Cotton picker

High school (ages 12+)
Making & Design

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/cotton-picker

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the type of machine?Mechanical cotton harvester
2. What is the primary harvesting mechanism?Rotating spindles that twist and pull cotton fibers from bolls
3. How does a cotton picker work?It uses rotating spindles with tiny barbs that twist the cotton out of the bolls, then pushes the cotton into a storage box.
4. Why did people invent cotton pickers?Picking cotton by hand was hard and slow, so machines help farmers grow more cotton and lower the cost.

Mechanization: The process of replacing human or animal labor with machines in industrial or agricultural tasks.
Module Builder: A component of a cotton picker that compresses harvested cotton into dense, transportable units called modules.
Value Chain: The entire process involved in creating and delivering a product or service, from raw materials to the end consumer.