Dalby State High School (DSHS) is embarking on an expansion of their Agricultural Excellence programs to encompass Agricultural Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) projects into its curriculum. These STEM projects will be embedded into the Agricultural Science courses across year levels to demonstrate how new technologies can assist in monitoring crops and the environment. The practical applications will be complemented with the concepts of The Internet of Things (IoT) and big data.
Wednesday 15th of March saw the students attend the Conservation Farmers Inc. Future Farms Field Day at ‘Walmer’ near Jimbour. During the day students got to experience the latest drones, robots and technologies in cropping production.
DSHS also hosted a workshop that gave accelerated year 9 and 10 students the opportunity to attend #spatialrealworld workshops and experience precision farming using driverless tractors, using mapping technologies and drones in agriculture.
One of the technologies being introduced at school is the building and flying of drones. This skill is used to collect images and data that overlays onto Geographic Information Systems (GIS) maps. This information will allow students to analyse data to inform farm decision making.
DSHS will be introducing GPS tracking of livestock that will be overlayed onto GIS mapping. This will allow students to analyse the behavioural data and ‘think’ like a sheep to help inform their decision making about best paddock, utilisation, pasture and water usage.
Inspired by the robotics from SwarmFarm showcased at the Jimbour field day, basic robotic programming will be introduced so students can understand the principals behind how these robots work.
To connect these technologies and to allow students to access data on the internet, the school will be installing a LoRaWan Gateway. In future we hope that farmers in the district will be able to access this Gateway to connect their own IoT devices.