june 2008 journal

#4. Factors That Contribute toStudent Achievement in anIntroductory Animal ScienceCourse

#5. Teaching Forage Courses withthe Aid of Interactive ComputerModules

Terrill Bradford, Lyle Westrom, and HarounaMaigaUniversity of Minnesota

Marvin Hall and Rama RadhakrishnaPenn State University

K. Moore, M. Wiedenhoeft, and A. CihaIowa State University

J. VolenecPurdue UniversityC. SheafferUniversity of Minnesota

R. LeepMichigan State University

K. AlbrechtUniversity of Wisconsin, Madison

The objective of this time series study was todetermine if selected factors could predict studentfinal grade percentages in the Introduction to AnimalScience course. The selected factors included studentpretest scores, prior involvement in 4-H, FFA andAgricultural Education classes, perception of theirown knowledge of Animal Science, home townpopulation, and the number of missed quizzes andmissed labs. Students enrolled in Introduction toAnimal Science 1004 from fall 1991 to spring 2007 (n= 813) were administered a pretest that also collecteddemographic data. Did pretest scores combined withmissed quizzes and missed labs contributed (r = 0.58)to student performance on final grade percentages?Previous enrollment in 4-H, FFA and AgriculturalEducation courses had minimal effect on final gradepercentages, but were found to have the highestcorrelation with pretest scores. A student's percep-tion of knowledge also impacted pretest scores buthad little effect on final grade percentages.Implications of this study are that students whoregularly and consistently attend class will reportbetter performance than those who do not. Studentswho perceive their knowledge of Animal Science as“average” or “above average” will likely do better onthe pretest. Students who scored higher on thepretest, on average, tend to maintain an advantagethroughout the course. This study allowed us toidentify “at risk” students and provide the opportu-nity to increase their chance of success in the course.Early detection of students who are having difficultyleads to intervention and greater retention in theprogram.

Educational research strives to link students'learning styles with instructional methodology.Traditional lecture format can disseminate informa-tion or create interest in a topic, but may not beeffective in stimulating critical thinking or analysis ofmaterial. Courses that combine directed classroominteraction with computerized, interactive activity(hybrid courses) have potential to benefit students byallowing them to pace their learning while retainingcontact with an instructor who can mentor theirprogress. Interactive, computerized instruction givesstudents control over the amount and rate of materialassimilated; these students out performed those in atraditional classroom environment. Our objectivewas to create a suite of interactive modules that willallow students to learn from the “best” instructorsfrom across North America. Faculty from six land-grant universities collaborated in a single effort andcreated 11 interactive, computer-based teachingmodules. Each module requires about one hour forstudents to complete. The modules have beenmodified based on student evaluations and have beenprovided to instructors of Forage Courses at over 100institutions. The modules demonstrate how multi-institutional collaboration in the creation of teachingmodules improves the quality of teaching withinindividual institutions. Use of the teaching-moduletechnique can be applied to all academic disciplines toenhance food and agricultural sciences education.This project serves as a prototypical model for moduledevelopment and creation. In addition, the methodol-ogy “bottlenecks” and “pitfalls” learned from thisproject will make subsequent projects or teams moreefficient in module development and the modulesmore effective teaching tools.

NACTA

Poster Abstracts

NACTA Conference 2008

Poster Abstracts

NACTA Conference 2008

89NACTA Journal • June 2008

#12. Using a Wiki to EnhanceResource-Based Learning andInformation Literacy Skills

#13. Curriculum Development andDelivery Leading to MeasurableOutcomes and Impacts

#14. Differentiated Curriculum in aMulti-Media Format: Feeding YoungChildren in Group Settings

