EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
Linda Lazenby EDITOR
Yvette Poshoglian CONTRIBUTORS
Joachim Cohen
Sandy Phillips DESIGNER
Anh Ha
T4L Kids is created on Gadigal Land.
For more information, visit T4L.link/T4Lkids
We want you to solve the future of farming! Is it possible to grow vegetables with less land and more air? Could you start a school garden? What can we learn from our First Nations farmers? Meet some fascinating experts from the world of food, gardening and farming and take a leaf out of their book. Share your fantastic ideas with us and go into the running to win a micro:bit for your classroom.
Linda Lazenby Director, Digital Teaching and Learning
What have you grown successfully and then eaten?
I’m growing microherbs on my kitchen window sill.
– Joachim
I have loads of passionfruit this year! Time to make some passionfruit curd.
– Yvette
Baby tomatoes are fun to grow and delicious in pasta!
– Laurens
This edition of T4L Kids is supported by comprehensive teachers’ notes to bring the challenges to life in your classroom.
Professor Salah Sukkarieh is Professor of Robotics and Intelligence Systems at the Australian Centre for Field Robotics. As an engineer, he is using robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to change the landscape of farming.
1 What is agriculture technology or ‘agritech’?
It’s technology that helps farmers. It can be sensors to monitor soil health or plant growth, energy-efficient tractors, drones that assess if there are new plants or diseases, or smartphones that can be used to control irrigation systems.
2 How did you get involved in agritech?
I’ve always loved engineering and technology, and the environment. Meeting farmers, I started to understand the complexities of farming and their struggles.
3 Do agritech robots just live on land?
No! Drones are agritech robots and people are starting to look at underwater robots for aquaculture.
4 What are the next challenges for agritech robots?
It’s important to understand how appropriate the technology is for each type of crop. Using a robot on vegetables is very different to using a robot in tree crops, or around cattle.
5 Would agritech robots work in school gardens?
Yes - it means we will get the next generation of agritech farmers ready to work in very cool farms of the future - see Challenge 3!
6 Serious question – robots or dogs...which is a farmer’s best friend?
Dogs, but the robots help farmers to free up time so they can spend more time with their best friends!
“The robots are electric, or solar-electric, and can move around the farm on their own (autonomously). They have sensors on board to help identify weeds, pests, crops and animals. And they have tools that can do things like planting, weeding and spraying.”
– Professor SukkariehRIPPA was used operationally on many farms around Australia.
Digital Farmhand was designed to work for small-holding farmers in Australia and Overseas.
SwagBot was built for the cattle industry. It can herd cattle and navigate uneven landscapes.
Ladybird was our original robot for the vegetable industry and used for research.
Kylie Kwong is a famous face in Australia! You may have seen Kylie on MasterChef, her own cooking shows or even have one or two of her cookbooks at home. Kylie is a passionate chef who cares about where local food comes from and caring about her environment.
What are some of your favourite local or bush ingredients to work with?
I absolutely love the Australian native bush mint which grows in our local organic vegetable garden in South Eveleigh, planted by proud Cudgenburra/Bunjalung man Clarence Slockee. It has a eucalyptus-type aroma, a tiny, pretty, dark leaf and is versatile in cooking. Apart from its deliciousness, it allows my chefs and I to pay respect, acknowledgement and support to the local First Nations community.
What do you love most about being a chef?
Cooking is my ‘love language’feeding people is my way of expressing my love and warmth to others.
What’s your hot tip for making any dish better?
Always cook with produce that is ‘in-season’ because it will be super fresh, therefore it will taste its very best, it will be affordable because it will be in abundance, and it will suit the climate in which you serve and eat it.
Why is using local food better for the planet?
I love telling diners about our magical garden, especially how the students of our local school - Alexandria Park Community School - helped us plant and harvest over the last year. For me, that garden reflects true community and sustainability, there have been many hands and hearts in that garden. There are zero food miles involved, the food plants and herbs are as fresh as it gets.
What’s your favourite piece of tech?
My favourite piece of cooking equipment is my bamboo Chinese steamer basket set, because I love ’steamed’ food, like ‘steamed fish with ginger and shallots’ or ’steamed prawn hargows’.
Sometimes called firestick farming, this is when First Nations people burnt small areas of land and grasses. This encouraged more growth to return, created new food sources for animals, and protected Aboriginal people from bushfires.
