 7 seeds from your cup" or "Storms in Georgia prevent crop from being harvested-grain price increase-put 15 seeds in your cup"  Students enjoyed learning about different obstacles farmers face each year and also about the importance of Ag lending.  They sometimes found it necessary to receive a "seed loan" from the seed bank. They were all very good at explaining what they needed their seeds for.

I have a blast each month watching these students enjoy learning about agriculture!  I'm so very proud of them and cannot wait until next month!

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