Michael ReinertPenn State University

S. Carrithers and J. Bauder, A. Kirkpatrick, T.Mowen, and W. SiglerMontana State University

N. MesnerUtah State University

J. Fletcher, E. Anderson, and L. BranenUniversity of Idaho

In the fall semester of 2007 a wiki was introducedinto a class entitled “Computer Applications forLandscape Contracting.” Previously, the classfollowed a lecture format with associated problem-solving exercises and assignments. Due to a lack ofstudent engagement, the instructor decided to usethe principles of resource-based learning and tech-nology-enhanced learning, supported by a wiki, in anattempt to increase student engagement and shift thelearning responsibility from the teacher to thestudents. Students worked in teams from four toeight to construct group knowledge for differentrelevant class technologies. Students were requiredto answer seven questions about their particulartechnology and then teach other students theimportant aspects of the technology. By forcing thestudents to find their own resources, use them tocreate group knowledge, and publish the knowledgethrough a wiki, class participation increased dramati-cally and students were able to answer many of theirown questions. One important outcome for thecourse was enhancing the students' abilities to learnhow to learn new technologies rather than learningaspects of one technology or another as demonstratedby the instructor. Another unexpected but importantoutcome was the introduction to working in mixedteams with some teammates working in face-to-facerelationships and others in virtual relationshipsmediated by the technology. The wiki was madepublicly available and published at http://landscape.psu.edu/hort120. Each year the students of thecourse will add to the existing content to create andmaintain a resource for the academy and landscapecontracting industry.

Montana State University's (MSU) on-lineMaster of Science in Science Education (MSSE)degree program collaborated with Utah State (USU),Colorado State (CSU), and Wyoming (UWY) intransforming “Stream Side Science: Lesson Plansand Water Related Activities for Utah 9th GradeEarth Systems Science,” a USU instructional manualin water quality monitoring, into a seven-week,three-graduate credit, on-line experiential fieldcourse for secondary science teachers. The course

was titled “Stream Side Science” (SSS), patternedafter the USU instructional manual. USDA-CSREESpartners from USU, CSU, UWY provided evaluativeinput during SSS development and critiqued generalcourse content, to ensure integrity of content whilekeeping curriculum focused on the field-basedaspects of watershed science. SSS on-line providedinstruction and materials to students to independ-ently and actively participate in a hands-on, field-based (stream side) course focused on real-time waterquality monitoring and enhanced knowledge of waterquality principles. During trial offerings, a diversegroup of evaluators, including students enrolled inthe course, assessed successes and limitations of thecourse. Components of the course rated as successfulor beneficial included: 1) level of science-basedcontent; 2) diversity of teaching resources intro-duced; and 3) inclusion of science teaching standardsto guide teachers on content appropriate for thesecondary classrooms. In addition 54% of studentsreported good to exceptional enhancement in confi-dence level to teach water resource science aftertaking the course. Limitations of the course were alsoreported and summarized. The course was accord-ingly modified. Past SSS students were surveyed toidentify impacts. Significant impacts included:

81% of respondents incorporated knowledge,skills or activities from SSS into their classrooms;SSS content brought into the classrooms includedchemical and physical parameters (69%), streammonitoring (38%), and macroinvertebrate counts(31%).

A conservative estimate of over 400 studentsimpacted by SSS within a two year period.

Half of the respondents indicated their teachingmethods had changed as a result of SSS, includingincorporation of more hands-on lab activities in theclassroom.

75% of respondents indicated having used SSScontent or principles outside of the school setting;settings include: family activities (62%), communityevents (31%), and teaching conferences (23%).

This presentation will include a brief overviewof course format, content, and delivery methods,evaluation tools and techniques used during coursedevelopment and modification, and student-reportedoutcomes and impacts following two offerings of thecourse.

