Virginia Agricultural Education 

This lesson is the culmination of the building the business plan for the ag program online store.  Students will be manufacturing a decorative iron gate while finalizing their business plan.  The business plan could be presented to school administration to gain approval for the establishing the online store, to request startup funding or groups can complete the long term entrepreneurial project by presenting their business plans to the class.  The gate project is fairly involved depending on the ornamental design of the gate so it may be the best use of class time and resources to consider having groups of students rotating through the Explore and Explain portions of the lesson.   

This project was developed to enhance project planning and teamwork skills utilizing CNC technology and woodworking.  Projects that can be customized and start out with basic tools seem to give students a personal connection and inspiration to complete the work.  We can use this motivation to encourage students to work with people when they have no prior connection. The end result is a wonderful customized project and valuable teamwork skills important in today’s work environment.

Making the mini grubbing hoe would be an excellent capstone project for an introduction to agriculture course or used as a quick practice or refresher activity for a more advanced agriculture mechanics class.  Depending on how you decide to approach the project, students can be asked to use a wide variety of tools or the project can be completed with only a couple basic tools and skills.  I have students use almost every tool in our shop working on this project. 

This lesson has students working with the welding and metal cutting skills they have learned previously.  The garden tool is a versatile tool with many uses.  These tools would also be an excellent addition to the online business that is being developed in previous lessons. Additions to this lesson could be determining cost of materials and determining the cost of making the tool to help set the sales price, if desired. 

Technology can help us produce product at a high level of accuracy and speed. Traditional tools and procedures can do excellent work as well but may take a great deal of practice and innate ability. A project that allows students to choose can teach a valuable lesson as well as let students concentrate on unique skills.