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Information is more accessible to students than ever before. Gone are the days of a single instructor being the ultimate authority on a specific scientific discipline. Search engines, online journals, virtual libraries, and the development of Internet II will continue to drive the increase in availability of information. With basic computer skills, the average college student can put their hands on more subject data than they could possibly read during the time frame of a semester-long course. Therefore, it is more critical than ever to give students the logical tools to evaluate information and construct intelligent arguments. One particular area of interest to the horticulture industry is the impact of environmental regulations and public concern over common horticultural production practices such as irrigation, land development, application of pesticides, and developmental manipulation using growth regulators. South Florida is a mosaic of pristine natural areas, major agricultural production regions, densely populated urban areas, and regions of rapid suburban growth. As a result, there is heightened public awareness of environmental issues, which often leads to spirited conflicts among people with diverse professional backgrounds and personal interests. This catalyzed the development of a new course entitled “South Florida Flora and Ecosystems” that uses several different types of critical thinking exercises to help relate course content information into the cultural and political framework of South Florida. Techniques such as role playing, utilizing guest speakers with opposite opinions on the same topic, and active evaluation of data were used to enhance student learning, increase environmental awareness, and place undergraduate horticultural students one step closer to becoming “society-ready” graduates.
Decision cases are designed to enhance students critical thinking by engaging them in authentic problem situations. Students are assigned the role as decision maker with a dilemma to solve. In the assignment, the decision maker has to weigh the issues, identify the options, and develop strategies for solutions either individually or as a group. The authors have been writing and using decision cases in upper level undergraduate production courses in fruits and vegetables to integrate information from classes in plant pathology, entomology, and production horticulture. Decision cases dealing with weed control strategies in small fruit production and vegetable production scheduling will be discussed to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of the case approach.
Capstone courses generally target students who are nearing completion of their studies, are designed to build on skills acquired in earlier courses, and emphasize realistic situations and challenges that exist in the “real world”. Specific learning goals and course objectives are found to vary across disciplines but most capstone courses provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate a range of professional competencies and communication skills. By incorporating computer simulations, case studies, or research projects, students are better able to develop critical thinking and problem solving skills, a learning goal frequently adopted following curriculum review. The goals and organization of “Quality, Ethics, and the Global Environment,” the capstone course in Horticulture at The Ohio State University will be compared to other capstone courses.
Experiential learning has proven to be a valuable component of the Landscape Contracting curriculum in Penn State's Department of Horticulture. Implemented in four classes, two with design orientation and two with construction orientation, experiential learning has been utilized to stimulate and encourage critical thinking among students, both individually and in group situations. This teaching method serves to ignite student interest in further exploration of both concepts and process. Students involved in experiential projects have taken initiative to go beyond problem statement requirements to expand project scopes and elevate the quality of finished products. Indications of exceptional student motivation include requests by course enrollees for additional work to further develop design concepts, and organization of work sessions outside of class time to accommodate expanded work objectives. Successful integration of experiential learning into course outlines requires instructor skills that differ substantially from those employed in traditional lecture or studio formats.
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.
Abstract
Several recent reports have been critical of the quality of general education in the United States (Assn, of American Colleges, 1985; Geiger, 1980; Schwerin, 1983). Baccalaureate education has not been spared from negative evaluation (Boyer, 1987). A report of the Assn, of American Colleges (1985) stated that the bachelor’s degree had lost its intrinsic value: undergraduate education was being dominated by a marketplace philosophy and universities were not promoting rigorous thinking.
A 200-level course at Iowa State Univ., Principles of Horticulture, has included a communication across the curriculum assignment for the past seven semesters involving ≈425 students. Each undergraduate student develops and writes an individual student newsletter on topics and for an audience of the student's choice. The semester-long project motivates students to practice a professional communication task, and teaches technical horticultural material and writing skills. The newsletters contain at least two separate articles for an intended audience, providing the students with an opportunity to learn technical information in subjects in which they are intensely interested, but may not be taught in a principles course. Drafts of the articles and newsletter project are peer-reviewed by the students to model the professional review process, provoke critical thinking, and provide students with more feedback than they would otherwise receive from the instructor alone. Additionally, peer-review facilitates writing intensive courses for the instructor who wishes to focus course activities on writing, but has limited time or resources for reviewing writing assignments. Student newsletter articles are selected to be included in quarterly department and extension newsletters, providing students with a real-world use of a communication across the curriculum assignment.
century of global agricultural abundance. So what are these politicians, policy makers, and a disengaged public thinking? What good is the wholesome nutrition of horticultural crops that a large portion of the U.S. and international population cannot
meeting 35 years from now in 2043 might be like, and what we need to start doing and keep doing now to make that 2043 meeting happen. A student receiving a PhD in 2043 could attend the bicentennial in 2103! I've been thinking about what is the same
about, and how good it ended up being (and not thinking about the ones that turned out to be true losers or dogs!). The good cultivars generate good feelings. I get to see them perform for growers in quality products and profits, hear people speak of the