The Combine Project: An Experience in a Dual-Language Classroom Transcript of Video Clip 1
MR. DANNER: And this is some of the equipment that we use to do it. And this is one of the farms that we do it on. We've got many farms around in the area. This is the truck that we use to haul the grain away to take it to a bin.
TEACHER: … ponen el grano despues de recojerlo y lo ponen alli para llevarando en esta carte en este combino grande.
( … they put the grain after harvesting it and they put it there for carrying it in this bin in this big combine.)
MR. DANNER: We raise different kinds of grain. We raise soybeans.. . . We raise corn. It takes it in through here. This goes to the ground. It lowers and it's got a whole bunch of knives out in front here that cuts it off. And this thing helps push it in. It pushes it in the machine. And gathers it all to the center and pushes it through. Then the combine smashes the plant and rolls it. And inside these—we call these pods. Inside there's beans in there. . . . The machine separates it. We've got a whole bunch of them.
TEACHER: Can you pass it? Pass it to another person.
CHILD: There's a whole bunch of them.
TEACHER: Go up and see if you can get some of the beans. . . . It's OK. There's some in there.
TEACHER: What is in your hand? Can you tell …?
CHILD: Soybeans.
TEACHER: What do they grow in? A bean pod?
CHILD: Yeah.
TEACHER: Let's come sit back down. Now that you've got your beans, sit back down, so we can …
CHILD: I've only got one of them.
TEACHER: That's OK.
TEACHER: We're going to sit back down and see what else …
CHILD: I want my beans back.
MR. DANNER: This is feed for next year.
TEACHER: OK, he was right that they use some of them for planting.
TEACHER: What do you think they use these for?
MR. DANNER: Some of them … you'll find that when you go to the grocery store, like vegetable oil. The beans, when they process them, they get oil, vegetable oil out of them. So a lot of your vegetable oils come from soybeans. It's used for proteins for animals.
TEACHER: Do animals eat it?
MR. DANNER: Yes.
TEACHER: So sometimes animals eat it. A veces los animales lo comen. A veces hacen cosas como aceite. Hacen aceite.
(Sometimes animals eat it. Sometimes they make things like oil. They make oil.)
MR. DANNER: Some of these are for human consumption. For soy milk or soy burgers. Some beans are used for … they're using soybeans to make diesel fuel now. And certain oils. There's many, many uses for soybeans. I don't even know them all.
[The combine goes across the field. The children follow.]
CHILD: The dust is in our eyes already.
TEACHER: That's OK.
[The combine comes to a stop, and Mr. Danner climbs down.]