Horticulture students in an entry-level course (plant propagation) and an upper-level course (small fruit crop production) were assigned brief lecture-based writing tasks at the end of each class period. For the first 5 minutes of each subsequent class period, students divided into small groups to discuss their responses to the previous day s task and to generate questions related to the task topic. The class then reconvened as a whole for a question-and-answer session before the lecture was resumed. Students collected their task responses in a workbook that they turned in for experimental evaluation at the end of the quarter. When compared to previous and concurrent sections of the same courses, students engaging in the writing tasks more frequently posed questions in class, posed questions of increased complexity, and demonstrated improved ability to perform well on complex exam questions requiring integration and synthesis of information.
Technology allows educators to convey information more flexibly and visually. How to access and make use of technological teaching tools is the challenge facing educators. HortBase provides the framework for educators to create and access educational chunks. How to make use of the information in HortBase in distance teaching is a three-step process. 1) Before assembling the teaching material, the educator must decide on who the target audience is and what information to convey. Audiences on campus have higher expectations of how they learn, as they are used to live teaching and guidance, and often do not have a clear idea of what they want to learn. Off-campus audiences have lower expectations and are more focused on the information they want. 2) The educator then decides how much of the information to convert into digital form individually and how much to draw from elsewhere. Pieces of digitized information can be created by scanning existing images into the computer or created on computer with authoring-illustrating programs. Once digitized, images can be manipulated to get the desired look. This is a very time-consuming step, so much effort can be saved by taking created “chunks” from HortBase. 3) Finally, what medium and tools to use must be decided. Course content can be presented with slide-show software that incorporates digitized slides, drawings, animations, and video footage with text. Lectures can then be output to videotape or broadcast over an analog rework. Alternatively, the digitized information can be incorporated into interactive packages for CD-ROM or the World Wide Web.
observed the greatest increase duration was for those who had more schooling in their home country in all groups except Hispanics. Our results concur with Chiswick (1991) because no relationship between previous education level and language skill
Abstract
The 6-month student intern program offered by the Department of Horticulture at Iowa State University assists rural and urban Iowans in home food production through extension programs, mass media, and community projects. Advanced undergraduate horticulture students are granted internships at the county/area level and receive credits and a salary for their work. An extension horticulture associate based in the department provides the overall leadership and coordination.
Intern training sessions concentrate on the type of questions to expect and problem diagnosis methods. More than 50% of homeowner concerns are related to home food production. The intern program has been received enthusiastically and has reduced the summer workload of county staff and state specialists.
Nursery personnel certification programs are designed to advance professionalism throughout the nursery and garden center industry. Certified nursery personnel may be perceived more favorably by their employers, peers, and, most important, by the public they serve. Certification programs currently are conducted in 39 states. Many state nursery or related organizations also offer landscape certification programs; however, such programs are not addressed here.
This study was conducted to determine if there is a difference between the career advancement of alumni of ornamental horticulture associate (terminal) degree and nondegree programs. A survey of the alumni of three associate degree and three nondegree training programs was administered, using guidelines from career advancement validation research conducted at Alverno College, Milwaukee. Wis. (Ben-Ur and Rogers, 1994). Six programs were selected from North Carolina, Maine, Ohio, and southeastern Canada, including parts of Ontario and Quebec and all of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. The programs were selected because of their perceived high reputations, as based on a survey sent to eight selected Longwood Gardens staff (Kennett Square, Pa.) and six professors in the Plant and Soils Science Department at the University of Delaware (Newark). Survey respondents were initially chosen based on their knowledge of the field of horticulture and of ornamental horticulture educational programs. The statistical analysis of the data did not support the presupposition that there would be a significant difference between the career advancement in favor of graduates from horticultural associate degree programs.
Currently, in the United States, the greenhouse industry covers more than 15,000 acres and is supported by a diverse number of firms with employee expertise that includes greenhouse manufacturing, engineering, irrigation, horticulture, IPM, sales, marketing, and business management. The growing greenhouse industry continues to be in need of highly trained undergraduates that have mastered an amalgam of scientific and business concepts necessary to be competitive in today's agricultural marketplace. Using a multidisciplinary approach we are creating a multimedia instrument for utilization in a variety of greenhouse related courses. This instrument ultimately will be available on the web for anyone to access. To ensure that our vision matches need, we have reviewed the courses offered throughout the United States at 1862, 1890, and 1994 land grant institutions. Course information collected includes; college, Dept., title, level, description, website (if available) and instructor e-mail (if available). Interestingly, there are at least 84 courses offering some aspect of greenhouse science in the U.S. Most are offered in Colleges of Agriculture or Engineering, but are housed in 17 diverse Dept.s. Examples include Dept.s of Horticulture; Agronomy and Horticulture; Agricultural Biosystems and Engineering; Plant, Soil, and Entomological Science; and Horticulture, Forestry, Landscape & Parks. This information will be utilized to focus the instructional design phase of the multimedia instrument, to contact current course instructors for feedback, and to frame future development of the resource.
The Mississippi (MS) Greenhouse Tomato Short Course has been held every March since 1989. The purpose of this 2-day, intensive training is to educate growers so they will be able to successfully grow greenhouse tomatoes as a viable horticultural business. With a mixture of experienced, novice, and prospective growers, it is just as important to provide current growers with research based, practical information, as to expose potential growers to the realities of the business, helping them make an informed decision before investing time and money. Beginning as a small program for a handful growers in the conference room at the Truck Crops Experiment Station, it has gradually grown in number and diversity of participants and invited speakers, depth of subject matter, and geographic origin of growers and speakers. The 2003 program had 142 participants from over 20 states and 4 countries, making it the largest such program in the United States. This is in keeping with the recent trend. The typical lineup of topics includes the basics of producing a commercial crop of hydroponic greenhouse tomatoes, the budget for establishing and operating a greenhouse business, marketing and promotion, pest and disease identification and management, and the grower's point of view. Other topics, varying year to year, include heating, cooling, and ventilation of greenhouses, record keeping, new technologies, biological control, diagnostics, and alternative crops. For 2004, the subject of organic production will be introduced. With targeted extension programming such as this Short Course, the greenhouse tomato industry in MS has grown from 15 growers in 1989 to 135 growers today, producing $6.5 million in annual gross sales. Complete information can be found at www.msstate.edu/dept/cmrec/ghsc.htm.