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An Introduction to Precision Agriculture: An Educator's Guide to Agricultural Earth Observation

ID

CNRE-142P

Authors as Published

Authored by John A. McGee, Dan Swafford, Paige Williams, Veronica Spradlin

This publication is avaialble in a PDF file format only.

Small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) are being increasingly utilized to support an array of applications including agriculture, natural resource management, facility/infrastructure inspections, and package delivery. Currently, precision agriculture is the fastest growing market for sUAS. One of the major barriers to the adoption of transformative innovation is education.

Currently, educators lack classroom ready resources that can be utilized to introduce precision agriculture. This 120 page publication was developed to directly address this need. This publication will support the needs of agricultural educators across Virginia, by providing an overview of precision agricultural principles, coupled with activities and learning lessons. All of the developed curriculum modules incorporate various STEM related concepts. The information, resources, and activities in this workbook are provided as an 'educational buffet'. These materials do not need to be consumed all at once. Educators can sample, take, modify, and deliver just the topics / activities / resources in this workbook that are needed.

Keywords: drone, drones, UAS, sUAS, unmanned, uncrewed, autonomous


Virginia Cooperative Extension materials are available for public use, reprint, or citation without further permission, provided the use includes credit to the author and to Virginia Cooperative Extension, Virginia Tech, and Virginia State University.

Virginia Cooperative Extension is a partnership of Virginia Tech, Virginia State University, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and local governments. Its programs and employment are open to all, regardless of age, color, disability, sex (including pregnancy), gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, military status, or any other basis protected by law

Publication Date

December 5, 2022