Class 9

Lesson 9.1
Improvement in Food Resources- Chapter 15
Parameters Description Note for teachers

Chapter Chapter 15: Improvement in Food Resources This Lesson Plan

Covered can be taken up
after teaching
them about Rabi
and Kharif crops,
from Chapter 15

Name of the NCERT, Science Textbook for Class IX

Book

Learning Indian economy is based on agriculture, and with increasing population, the
Objectives demand for agricultural commodities is increasing day by day. This lesson plan
will help the learners think from a perspective of an amateur or new farmer,
about all the pre-requisite agricultural practices necessary to implement
before sowing the crop and to ensure high productive yield
To enable learners to:
Scholastic:
Stage 1: Conceptualization
● Identify different crops grown depending on the season.
● Access the prerequisites before sowing a crop.
● Differentiate between Rabi, Kharif and Zaid season crops.
● Understand the relevance of environmental conditions in farming.
AI + Tinkering:

Stage 2 : Contextualization by applying Design Thinking framework

● Identifying the problem in the given scenario
● Ideate on finding solutions to segregate various crop based on
cropping seasons to identify crops with high yield (cash crops) to
earn maximum profit and develop an automatic crop identification
system

Stage 3: Prototype to develop an AI model for identifying crops

● Understand how to develop an AI-enabled image classification
model.
● Learn how to create mobile applications using Scratch.
● Brainstorm and ideate ways to use technology for better farming.
Stage 4: Developing Farmer’s App for automatic identification and generating
information about the crop of interest
● Come up with ideas to develop a mobile application that helps farmers
stay up to date with crop-related information automatically using App
Inventor.

Time Required 5 periods of 45 minutes each.

Classroom/ATL Seating arrangement -
Arrangement ● Theory Sessions – regular classroom arrangement.
● Activity Sessions – Flexible (for group / pair work).

Material ● Smart Class setup

Required ● Whiteboard & Marker
● Computers with Webcam
● Good internet connectivity
● Smartphone

Pre – Teacher to keep the following resources ready before the session :
Preparation How cropping patterns increase the farm yield
Activities ● https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAjIxWtQ19Y&ab_channel=CBSE

Previous Scholastic:
Knowledge The learner understands the concept of:
● Agricultural practices (grade 8).
● Cropping seasons (Rabi and Kharif).
● Season based sown crops.

Methodology Stage 1: Conceptualization Scholastic: (Science Teacher) Methodology

1. Ask learners to list the natural phenomena or physical quantities (external
stimuli) like rainfall, sunlight, humidity, etc. that directly affect the plant
growth.
2. Now, ask them to highlight the weather phenomena that affect the plant
growth out of their list.
3. Ask learners to list down the reasons behind farmers adhering to cropping
seasons when growing crops. (Hint: To enhance crop yield, which means
more cash flow)
4. Explain the various cropping patterns that farmers use to enhance their
farm yield with this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAjIxWtQ19Y&ab_channel=CBSE

Teachers can use PowerPoint presentations to create graphs that plots the
various types of crops against its profits

Contextualization:

Stage 2 : Apply Design Thinking framework (refer to chapter 2.1 for details on
Design thinking Framework) on the given scenario Segregation of various
crops based on cropping seasons (Subject Teacher & ATL in-charge).

Problem Statement / Scenario:

Deen Dayal was a middle-aged wealthy farmer living with his joint family in his
ancestral mansion. He owned huge farmlands in Satara district. After his
untimely death, his eldest son Ameya had to quit his job as an investment
banker and relocate to Satara to take care of the family business. His family had
always been a mass producer of Rabi Jowar and Kharif Jowar. His uncle
explained the difference between the seed type and climatic prerequisite of
growing them.

Although Jowar farming had always been profitable, Ameya wanted to

explore some other cropping patterns that would go with cash crop farming.
Ameya was still not sure which crop to choose from and what parameters the
success depends upon. Ameya approached his uncle to take his advice on
growing a cash crop. His uncle did seem to talk a lot, but Ameya understood
that even his uncle was clueless. He told Ameya to decide fast as the season
for sowing the Rabi crop was approaching. But Ameya had still not decided on
which crop to sow along with Jowar.

