Agriculture: Engineering and Technology

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Agriculture Engineering and Technology

• From the Middle Ages to Now

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Review

• What is technology?
• What is engineering?

Technology is almost anything created to solve a
problem or meet a need. It can be a thing,
system or process.
Engineering is the use of creativity to design
something to solve a problem.
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What is agriculture?
The term agriculture is generally used to
describe the science or the practice of growing
plants and animals for food and other products.
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So what is an agricultural engineer?Did they
have agricultural engineers during the Middle
Ages?
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Agricultural Engineers . . .

• They design, manage and develop systems and
  equipment that produce, package and distribute
  the world's food supply.
• They develop equipment and techniques that
  preserve and protect our natural resources.
• Their activities range
• from aquaculture (raising food, such as fish,
  that thrive in water) to land farming and
  forestry
• from developing bio-fuels to improving
  conservation of resources
• from planning animal environments to finding
  better ways to process food.

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• Lets looks at 10 improvements or inventions.
  How did these changes improve life for people
  living during the Middle Ages?

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Crop Rotation

• The improvement was to go from a two field system
  to a three field system.
• Crop rotation means growing different things in
  your fields each year. 
• Farmers rotate the crops so that the plants don't
  use up all of the nutrients from the soil.

http//mg.wikipedia.org/wiki/SaryCrop_Rotation.gi
f
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The Horse Collar

• Made it possible for horses to pull harder and
  longer.
• Made it possible for the horse to pull newly
  invented heavier plows.

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileHarness_(PSF).pn
g
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Tandem Harnessing

• Connecting more than one work animal meant that
  more work could be done.

Courtesy of http//www.igg.org.uk/gansg/00-app1/r
thdbike.htm
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Horseshoes
Protected the horses hooves.
Courtesy of Microsoft Clip Art
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Wheelbarrow

• Improvements to the wheelbarrow meant more work
  could be done.

http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileModeles_brouette
s.jpg
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More Efficient Wine Press
Method after . . .
Method before . . .
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File29-autunno,Taccu
ino_Sanitatis,_Casanatense_4182..jpg
http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FileWine_press_from_
16th_century.jpg
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Grinding Wheels

• Used to sharpen metal tools and other metal
  objects.

Courtesy of http//www.larsdatter.com/grindstone.
htm
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Spinning Wheel

• The Great or Jersey wheel was invented in 1350,
  and was the first improvement to cotton spinning.

Courtesdy of http//www.newyorkcarver.com/inventi
ons3.htm
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Pick 3 . . .

• Pick three of these technologies. For each of
  your choices, tell how the new technology
  affected or improved life in the Middle Ages.

Technology Effect on Medieval Life
1.
2.
3.
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Now the BIG Question . . .

• What do you think was the effect of new
  technology on Medieval Europe?

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Farming Now . . .
Watch this video on modern farming in the United
States. As you watch, keep a list of the
technology you see in the video.

• Agriculture and Water A Case Study of Villwock
  Farms

Geography Teaching with the Stars
(http//www.geoteach.org/teacher_resources/agricul
ture_and_water/index.php