Gadigal people used shellfish to fish with. They cut the shells and moulded them into hooks to catch fish - they looked like lures as they were bright and colourful.
Our First Nations farmers were the original innovators –could you incorporate some of these farming practices and ingredients into some of your ideas for the upcoming challenges?
Aboriginal fisherpeople changed water levels in creeks and waterways to trap fish and eels. As eels could often slip through, they also made eel nets out of grasses. These early methods of farming are over 40,000 years old.
Our First Nations farmers used the stars to work out their harvest times. When certain stars rose in the night skies, they knew it was time to pick various crops.
If you’re foraging or growing some of these foods, try looking them up using a microscope attachment on your phone or using the PlantID app
Bush foods are more popular and readily available than ever. Could you grow them in your garden, or add them to your dishes?
rosella
finger lime
Illawarra plum
native mulberry
blue quandong
lemon myrtle
pepperberry
ruby saltbush
warrigal greens
“I love cooking with native saltbush, native Davidson’s plum and native warrigal greens – all of which work beautifully with Chinesestyle cuisine.” – chef Kylie Kwong (see her tips for creating a cookbook in Challenge 4)
Illustration by Blak Douglas from The First Scientists
How can we grow food without leaving a huge footprint on the earth? Can technology like aeroponics help us feed more people with fewer resources - and create less waste?
Large-scale livestock farming
Carbon emissions, land erosion, soil degradation
Food miles
Carbon emissions, decrease in food quality
Industrial large-scale farming across the world has a huge impact on our land quality. The way we farm livestock and harvest our crops takes a toll on our soil and water systems and creates carbon emissions. Below are some of the key problems around farming today - could you find a solution (or become a micro-farmer)?
Could you create a robot to assist with improving soil moisture and quality? Try Challenge 2
How far has your food travelled by the time it lands on your plate? Can you source or grow food closer to home? Read our interview with chef Kylie Kwong for ideas or check Foodmiles.com!
Large-scale crop farming
Requires large amounts of land and water
Food waste
Excessive landfill, people who need food missing out
Do farms need to be traditional? Could you grow crops with air rather than soil?
Create a strategy to buy less food and use more of what you have in the cupboard - or take our Food Waste Challenge on page 8
Could aeroponics be the solution?
Aeroponics gardens like the one above, use much less water than traditional farming and leave a smaller footprint on the earth. These systems use recirculated water in much smaller quantities than a normal farm requires. Small gardens like this also mean that you can pick local produce and save on food miles.
Á Design and create a small garden for your home, classroom or school
Á Brainstorm your ideas with your team on a Jamboard
Á Explore options like aeroponics - or start small with a microherb garden on a windowsill
Á Plan your garden and crops out in 3D using Minecraft Education or Tinkercad
What space could you use for your garden?
What materials will you need?
What food would you like to grow (and eat)?
Plan a timeline - when will you harvest?
Plan your garden in Minecraft Education Design your garden in 3D tools
Plan your garden with a Jamboard
Share your farming goals on a poster or infographic like the one on the right – explore how in the Influencer Issue of T4L Kids
Á Keep a progress video or photo diary of your garden –explore photo documentary making with iPad
Á Collate a list of tips for gardeners
Á Share and publish your garden on a Google Site
Á Create a podcast about your garden
Á Try cooking with your crops and see if you could capture some recipes or even create a class cookbook - see Challenge 4
Teachers - book an aeroponics kit and check out these resources and lessons!
Food waste is a huge problem in Australia. Every single one of us wastes around 300kg of food a year! We actually throw out a third of what we buy. This wasted food ends up in landfill, where some of it decomposes. Could you come up with some strategies to create less food waste?
Australian households throw out over 7.3 million tonnes of food waste per year
92% of household food waste goes to landfill
Research Australian organisations like OzHarvest. How do they tackle food wastage on a large scale? Collect your ideas on a Jamboard and think about how you could apply it to your school community.
This decomposing food waste creates methane - which is more toxic than carbon monoxide into our atmosphere
Content source:
OzHarvest
Explore the statistics from Clean Up Australia on food wastage in Australia and see if you can recognise patterns in the data. Collect your own data on food waste and use it to create an infographic to build awareness around making changes to the way we shop and consume.
