Research & Development

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT

Job Description:  Researchers must have a knowledge of agriculture in the North Country. Must be an expert on crop selected by the corporation. Must be knowledge of climate and conditions necessary for growing the crops. Must be knowledge of economic impact of crop sales. Interview agricultural experts to gain a deep knowledge of crop. Must present to the group knowledge about crop and assist in the development of the mission mat. Work closely with programmers and builders to help plan the mission. Work closely with all departments to educate them about the crop that has been selected. Report daily findings that they have learned about their crop.

Requirements: Strong research skills from multiple sources. Computer literate. Attentive to details and facts.  Strong communication skills, must use facts and data drive research. Strong note taking, typing and presenting skills. Independent workers. Task oriented and expedient at finding information within a time frame.

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Daily Plans:

Friday, June 6, 2014:  This morning, our researchers had two special guest speakers!   We had a visit from Kitty O'Neil, Ph. D., Regional Field Crops and Soils Specialist and Harry Fefee, Agriculture Outreach Educator, both from Cornell University Cooperative Extension.  Our guest speakers answered questions from our researchers and some of the CEOs also.  Researchers asked detailed questions related to their crops/agriculture and their robots and the three tasks their robots will perform.  Kitty and Harry were both VERY informative about all of the various crops and agriculture that the researchers are focusing on!  The researchers should have a lot of information to bring back to their corporations this afternoon!  Researchers did ask some good information about the mission mats today, so they should be able to help provide some guidance with creating those!   THANK YOU, Kitty and Harry, for helping our researchers become experts on their crops!  You shared some great information and facts with us that will definitely help us with our project!! 


Thursday, June 5, 2014:  This morning, we had a field test to take in our homerooms, so our departments had a late start.  This morning, researchers worked on fine-tuning their PowerPoint Presentations and some worked on their weekly reports.




Wednesday, June 4, 2014:  Today, we discussed our "Power Point Must-Haves" and then students began immediately working on the Power Points and made improvements based on their critiques from Mrs. Anderson and their peers.  Students were hard at work today in the computer lab!  



Tuesday, June 3, 2014: Today, we started off our morning by watching the Morning Rooster and the commercials that were created by each corporation. Each corporation must have their next commercial completed by Monday June 9th for viewing!  After, we had "Critical Friends" in our Research Department.  All of our Researchers presented what they have done so far for their PowerPoint Presentations and we gave them constructive criticism as to what they did well and what they can add/change to improve their PowerPoint.  The Power Points are coming along well, but students have to now start focusing on "Selling" the Robots!!! 



Monday, June 2, 2014: Today, the sixth grade STEM team went on a field trip to Clarkson University to visit and tour the Agbotics Program! Our field trip was very informational and the students truly enjoyed it! The field trip was beneficial for all departments and corporations! We had the awesome opportunity to hear about and see some of the robots that the Robotics Team has been building there.  It was awesome seeing the robots in action!! Thank you, Clarkson University and the Robotics Department! 



Friday, May 30, 2014:  Today was our 6th grade orientation for incoming sixth graders that will be a part of our STEM team next year! Our current STEM students worked in their corporations all morning and presented their materials to the various groups of incoming students who were visiting each corporation. Our STEM students shared their experiences with the new students and talked about how much they enjoy a more hands-on, student-centered, project-based learning experience.  The excitement about the STEM Agricultural Robotics Project was clearly evident in all the students involved!  This afternoon, we worked in our departments and continued to work on researching important information that each corporation has requested the researchers to work on. Students also completed their weekly reports and turned them into their CEO's. 

A huge THANK YOU to the fifth grade students and staff for visiting our corporations this morning! We are very excited to have you as a part of STEM next year!!! 


Thursday, May 29, 2014
Yesterday, the Researchers presented their PowerPoint Presentations or Posters to their corporations.  Many corporations requested more specific information and/or asked their Researchers to edit their PowerPoint Presentations or Posters, so that is what researchers are working on today in Research and Development.



