Now that students have become familiar with the cranberry, its habitat, its history, and its people, they’re ready to face and tackle various challenges cranberries growers typically deal with. This section of Exploring Cranberries offers three distinct scenarios:

Chill Out leads students through a situation where potential spring frost threatens to damage their cranberry crops. Students must weigh several factors before making a decision to protect their vines. They consider the type of cranberry on their bog, the particular phase of the cranberry bud development, and the forecasted temperature of their cranberry bog area.

Bugs on the Bog prompts students to identify, count, and evaluate the seriousness of various insects that live on a bog.  After identifying a pest threat, students carefully weigh the impact of their pest management plan.

How Do You Bee? Is a lesson that focuses on pollination of the cranberry flower. Students carefully study blossom data to decide when and how long bees should be present on the cranberry for optimum pollination purposes.

The three challenges make use of a classroom discussion forum, a Growers’ Association meeting. This parallels the real-world support that Growers’ have in the form of agricultural organizations, and also provides an opportunity for problem-centered discussion across teams of students.