Washington State Univ. Tri-Cities offers a new agricultural degree program titled Integrated Cropping Systems. It is intended to provide a basic education on the fundamentals of crop production and the environmental context in which crops are grown. Courses are offered at the upper division level to interface with the lower division courses offered at local community colleges. The curriculum is composed of courses in environmental science, ecology and conservation as well as crop growth and development, crop nutrition, plant pathology integrated pest management and others. Students need to meet the same requirements as those at other Washington State Univ. campuses in regards to the general education requirements. The purpose of the Integrated Cropping Systems program is to provide an educational opportunity for agricultural professionals and others in the region who are unable to commute or move to the main campus location. The curriculum provides the background needed for such occupations as grower/producer, crop scouting, sales representative and other entry level agricultural professions. It will supply credits toward certification through the American Registry of Certified Professional Agricultural Consultants (ARCPACS). Integrated Cropping Systems is a unique agricultural curriculum designed to help agriculturists integrate their production practices into the local ecosystem in a way that the environment does not incur damage. It emphasizes the use of environmentally conscience decisionmaking processes and sound resource ethics. The program will graduate individuals who have heightened awareness of the impact agricultural practices have on the ecosystem in which they are conducted.
In Spring 1999, the Environmental Horticulture Graduate Student Association (EHGSA) at the Univ. of Florida was given the opportunity to develop a professional development course, for credit, for graduate students. Members of the EHGSA determined that there was a need for seminars on topics such as curriculum vitae development, interview techniques, effective presentations, successful teaching, and many more topics pertinent to the graduate student as a future professional both inside and outside of academia. As a group, the EHGSA determined the seminar topics, found speakers to present the information and organized the course for the Fall 1999 semester. The rationale for creating this course, its development, topic selection, and student reviews will be presented.
With funding to increase support for organic farming research at land grant universities, organic growers have collaborated with faculty and administrators to develop an undergraduate, interdisciplinary minor at the University of Florida. Required introductory courses focus on general concepts of organic and sustainable farming, alternative cropping systems, production programs, handling, and marketing issues. An advanced horticulture course requires intensive examination of certification procedures, farm plans, soil fertility, and crop management, all of which are integrated into a required field project. Extension faculty have also fostered development of this new curriculum by coordinating regional workshops and field days in collaboration with organic growers and by developing educational materials on organic certification and related issues.
We thank Cary J. Trexler, Navina Khanna, Kristin Reynolds, and other members of the UC Davis Sustainability Curriculum Workgroup for their contributions.
A learning community was developed for first-year students majoring in horticulture at Iowa State Univ. in 1998. Learning communities are a curriculum design that schedules courses for both students and faculty to encourage community and connections among students, between students and faculty, and among faculty. Learning communities can offer students more opportunities for interactions among each other, academic assistance through supplemental instruction and/or group study sessions, and planned horticulture-related activities, all of which are important for success and retention of first-year students. First-year students in the horticulture learning community enrolled in the same courses and sections of five courses. The first-year English composition course was linked to the second-year principles of horticulture course that requires writing-across-the-curriculum activities. Faculty mentoring was provided through local field trips to horticultural sites of keen interest to the students. Academic environment survey results showed students rated their expectations highly for developing a network of other students as a resource group and for learning cooperatively in groups. Iowa State Univ. supports learning communities by providing faculty development and facilitating course registration, peer mentoring, supplemental instruction for challenging core courses, and academic and student services, to strengthen undergraduate teaching programs within and outside of the classroom.
Horticulture departments have been experiencing a decline of students studying pomology and the tree fruit industry suffers from a shortage of horticulturists. Wenatchee Valley College responded to the tree fruit industry's request to develop an undergraduate pomology program. The program has an industry advisory committee, is industry oriented and emphasizes the art and the science of deciduous tree fruit production. Industry and field-based instruction is a significant component of the curriculum. The fruit industry funded the development of two laboratory orchards totaling 53 acres. Industry satisfaction and student placement is high. Wenatchee Valley College's success motivated the industry to encourage the Washington State University Dept. of Horticulture and Wenatchee Valley College to join in an educational partnership. The Washington Tree Fruit Program was implemented in 1993. It is the state's first educational program cooperatively developed by two state institutions of higher education and boasts 55 degree-seeking students. The articulated curriculum has many innovations and represents a significant departure from traditional undergraduate pomology curricula.
. Salaries and research support provided by state and federal funds appropriated to the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, The Ohio State University. Manuscript no. 157-94.
Classrooms are radically changing across United States campuses. Rooms that were once dominated by bright lights, chalkboards, and overhead projectors, are being transformed into multimedia “master classrooms,” complete with task lighting, video projectors, visualizers, laserdisc and videotape players, soft boards, and computers. What are these pieces of equipment, how much do they cost, and how can they be implemented into a horticultural curriculum? Computer hardware and software empowers today's educator with a multimedia development studio on his or her desktop to create simple slide presentations or complex, interactive multimedia applications. However, it is not multimedia itself, any more than it was the chalkboard, that makes a powerful, educational presentation, rather it is the educator's creativity, use of instructional methods, and delivery.
To improve the communication skills of students studying horticulture, collaboration between the subject lecturers and an academic skills consultant has led to the inclusion of a writing portfolio into the curriculum of Plant Science and Physiology, a core science component of the Bachelor of Horticultural Science program. The rationale for the portfolio was that, through writing, students would engage more closely with a subject's content and would gain a better understanding of its concepts. The initiatives introduced into the portfolio include the development of nine writing portfolio tasks and model answers, an appropriate grading tool and the integration of the writing tasks into other assessment tools. The focus on writing simultaneously improved students' awareness of the standard and type of writing expected at university, allowed them to develop their written expression, and deepened their understanding of plant science.
International travel and study courses for undergraduate students can be significant academic learning experiences if there is a well-defined curriculum and high expectations for student performance on homework exercises, class discussions and evaluation instruments. An interdisciplinary perspective serves to broaden students' understanding. “In the English Landscape” is a three-credit, 4-week undergraduate course in-residence, primarily in Corsham, Wiltshire, U.K. Students explore the history of English landscapes and gardens in the context of post-medieval British history. The course is team-taught every other year by Purdue faculty from the Horticulture, History and Landscape Architecture programs. Excursions to landscape, garden and cultural sites provide the primary basis for student discovery. Pretravel readings and lectures prepare students for in-country, site-specific worksheets and class discussions. Course philosophy, content, structure, logistics, and instructional materials, which may be useful as a basis for course development by educators at other institutions, are presented.