Year 9-10: Sustainable Food and Fibre Production

Supporting students to learn about Australian agriculture’s role in sustainability

Lesson 1: Sustainable Food and Fibre Biomes

Students will utilise their existing knowledge of sustainable biomes to learn about the environmental, economic, and technological factors that impact agricultural productivity in Australia. They will gain a comprehensive understanding of agricultural productivity, with a focus on yields. Additionally, students will develop their critical thinking skills by using real-world scenarios of sustainability in agricultural production.

Lesson 2: The Connected Food and Fibre Biome

In this lesson, students will learn about biofuels and their increased use as a management strategy to reduce reliance on fossil fuels. They will develop their geographical tools and skills, literacy skills, and numeracy skills while exploring the interconnections and global patterns of food, industrial materials, fibre production, and trade.

Lesson 3: Sustainable Cycles and Climate Change in Food and Fibre Solutions

This lesson allows students to examine key processes and management strategies to retain and increase soil organic carbon and carbon stored in biomass, as well as reduce atmospheric carbon dioxide. Students model this in an activity and learn how climate change impacts agriculture, and their effects on the carbon and water cycles, as well as agricultural productivity. Students conclude this lesson by examining how the Australian cotton industry is adapting and focusing on sustainability in a changing climate.

Lesson 4: Sustainable and Secure Food and Fibre Production

In this lesson, students will explore sustainable food production and food security with a focus on the population projection of 10 billion people by the year 2050. Through the interactive Journey 2050 game, they will develop geographical inquiry skills by acquiring, processing, and communicating geographical information, selecting nutrient plans to understand how sustainability and crop yields can be increased. Students will use management strategies to restore soil health and increase yields through precise nutrient application. They will earn money from their crops to address factors limiting sustainability. Students will complete case studies located in Kenya and India as they progress through the interactive game.

Lesson 5: Sustainable Food and Fibre Production and STEM

In this lesson, students explore the role of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) in sustainable food and fibre production in Australia. They are introduced to agricultural innovations and challenges faced in food and fibre production in Australia and complete a number of activities focused on this. They also examine case studies using links to video and printed articles to research various STEM roles in Australian agriculture. By learning about roles such as animal production specialists, digital agronomists, meteorologists and soil scientists, students begin to recognise the critical importance of STEM skills in future careers within Australian food and fibre industries.