Table 9 Example student responses for the biomass question item using calculations from Table 3.

From: FEW questions, many answers: using machine learning to assess how students connect food–energy–water (FEW) concepts

Novice to expert level

Example student response to Part A

Example student response to Part B

4

The people living in the area would have to take serious water cuts in order for this plan to work. Watering grass lawns, for example, would likely be banned. We would use more of the river water even still, and in drought years, we might not be fully able to produce biomass for fuel. We would ask people to take shorter showers, water lawns less, if at all, and to not leave faucets running unless essential.

No predicted responses

3

Water usage will likely shoot up as a result of the increased use of corn crops in order to produce more energy via biomass compared to food production for beans that could be facilitated by the same fields.

The switch from beans to corn in order to create more energy independent from natural gas means less food production for the community because of that shift. The switch also requires more water to involved in order to produce more of the corn. The more corn that is produced the more energy that is produced. This energy could help with food in other ways.

2

No predicted responses

More water will be diverted to the corn, and because of that, there will be limited water for other uses.

1

What I would expect the area’s water use to change as a result of this shift from agriculture to biomass production by using a non-renewable resource for the process

I think the trade-off in this situation would be an increase[d] in corn production and a decrease in water and energy systems.