The Teacher will now apply the design thinking framework to the given
scenario:

Empathize: The students will now reflect on the scenario:

1. What could be Deen Dayal’s age at the time of his death?

2. How much experience did Ameya have in the agricultural sector?
3. Did Deen Dayal have time to pass on his knowledge and legacy to
Ameya?
4. Did Ameya have any plans of coming back to Satara?
5. Does he know what cropping patterns mean?
6. Does Ameya understand the meaning of Rabi, Kharif and Zaid seasons?
7. Instead of growing cash crop in his entire farm, he is planning to co-grow
a cash crop and Jowar. Is it a good idea? (Hint: Perhaps, he is playing safe,
in case the experiment doesn’t work, he won’t end up losing a everything
8. Is Ameya equipped with sufficient knowledge about farming?
9. Has he decided which cash crop to grow?
10. Was Ameya’s uncle knowledgeable?
11. Did Ameya have anyone to depend upon on his decision on choosing the
crop?

Define: Ask students to identify the problems that Ameya might face in the
given scenario. What are the major hurdles in his way to obtaining high yields
in their farms?

Ideate: Students to arrive at the solution to identify crops with high yield (cash
crops) to earn maximum profit and develop an automatic crop identification
system based on Computer Vision. Teacher can suggest students to come up
with another solution/model.

Stage 3: Prototype to develop an AI model for identifying crops (Subject

Teacher and AI Faculty).

Students will create an AI model to identify crops (Ex: Rabi and Kharif) -
providing the name of the crop, its origin, and more information about the
recognized crop. Steps of implementation are:

3.1 Visit https://machinelearningforkids.co.uk and "Add a new project"

3.2 As name of your project put ‘crop_identification’ and select images
under Recognizing and click on the Create.

3.3 Click on your project name to train your AI model and then click on Train

3.4 Click on Add new label to create two labels for the two different
categories of crop. Name them as ‘Rabi’ and ‘Kharif’

3.5 Now, in another tab, search and download pictures of Rabi crops. Add at
least 10 such images under Rabi label. Repeat the same process with
Kharif crop images.

3.6 Now, go to Learn & Test and click on the Train new machine learning
model.
3.7 Your AI model is now ready to be tested!
Stage 4: Developing Farmer’s App for automatic identification and generating
information about the crop of interest (Subject Teacher ATL in charge)

Problem Statement / Scenario:

Ameya benefited a lot from a simple tool that could identify cropping season
based on crop pictures. He made another plan, in investing in a mobile app that
can help millions of farmers across India to choose from a variety of crops and
experiment with growing it on their land.

Empathize: The learners will now reflect on the scenario:

1. Do you think Ameya is a smart investor?

2. How did he benefit from the AI enabled solution?
3. Will a user-friendly mobile app help people like Ameya in obtaining
optimal yields from their harvest?

Define: Ask students to identify various features of interest to develop a mobile

application to keep farmers up to date with various crop related information.

Ideate: Students come up with a plan to develop a mobile application that

helps farmers stay up to date with crop-related information. Teacher can
suggest students to come up with another solution/model.

Here are the steps to develop a mobile application:

4.1 Go to the Make section in the AI project you made in Stage 2.

4.2 Click on the App Inventor

4.3 Copy the URL shown in red and keep it safe

4.4 Click on Open App Inventor and Start a new project
4.5 Name your project as ‘Crop_recognization’
4.6 Click on Extension to import your machine learning project

4.7 Click on URL and enter the URL that you got in step 3. Then click on
Import. In some time, a new extension should appear named
ML4KComponent.

4.8 Drag the Machine Learning for Kids extension (ML4K) to the Viewer.
The icon will be added under the mobile screen under ‘non-visible
components’ list.

Following elements are used in the app interface:

a. Image picker block from Media
b. Image block from User Interface
c. Label block from User Interface
d. Button block from the User Interface
e. Two labels
f. Web Viewer block
4.9 After finishing the interface layout and design, click on the Blocks
button in the top right corner of the screen to start creating your script.

