All About Cotton

With each Flat Aggie report, I’ll be putting together a list additional resources, websites, recipes, books, and activities.  Use this with Flat Aggie’s visit to the Miller Farm in Alabama to bring this Agmazing Adventures to life!

Classroom Materials

• Order cotton bolls for students to hand-gin. Choose from 25 or 100 educational cotton bolls here: http://www.cottonman.com/cottonbolls.html
• Order cotton themed Ag Mags from Texas Ag in the Classroom, http://www.beagsmart.org/ag-in-the-classroom/order  (scroll down to BeAgSmart, The Cotton Connection)

Classroom Activities

• Cotton is a great way to introduce a unit on inventions (i.e. Eli Whitney’s cotton gin).  Use the Tinkering Activity below and ask students to build their own machine.   This activity comes from Illinois Ag in the Classroom’s Machines mAGic Kit.  The writing team suggests the following:

“To aid in “Tinker” implementation, the writing team suggests that English/Language Arts be the first lesson used as this is where the actual machine is developed and constructed.  Ask the student teams to write a manual.  The machine is tested in the Science lesson. Scale drawings of the machine are made in the Math lesson and a patent is applied for in the Social Studies lesson.”

• From Virginia Ag in the Classroom, The Cotton Cycle, http://agintheclass.org/Portals/0/LessonFiles/cotton_life_cycle.pdf

Web Resources

• National Cotton Council of America, http://www.cotton.org/edu/index.cfm
• Cotton Classroom, http://cottonclassroom.com/
• Alabama Ag in the Classroom, http://www.alabamaaitc.org/uploadedFiles/File/Cotton_Unit.pdf
• Cotton’s Journey, http://cottonsjourney.com/

Fun Fact

The t-shirt dates to 1880 when U.S. Navy sailors were issued an elbow and hip length undershirt that resembled a perfect “T” when laid out on a flat surface.

“Tinkering” Bag Inventory

• 1 – Brown Paper Bag                                          4 – Paper Towel Rolls
• 1 – Ear of Squirrel Corn                                     2 – CDs
• 1 – Cereal Box                                                      2 – File Folders
• 12 – Small Paper Plates                                     1 – Egg Carton
• 12 – Drinking Straws                                         1 – Ball of String
• 12 – Paper Clips                                                  1 – 2-Liter Bottle
• 12 – Rubber Bands                                             1 – Roll of Tape
• 8 – Tacks                                                              1 – Glue Stick
• 6 – Clothespins                                                    1 – Scissors
• 6 – Pencils                                                            1 – Ruler
• 4 – Nails                                                               4 – Toilet Paper Rolls
• 1 – Pad of Paper for “construction manual”

Rules for all “Tinkering” Machines

• The purpose of this machine is to move an ear of corn from a selected starting point to another point that is a minimum of 3 feet away.
• Each machine MUST use the ear of corn.
• Any of the items from the bag, including the bag, may be used for machine construction. But, a minimum of 6 different items from the inventory must be used.
• The machine must be able to travel 3 or more feet in a forward motion.
• The machine must stay together for the entire 3 feet of travel.
• You are allowed _____ minutes to complete the machine construction.
• As you are inventing, keep a detailed log of how the machine was made so that another group can recreate your design using the exact same process.
• Be prepared to test your machine for the group so results may be charted.

Happy “Tinkering”!

*from Illinois Ag in the Classroom Machines mAGic Kit