Future Farm Control Room
Log in to saveTeams wire up simple soil-moisture sensors to control a model irrigation system, learning to automate watering instead of guessing on a schedule.
Choose your version
Every level teaches the same core idea — pick the one that fits your time, budget, and energy today.
Setup
Print or hand-copy the essential prompt for Future Farm Control Room, then set out only paper, pencils, and the common or recycled items needed for one test. Use a tabletop representation whenever the original version mentions a room, specialized device, or digital tool; the learning comes from the decisions and evidence, not elaborate scenery.
Activity
- Define the central success test in Future Farm Control Room and make a paper planning sheet for the inputs, actions, and expected result.
- Represent the system without electronics by using labeled cards, paper controls, tokens, a ruler, or a student acting as the device; follow the same cause-and-effect rules described in the project.
- Run at least three cases, including one difficult or unexpected case, and record starting conditions, controlled variables, measurements, and changes over time.
- Revise one rule, layout, mechanism, or decision after the failed case, repeat it, and explain with the recorded evidence whether the change worked.
Done when: The group has completed Future Farm Control Room when it can present the automated farm system, showing the sensor readings that trigger watering and point to the observation, measurement, comparison, or trial that supports its conclusion.
Materials
soil moisture sensor kit, small pump or tubing, cups for plants, soil, battery pack
Shown for the Quick Start version — switch tabs above to see what changes.
Steps
- Study a plant's watering needs and predict the soil-moisture reading at which it should trigger watering.
- Wire the moisture sensor to control the pump or valve at the predicted threshold.
- Test the system over a dry and a wet soil sample, find it waters too early or too late, and recalibrate the threshold.
- Present the automated farm system, showing the sensor readings that trigger watering.
Standards it satisfies
NGSS · MS-LS1-6
Construct a scientific explanation based on evidence for the role of photosynthesis in the cycling of matter and flow of energy into and out of organisms.