4.10 This is how you add the image picker block

4.11 In the block below, copy and paste the API Key into the ML4K
component’s Key property on the Designer screen. (Note: API Key
must be set before you can use any of the ML4K extension blocks for
classification)
4.12 Now, use the ClassifyImage block with the image path to classify.

4.13 Use the Got Classification event block to retrieve the classification
once it is completed
4.14 Now test your app using the MIT AI2 Companion. Download the app
from the Play Store by searching for MIT AI2 Companion.
4.15 Click on Connect. In the drop-down menu, click on AI Companion

4.16 Scan the QR code by clicking Scan QR code or type the code into
the text window and click Connect with code

4.17 In some time, the app will load on your phone and you can try to test
it with some pictures of crops online. This is what it looks like:
Learning Learners will be able to
Outcomes
● Classify the various factors governing crop yield in the form of a flowchart or a mind map.
● Apply learning on agricultural practices into providing a complete solution to a farmer.
● Apply the interdependency and interrelationship in biotic and abiotic factors of the
environment in the context of crop yield.
● Create a machine learning model that can identify (visually) different crop categories.
● Create mobile applications with customizable interfaces.
● Integrate a machine learning model with a phone app.

Glossary ● Data Acquisition: Data Acquisition refers to acquiring authentic data from reliable and
authentic sources/ platforms that are required for the AI model. There can be various ways to
collect data.
● Machine Learning for Kids: This free tool introduces machine learning by providing hands-on
experiences for training machine learning systems and building things with them. It provides
an easy-to-use guided environment for training machine learning models to recognize text,
numbers, images, or sounds. This builds on existing efforts to introduce and teach coding to
children, by adding these models to educational coding platforms Scratch and App Inventor
and helping children create projects and build games with the machine learning models they
train.

● MIT App Inventor: MIT App Inventor is a visual programming platform that offers us to build
apps for Android and iOS smartphones and tablets right in your web browser. Students are
encouraged to use their own Android devices for hands-on testing and exploitation. It has App
Inventor Designer, where you can select the components for your app and your app appears
on the phone step-by-step as you add pieces to it. And In the App Inventor Blocks Editor, you
can assemble program blocks that specify how the components should behave. You assemble
programs visually, fitting pieces together like pieces of a puzzle.
● MIT AI2 Companion: The MIT AI2 Companion is an android application tool that enables real-
time debugging on a connected device like smartphones and tablets. If you don't have an
Android phone, you can build your apps using the Android emulator, software that runs on
your computer and behaves just like the phone.

Reference Links ● Video on Climate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vH298zSCQzY&ab_channel=NASAClimateChange
● Kharif, Rabi and Zaid Season
https://learnnaturalfarming.com/cropping-seasons-of-india-kharif-rabi-and-zaid/
● Good read on Crop Yield:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342994002_Factors_Affecting_Yield_of_Crops
● Cash Crops:
https://www.99businessideas.com/cash-crops-for-small-
farms/#:~:text=Saffron%2C%20Cardamom%2C%20Pure%20Vanilla%20beans%2C%20etc
%20are%20considered,profitable%20and%20commercial%20cash%20crops%20to%20gr
ow.%20%2315.
● App Inventor:
https://appinventor.mit.edu/
● Machine Learning for Kids:
https://machinelearningforkids.co.uk/
 ● MIT App Inventor App link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=edu.mit.appinventor.aicompanion3&hl=en_IN
&gl=US

Skill outcomes Tech skill

● Digital learning
● Algorithmic thinking
● Data gathering
● Pattern Recognition
● Model optimization
Design thinking
● Ideation
● Prototyping
Mathematical and quantitative skills
● Probability
AI domain
● AI for Data and Computer Vision
Physical computing
● Basic electrical and electronics.
● Circuit building Knowledge of sensory network
Social impact solution building
● Problem identifying
● Problem scoping
● Problem solving
● Prototyping the AI and tinkering solution
Intrapersonal skill
● Observation skill
● Persuasion
● Creative mindset
Interpersonal skill
● Empathy
● Collaboration
Computational Thinking
 C programming (Arduino)