Activities for Thinking Skills

Collecting and Classifying Materials

• Identify books or electronic data bases with information about dairy farming. Make organized bibliographies about dairy topics. Obtain, read, and document sources of information.

• Learn about techniques used to help locate dairy farm related items on the Internet.

• Collect pictures, photograph dairy farms, collect articles, containers, labels or other items related to dairy farming

• Smell things found on farms and classify the smells.

• Touch items commonly found on farms. Think about the importance of the sense of touch for farmers.

• Tape sounds heard on dairy farms. Organize the sounds and use them in creating media or oral presentations.

• Collect information about movement activities in which farm family members are engaged. Think about physical fitness needs of members of a farm family.

• Identify relationships between and among ideas in the information about dairying. Make a list of commonly recurring topics.

• Identify common sequences in materials and place items in order of occurrence or importance.

• List jobs of farm family members, collect information about each of the jobs, and organize the material.

• Make a web showing interdependence among farm family members or farmers and other members of society.

• Group information about farming according to categories identified and place information about farming in file folders, electronic data bases, charts, graphs, or illustrations.

• Play matching games related to farm topics. (Equipment and tasks, parents and baby animals, etc.)

Interpreting Information

• Note relationships between categories of information about dairy farming. Make a web and then an outline to show relationships.

• Identify, sort, and list cause and effect relationships found in the material collected about dairy farming. Make a chart to show why farmers need to be aware of these relationships.

• Draw inferences from factual material about dairy farming. Make a chart to show facts, inferences, and continuing changes in interpretations.

• Collect information about dairy farming. Make predictions of likely outcomes based on collected factual information.

• Assign roles such as farmer, supplier of machinery, feed mill operator, dairy plant operator to class members. List values held by these people in relation to dairy farming and then discuss a topic. Help learners recognize the value of dimension of interpreting factual material.

• Collect information about dairy farming. Ask members of the community to talk about the information. Listen for new, valid interpretations.

Analyze Information

• Look at information about dairy farming. List key ideas or major components and their attributes. Organize the ideas accordingly.

• Make a web showing interdependence on a dairy farm or between dairy farmers and other parts of society.

• Write words which show relationships in time, place, or value. (Examples: first, next, last; closest, farthest; crucial, unimportant). Identify a situation in which a dairy farmer considers such relationships. Talk about or role play what a farmer might do when considering such relationships.

• Look at advertisements for dairy products or products a dairy farmer might buy. Look for bias in data presented in the various forms. What graphics, written information, or charts might exaggerate, show one point of view, use emotional appeals, relate material to unrelated topics, or use a bandwagon approach to influence a farmer or buyer of products?

• Read about or listen to information about a topic related to dairy farming. Use many different types of sources. Compare and contrast credibility of differing accounts. (Look at credibility of the authors, times written, purposes for sharing, the intended audience, costs of sharing, and other factors which might affect the accuracy of the information.)

• Compare dairy farms with other types of farms

Summarize Information

• Look at information gathered about dairy farming, extract significant ideas, and list supportive details under the major topics.

• Choose a form for sharing information. Combine critical concepts learned into a sentence, paragraph with main ideas, or story.

• Identify major ideas learned. Rewrite the information for a younger learner. Be brief and use simple vocabulary.

• Make a journal entry which states an opinion based on critical examination of relevant information about dairy farming.

• Have students state a hypotheses about dairy farming which they think affects the lives of present day farmers. Talk about how they or the farmer might continue to study the topic.

Synthesize Information

• Create a dairy farm for the next millennium which helps farmers continue to work and provide products for the world.

• "Rewrite pioneer history." Change a few situations encountered by pioneers and write a story about how life might have been different if something had been available or had happened. Write about how the new situation would have affected us today.

• Present information about dairy farming in a booklet. Use graphics, headings, subheadings, a table of contents, and index.

• Make pictionaries, dictionaries, or glossaries about dairy farms. Use alphabetizing skills.

• Photograph various types of farms and make an organized collection of the photographs.

• Plan and organize material to make HyperStudio stacks about dairy farming or storyboard information and make a make video.

• Write a research paper in which a problem related to dairy farming is described and a creative solution is suggested.

• Take notes about dairy farming, organize them, and give a report or write a play and present the result to an audience.

Evaluate Information

• Determine if information found about dairy farming is pertinent to the topic under study. Save some and refile the rest.

• Make a "Needs and Wants" list while doing research. Use it to determine when enough information has been acquired.

• Identify and use criteria such as objectivity, accuracy, or currency to decide how to use information gathered.