Adult attitudes and competencies about nutri-tion and the adult-child feeding relationship impactchildren's eating, their food choices, and theirmealtime lifestyles. Adult learners vary greatly intheir personal eating and feeding history, culturally

90 NACTA Journal • June 2008

Poster Abstracts

shaped habits, and education levels. This USDAHigher Education Challenge Grant Project is aimedat creating innovative curriculum for teaching adultsabout feeding children in group settings. Materialsand activities for the instruction are based on asystem of differentiated instruction where options forlearning include leveled activities and resources. Thisproject offers an innovative, hybrid multi-mediadistance education curriculum where trainers andfaculty can access all or parts of the differentiatedcurriculum for workshops and courses. The learner-centered design offers lessons, handouts, assess-ments, activities, bibliographies, and media materi-als where differentiation of all materials is pervasive.Activities in the curriculum include options for thelearner to choose assignments ranging from hands-on practical activities to research and theoreticalanalyses and synthesis papers. Novice, intermediate,and advanced learners can find their starting pointsfor learning in the multiple assignment options. Webtechnology allows for resources that are simple tohighly complex. Because child development facultyand nutrition faculty joined to offer the instruction,learners benefit from integration of science aboutwhat children need for healthy eating and develop-mental characteristics of children and how thesework together in developing healthy lifestyles. Allcourse materials and lessons are available to trainersand faculty for no cost via the world-wide web.

Developing agricultural faculty in the area ofleadership education has far reaching implicationsthroughout agricultural colleges and the industryimpacted by those colleges. The LeadershipEducation Institute (LEI), a project funded by aUSDA Higher Education Challenge Grant, broughttogether agricultural educators interested in teach-ing leadership and provided them with a sustainablenetwork for learning about leadership education,best practices and research in leadership education,and opportunities for continuous development inagricultural leadership education. The projectobjectives were: (1) to provide professional develop-ment to faculty in colleges of agriculture responsiblefor delivering undergraduate leadership curriculum;(2) to support faculty in aligning leadership instruc-tion and curriculum with current research and bestpractices in leadership education; (3) to develop a

sustainable network of faculty in colleges of agricul-ture teaching leadership coursework; and (4) todisseminate contemporary models for leadershipinstruction and curriculum to colleges of agriculture.Ten faculty representing colleges of agricultureacross the nation were selected to participate in theinstitute. LEI Fellows participated in three face-to-face multi-day workshops in addition to campus visitsto host institutions. Workshops were designed toprovide opportunities for the participants to workwith experts in leadership education from otheruniversities and colleges. Two of the workshops wereoffered as extended pre-sessions to the Association ofLeadership Educators national meeting and a thirdworkshop was organized as a fall retreat for LEIparticipants. Project outcomes included the develop-ment of new leadership courses, modifying existingcurriculum, and proposing new programs in leader-ship in colleges of agriculture.

This study measures the effectiveness of anagricultural literacy professional developmentprogram that was provided to K-6 grade teachersthroughout the state of Utah. The course provided in-person and asynchronous online training on how toincorporate agricultural lessons and activities intotheir science, social studies, and health classes. Theeffectiveness of the program is determined by theextent that the participants have continued to use thelessons and activities following the professionaldevelopment experience. Participants were selectedfrom a three year period of enrollment. One hundredand seventy two elementary school teachers weresolicited to take an online survey to determine theextent that they have implemented and continued touse the lessons and activities from the professionaldevelopment program. Sixty five (37.8%) of theparticipants responded to the survey. Participantresponses were statistically analyzed and given aweighted score called a Sustained ImplementationScale (SIS). As a means to compare participants' useacross years, the number of lessons used one yearafter the course is weighted by one, the number oflessons used in year 2 is weighted by two, and thenumber of lessons used in year three is weighted bythree. Mean SIS scores in Year 1 ranged from 11.92 to17.30, in Year 2 the mean scores were 20.00 and 20.83,and in Year 3 the mean score was 25.57. This profes-sional development program can be consideredeffective as measured by the frequency of continueduse of materials and lessons in participants' class-rooms following the program.