Wednesday, May 28, 2014
Some of the researchers were in an out of the computer room today helping their corporations practice for their commercial shoot and actually participate in the commercial. Students were all collaborating well with their corporations to try to sell their product to the investors. Researchers were also working hard to finish their PowerPoint Presentations or Posters.  Talk about "Busy Bees"...they were all feeling the pressure today to get their presentations done for 10:15 with everything else going on at the same time.  Researchers will be presenting their PowerPoint Presentations or Posters to their Corporations this afternoon.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014: 
Back to the grind again!!   Welcome back from your (hopefully) RELAXING weekend!  This morning the Research Developers continued to work hard on their PowerPoint Presentations and Posters to represent what they have learned so far about their crops/agriculture.  The Researchers were hard at work in the computer lab!  You could hear a pin drop in that room because it was so quiet as they focused on their presentations!

Friday, May 23, 2014:


This morning, the Researchers had the privilege of asking a local farmers some questions about farming and agriculture.  Some of the researchers asked Mr. Durant some TOUGH questions to get down to the nitty gritty!  Mr. Durant handled the questions very well though!  He was very informative and helped the students to gain a better understanding of agriculture in the North Country!
After Mr. Durant left, Mrs. Anderson gave the Researchers their next project:  a PowerPoint Presentation or Poster that provides important information about their crops/agriculture to their Corporations.  Mrs. Anderson explained her expectations to the researchers and they quickly began working on their PowerPoint Presentations and Posters.  They didn't even blink an eye when Mrs. Anderson gave them their task, they just went to work!  We have some hardworking researchers in our department! 






Thursday, May 22, 2014: 
Today, Mrs. Anderson demonstrated to the researchers how to cite websites and articles that they use for their research.  Researchers then continued to research their chosen crops/agriculture and agricultural tasks.  Researchers had to begin creating a "Resource" page, in which they cited the websites and articles.  They will continue to utilize and add to this resource page throughout the entire project, documenting what resources they use in order to become experts on their crops/agriculture.  
Tomorrow, Mr. Durant, a local farmer, will be coming in to speak to the researchers about crops, farming, agriculture, and such.  He will be answering the researchers' compelling questions to help them get to know a little more about agriculture in the North Country.  Today, students created a questions to ask Mr. Durant pertaining to agriculture in the North Country and questions specific to each of their corporations' crops/agriculture.  The researchers are very excited to learn more about agriculture in the North Country from Mr. Durant tomorrow!! 




Wednesday, May 21, 2014: Today students dug deeper into learning about the crops and agriculture found here in the North Country.   We learned about the "Top 10 Cash Crops Grown in New York State."  Some of the top cash crops grown in NYS included hay, corn, apples, grapes, wheat, and maple syrup.  Once the students had background knowledge provided to them they then utilized a research outline from Mrs. Anderson to help them identify specific "Needs to Know" information about their crops/agriculture. Students collaborated with their partners in the computer lab to find out as much information on their crops/agriculture as they could so that they could present this information in their corporations this afternoon.  Some researchers did some research on other crops/agriculture that they felt were more marketable or better suited for their corporations and then brought this information back to their corporations to try to sway them to change their minds.



Tuesday, May 20, 2014: Today students learned about taking notes when performing research.   Students recorded their notes on an outline provided by Mrs. Anderson.  This outline provided students with some guidance as to how to take notes.  In the future, students should be able to use these strategies to help them create and organize their notes in their notebooks.  Researchers were responsible for finding 3 articles related to crops/agriculture found in the North Country to help them bring back some ideas of crops/agriculture that their corporations can work with in this project.



Monday, May 19, 2014:  Students attended Monday Morning Meeting to see the mission video provided by Clarkson University students to launch the Agbotics Project. Students were then placed into their departments and congratulated on all of their hard work during the interviewing process. The Research and Development group dove right into the project by getting trained on using the internet and the databases to find "good", reputable resources to help them research agriculture in the North Country.  Miss Conners, our Middle School Librarian, taught the researchers how to use the library database to find scholarly articles and she even created a page just for the researchers to use to find out what crops/agriculture are found in the North Country.  Students were then able to begin doing basic research and became familiar with the types of agriculture and crops found in our area. Students then created their "Needs to Know List" (series of questions they will answer and check off and expand on as the project continues) and placed it on the department's Power Point, along with their driving question.   Researchers worked hard all morning beginning their research.  Nice job, researchers!! 



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