Smart Farming

The Year 9 students have been visiting Yarra Ranges Technical School over a two-day excursion to explore the role of technology in farming. This has supported both our Geography ‘Biomes and Food Security’ and ‘Geographies on Interconnection’ units. Specifically, it presented to students existing practices and emerging technology and innovations which are transforming food and fibre production. The collection, use and response to real-time data is central to this. This included the use of drones, creating computer coding to monitor and respond to plant needs and visiting a Christmas tree farm to examine environmental opportunities, challenges and changing management practices to improve economic efficiency and environmental sustainability. 

Doug Allison - Secondary Teacher and Humanities Faculty Leader and

Jae Park - Secondary Teacher

Here are some students’ insights: 

The purpose of this excursion was to learn about Smart Farming and how it works. We began the day at the Tech School and played a game that shows how rooftop farming works. This was a great way to show how this kind of farming works. After, we learnt how drones are used in smart farming and then played around using some drones. After a couple of hours at the Tech School we went to the farm to learn more about smart farming and how they grow their trees. Overall, this was a great day learning about smart farming and how it all works. 

Tyler 9C

Our time at the Yering Christmas Tree Farm was great. There were rows of tall, green trees all around us. We walked through the whole farm whilst Simon, the owner, told us how long it takes for the trees to grow big and to be sold. It was interesting to see how much care goes into growing them. We had come across some of the deers that they had owned, we got to pat them, and we got to know more about the equipment they use as well.  

Lilah 9C 

On our Humanities excursion, we visited the Yarra Ranges Tech School and Yering Christmas Tree Farm to learn about smart farming. At the Tech School, we used iPads to explore a rooftop farming simulator, learning how factors like soil pH, nitrogen, and sunlight affect plant growth. We also experimented with drones and saw how they help with irrigation, it was funny watching some crash into each other. Finally, we toured the Christmas tree farm and learned about how the trees are grown and managed. 

Kim 9C

I found that our excursion to Yarra Ranges Tech and then the tree farm was more exiting than I had anticipated it to be. We played a fun farming simulator game where we had to choose and look after different crops and see how much we would earn afterwards. We then sat and listened to an interesting informative session, and afterwards controlled drones which was very fun. Later in the day, before coming home, we took a tour of a Christmas tree farm and we were told about all the strategies that are used to grow the trees well. Overall it was a fun experience and I learnt a lot. 

Ruby 9C

Some positive things I found during the excursions were the Christmas trees. I learned new things, like how it takes four years for a Christmas tree to grow, and how they take care of it so it lasts longer. I also found the Yarra Ranges Tech School interesting. We played a smart farming game and saw how it helps create new and better things, and we got to fly drones, and get to design what types of ways to make the fly drones. 

Rosily 9C

On the excursion we went to which was Yarra Ranges Tech School, we did many things, like farming online in little groups which was tons of fun, learning how to drive a drone and Christmas tree farming which was on a different location. What I enjoyed the most on the day was learning how to drive a drone, because I have never drove a drone in my life so that was my first ever time driving one. We also got into small groups for this activity, we had to make up codes so the drone could fly. I also enjoyed the Christmas tree farm as well, it was super amazing seeing all the trees, seeing a real life Christmas tree felt super weird but it was very cool. This was an amazing experience and I can’t wait to go back. 

Hniang 9C 

My time at the excursion was really tranquil and calm. It was really nice to be out with the class in quite an exquisite way. As part of our excursion to a place called Yarra Ranges Tech School, we also travelled to a nice Christmas Tree Farm, with a very lovely chap guiding us through the way he grows, trims and sells his Christmas trees. We learnt a lot about good farming practices, while also retaining an immense amount of knowledge to go along with it for future careers, and just knowledge in general. 

Leni 9C

The excursion to Yarra Ranges Tech school was something different and enjoyable. The first activity we did was farming online and surprisingly it was fun growing your own farm. Next, we learnt about drones and got to play around with them. Lastly, we went to the Yering Christmas Tree farm, and we learnt about the different types of trees and how to take care of them. I learnt that they take about 5-6 years to fully grow which I find quite interesting! 

Biak 9C

Going to the Tech School was a really enlightening experience. I really enjoyed learning about the applications of technology in agriculture and how that can help farmers. We got to see useful tech used at the Tech School and then we saw how that can impact the process of farming in a working farm environment at the Yering Christmas Tree Farm. There was stuff like agriculture drones, smart irrigation and rooftop farms. We then got to see the process of farming and we used what we learned at the Tech School to ponder how tech could improve efficiency of agriculture. 

Sully 9C

We went on an excursion to visit both the Yarra Ranges Tech School, as well as the Yering Christmas Tree farm to learn about smart farming. We looked at agriculture and the processes that go into cultivating plants. It was fairly fun, (also fairly hot), and an enjoyable experience all round. We learnt about how drones can be used and got to program and fly them! After the Tech School and lunch, we went to the Yering Christmas Tree farm, where we talked to the owner and discussed the trees. He was really informative, and a character, which was again really fun. Overall, it was enjoyable, a good learning experience, and captivating. 

Joseph 9C

The best part of the excursion for me was when we got to use the iPads to play a multiplayer farm simulation game. It was really fun but also made me think more about how important teamwork and planning are. I started to understand how different plants need different things to grow, and how some work better together than others. It actually connected pretty well to what we’ve been learning at school lately about smart farming and how people are finding new ways to grow things more efficiently. 

Sang Sang 9B