future career. In this sense, the major advantage of using simulators in the teaching of plant breeding is that they involve a practical application of skills that will subsequently be necessary throughout the students' career. Other skills developed or
Graduate students received training in total crop management (TCM) techniques including pest scouting and trapping, nutritional monitoring, and graphical tracking of crop height. In 1995, one student visited five greenhouse businesses biweekly during the poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima Willd.) season to provide TCM training to one greenhouse employee per business. In 1996, a second student visited one greenhouse business every week during the poinsettia crop to conduct the TCM program for that business. The students benefited from the gained practical knowledge of greenhouse production techniques and TCM techniques, and they also benefited from the opportunity to visit commercial greenhouses and interact with staff throughout the production cycle for an entire crop. This program also provided the students with the opportunity to develop their teaching, communication and training skills. The participating growers benefited during this study from receiving useful production information and TCM training. An evaluation of the program conducted in 1998 indicated that four of the five participating businesses continue to use some TCM techniques, while two of the five have fully integrated the TCM program into their normal production routines.
Twenty-three students of HORT 2212: Herbaceous Ornamental Plants divided into five teams, each selecting one of the ground beds at the television studio gardens of Oklahoma Gardening to design with the aid of MacDraw II and Macintosh computers. The team approach promoted cooperative learning, where those who were skilled in design worked cooperatively with those individuals more skilled at developing the theme gardens' cultural pamphlets. This project encouraged individual students to develop various communication skills to support their team's thematic garden-visual, in the form of a CAD plot of the garden design; written, in the form of a garden pamphlet; and telecommunication, in the form of Oklahoma Gardening television segments.
The students and OBGA Ambassadors started the seeds and, then, planted the gardens, resulting in a very practical experience. This design and installation project not only prepared students for the cooperative efforts that they are likely to encounter in the ornamental horticulture and landscape design and maintenance industries, but also imparted pride in their work, which was viewed by over 150,000 television viewers and visitors weekly.
The Clemson University Communication Across The Curriculum program is coordinating a creative response for learning (CRL) project to provide students with creative learning and critical thinking opportunities relevant to course content while creating a learning community. Faculty representing numerous disciplines asked their students to respond with creative projects (e.g., drawings, poems, posters, multimedia, sculpture, music, etc.) to the subject matter of the course. Students in Horticulture courses responded by writing poems in a Landscape Appreciation class, designing creative solutions to environmental problems in a Landscape Design Class, and installing an Ethnobotany Garden in a landscape implementation class. The landscape design and implementation classes used a service learning methodology to identify and solve problems in local communities. Following a four-part process of preparation, action, reflection, and celebration, students in the design class completed plans for thirteen theme gardens constituting a Children's garden in the South Carolina Botanical Garden. The following semester, landscape implementation students built the first of the series, an Ethnobotany Garden, using teamwork and university/community partnerships. They also practiced individual creative thinking and building skills through the design and installation of creative projects including a bat house, a stained glass and a broken tile birdhouse, four container gardens, artistic stepping-stones, and a dramatic metal sculpture of a butterfly representing the sustainable wildlife habitat aspect of the Children's garden. College students and faculty working on the Ethnobotany Garden project alone contributed over 1,000 hours to their community while learning more about both the art and the science of landscape design and implementation.
. Set one is general educational outcomes consisting of written and oral communication, and critical thinking skills. Set two relates to horticulture core competency outcomes and includes 1) acquire, integrate, and apply knowledge of plant science to
( Kuhnert et al., 1982 ), even though this study included an expanded set of knowledge, skills, and abilities. In the 1982 study, the five top-rated job dimensions were motivation management, communication, horticultural skills, goal setting, and activity
2020 ; Crawford et al. 2011 ; Pearson and Moore 2017 ; VanDerZanden and Reinert 2009; Wilson et al. 2019 ). There are many pedagogical techniques that can assist students with developing and learning public speaking and communication skills. Oral
). Through their teaching experience, students also develop leadership skills, including in written and oral communication, which can be beneficial in their future agricultural careers ( U.S. Department of Labor, 2006 ). Leadership skills are sought after in
” curriculum have on six children's life skills: teamwork, self-understanding, decision-making, communication, and overall life skills. Third grade students who participated in eight plant activities were compared with control-group students. No significant
assignment will address the concept of blending form and function in a landscape, and the second will relate to strategies for designing sustainable landscapes. Helping students enhance critical thinking and communication skills is important to their future