Content source:
Clean up Australia
Write an action plan, an information report or record a podcast to share your findings with your school. Become a food waste influencer and make a change for good.
Do you have tinned food in your cupboard gathering dust? Organise a food drive at your school and donate tinned food to local organisations in need in your area.
Farmers have always used technology, including robots, to help them with growing and harvesting. Could you design a robot to improve farming, soil health or even measure soil moisture for better farming?
Explore the farming robots on page 3 for more brilliant ideas!
Micro:bits might be small, but if you apply what they can do on a large scale, you might be able to solve some of the larger scale problems with farming, such as degraded land and soil, land affected by drought and floods and more.
Check out a micro:bit Smart Farm!
Check your plants’ soil moisture and make sure they’re getting enough water, regularly!
Build a soil moisture meter.
Learn more about using the virtual micro:bit and see what you can create even without a real micro:bit.
Brainstorm farming and land problems and think of solutions - try a Jamboard!
Create a team and explore which kind of tech you could use to support this problem - build a list of pros and cons
Share your idea with a farmer or with us!
Content source: The Royal Agricultural Society of NSW
Explore some of these data sets and use the information to spark your creative solutions.
Learn about tech on the farm
Design your own farming drone with the Royal Agriculture Society
Take a tour of Tocal Virtual Farm
Create and publish your own class recipe collection! Create a cookbook, launch a foodfocused podcast, or build a recipe site. Collect stories from your family and gather the stories behind the food that you love most.
Create an ebook with recipes, pictures and stories
Launch a podcast series with recipes, interviews and soundbites
Produce a short film series shot in your home kitchen (See Diva’s amazing home cooking video on page 11!)
Write and share a weekly food newsletter
Gather stories by interviewing, recording or transcribing recipes from family or community members.
With your team, decide who is going to do each job and what you will produce (see What’s cooking above).
My mother taught me how to cook at 5! Being of Chinese heritage, food and family is at the centre of all that we do. I never wrote down recipes until I started writing cookbooks.
write down a basic framework of your new recipe measure every ingredient carefully document each step of prep and cook
Will you include all meals such as entrees, mains and desserts?
How will you gather the information? Will you interview your family members or people in your local community?
Will you test cook the food before you publish the recipe?
Tip: take photos and grab personal advice from the cooks in your life!
Are you using any food from your kitchen/school or community garden?
Is there a ‘hero’ ingredient?
Are you using any indigenous foods in your cooking?
Will your class collection contain simply recipes, or include interviews with family chefs, or stories about where the recipes come from?
Will you have pictures?
Do you need a photographer or illustrators?
Could you record some audio for a podcast or create a cooking playlist?
Which countries do your class recipes come from? Create a Jamboard of countries or drop pins on Google Maps and build a global picture of your class!
Build a cookbook team and assign jobs - writer, photographer, website builder, podcaster etc.
Get busy in the kitchen!
Design and publish a digital cookbook. Use Canva, Sway or Pages to gather and present your recipe.
Launch your cookbook at a community morning tea
Build a Google Site and collect everything from photos, recipes and interviews - why don’t you open it up for submissions from other classes or the wider community?
Create a food blog or vlog (video blog) and document your recipe gathering processes and showcase your cooking!
10-year-old Diva from Sydney LOVES to cook! Watch her make yummy fried rice and get tips on making your own cooking show!
Showcase your creation at grandparents’ day
Hold a food fair and cook the food for your friends!
Print copies of your digital cookbook for the school library!
If you love thinking about food - whether it’s where it comes from or what your next meal is, you might be interested in one of these career pathways connected to food and farming.
Professional gardeners and landscape designers use lots of tech to plan their designs. Not only can they organise what plants go where, they can also overlay irrigation plans and plan any structures to be built. Could you plan a garden design in Canva or Tinkercad?
Could you take your school or community garden to the next level and sell the crops to raise funds (for an even bigger garden)? While you are gathering your current crop, why not start planning your next crop and plan a salad day or food festival at your school.
Food technologists are the magicians behind many of the foods we eat. Not only do they explore the nutrition behind what we eat, some of them engineer smells and tastes down to the molecular level. They also can help us with storage and refrigeration recommendations.
Do you love cooking and are you good at organising a kitchen? Perhaps you can use your creativity to put together a three course meal! Chefs and caterers cook for small and large groups of people, run restaurants and even work at special events with certain types of food.
