Smart Water – Precision Irrigation

Year 7-8 Design and Technologies – Smart Water – Precision Irrigation

Content Description

• Analyse how food and fibre are produced when designing managed environments and how these can become more sustainable (ACTDEK032)
• Independently develop criteria for success to evaluate design ideas, processes and solutions and their sustainability (ACTDEP038)

This unit also supports elements of the following content descriptions:

• Some of Earth s resources are renewable, including water that cycles through the environment, but others are non-renewable (ACSSU116)
• The nature of water scarcity and ways of overcoming it, including studies drawn from Australia and West Asia and/or North Africa (ACHGK040)

Teacher guide, student activities and accompanying video provide an example of sustainable water use and management for agricultural purposes within the Murray-Darling Basin. Students investigate an Australian designed and manufactured automated irrigation system delivering water saving efficiencies and productivity increases on a large viticulture exporting operation in northern Victoria. A case study example provides Year 7 STEM teachers with an authentic context for sustainable use and management of water resources.
The unit is supported by the accompanying video – Smart Water – Precision Irrigation.

Yr7-8 Design & Tech – Smart Water – Precision Irrigation (2.1MB PDF)

Video

This video overviews a family operated business that, has developed from a small vineyard on the banks of the Murray River in north west Victoria, into to a fully irrigated 1,600 hectare farming and wine producing enterprise.

Audio description version video Smart Water video transcript (49KB)