Agriculture, food, and natural resources encompass a wide range of fields and experiences. You won’t have time to do them all in the space of this course, but you can complete a science experiment that helps you learn more about one particular area. Your science experiment must be approved by your instructor and directly relate to agriculture, food, or natural resources. Because measuring and monitoring is such an important part of these areas, that too must be part of your experiment. If you need ideas for your experiment, your instructor can help, and there are a lot of good suggestions on the Internet. You may want to search online for “supervised agricultural experience examples” or “supervised agricultural experience ideas.” Be sure to get your instructor’s approval before you actually start the experiment.

The first step is to submit an experiment proposal. It should include all of the following:

What your science experiment is going to show or prove, also known as the hypothesis
Your plan for conducting the experiment, including all steps and how long you think that they will take
A list of supplies that you will need for your experiment
How you intend to document the progress in your experiment, including what you intend to measure and your method of measurement
Turn in your proposal to the dropbox for this experiment. Your proposal will not be graded or receive points, but you must complete this portion to receive feedback from your instructor.

Once you have approval from your instructor, you can begin your experiment or project. The entire project will be due in Unit 10.

Your final report for the experiment will include the parts and steps listed below, so keep the final requirements in mind as you work through your experiment.

An introduction connecting your experiment to other work in agriculture, food, or natural resources
Your hypothesis and a brief overview of your experiment
A written description of the steps of your experiment to accompany a picture or video journal documenting the steps
Measuring in at least one of the steps
The results of your experiment
A one-page conclusion discussing the results of your experiment, whether or not the experiment proved your hypothesis, and how the results of your experiment relate to the work described in the articles about agriculture, food or natural resources that you have read