#15. Developing AgriculturalFaculty to Teach Leadership

#17. Implementing AgriculturalLiteracy into the ElementaryClassroom

Penny Weeks, William Weeks, and CindyBlackwellOklahoma State University

Jay BarbutoUniversity of Nebraska - Lincoln

Chris LangoneUniversity of Georgia

Clay Rasmussen, Debra Spielmaker, BrianWarnick, and Rebecca MonhardtUtah State University


Poster Abstracts

#18. Environmental EducationTechnique for Demonstrating OzonePollution Effects on Vegetation

#20. Associations between LearnerInteraction Patterns andPerformance in a WebCT Course

#23. Who's the Best? AssessingCognitive Level of Instruction: TheCase of Razi University

Tracy Hoover, Dennis Decoteau, and DonaldDavisPennsylvania State UniversitySabrina Chrzanowski

Greg MillerIowa State University

Kiumars Zarafshani and SamireSaymuhammadiRazi University, Iran

Ozone pollution is a major worldwide environ-mental issue, which affects economics, humanhealth, and environmental health. The annualeconomic loss due to ozone pollution effects onvegetation in the United States is $1-2 billion andeven greater in other countries around the world.Health problems associated with ozone pollutioninclude coughing, congestion, chest pain, and throatirritation, and the worsening of respiratory diseasessuch as asthma, bronchitis, and emphysema. Ozoneinduced vegetation injuries include, stipple, chloroticmottle, tipburn, premature defoliation, and reducedcrop yields. During the 2007 Pennsylvania ozoneseason (April-October), a series of photographs,weather and air pollution data were collected at theAir Quality Learning and Demonstration Centerlocated at the Pennsylvania State UniversityArboretum. This data was then used in the develop-ment of a teaching module meant to educate individu-als on the topic of ground level ozone pollution effectson vegetation. To test its effectiveness, the modulewas presented to a group of Penn State Agriculturaland Extension Education student teachers. Prior tothe presentation the participants took a pre-quiz totest their knowledge on the subject. They were thenpresented with the module, which includes two powerpoint presentations, a homework assignment, an inclass activity, a module overview and a quiz. Thispresentation was followed by a post-quiz used toretest the participants' knowledge of the subject. Apaired t-test was used for statistical analysis, whichdemonstrated that there was an increase between thepre and post quiz means (p=0.000, mean pre-quiz=6.63, mean post-quiz=13.06, n=16).

Course management systems like WebCTautomatically collect data on the extent to whichstudents interact with course materials, with otherstudents, and with the instructor. Can this informa-tion be used to determine whether student interac-tion patterns are associated with academic achieve-ment in an online course? The purpose of this studywas to conduct an exploratory analysis of studentinteraction patterns in an online graduate-levelresearch methods course. Data were limited to thosewhich were automatically collected by WebCT duringcourse delivery. Nineteen students were enrolled.

Student majors included agricultural education(n=10), professional agriculture (n=7), sociology andentomology (n=1), and undeclared (n=1). Learner-content, learner-instructor, and learner-learnerinteraction all influenced grades in this onlinegraduate level research methods course. Persons(n=10) who earned a grade of A or A- interacted morefrequently in all areas. Specific interactions thatmost strongly influenced grades included visitingcontent pages, reading discussion posts, and regu-larly checking e-mail messages. In addition, studentswho monitored the course calendar and checked theirgrades more frequently were more likely to earn an Aor A-. It was recommended that the instructor of thiscourse utilize the findings and conclusions to commu-nicate to students the associations between interac-tion and academic achievement. Students who desireto improve their performance might be motivated tointeract more frequently when informed of how theirlevel of interaction in the course compares to that ofstudents who earned As or A-s.

Agriculture professors are charged with provid-ing high quality education. They are also expected toteach students at higher level of cognition sincehigher order thinking tend to increase academicskills. The purpose of this study was to award instruc-tors who taught at higher order thinking in College ofAgriculture at Razi University. All 36 instructors inCollege of Agriculture were selected. FloridaTaxonomy of Cognitive Behavior (FTCB) was backtranslated and used to assess the cognitive level ofclassroom discourse (the formal speech and orconversation delivered during class). Researchersobserved and recorded instructors' teaching threetimes during the semester. Cognitive level of instruc-tion was assessed to be: knowledge = 40%, compre-hension = 28%, application = 5%, analysis = 14%,synthesis = 11%, and evaluation = 2%. Althoughclassroom discourse was presented predominately atlower cognitive lower, those taught above knowledgelevel were awarded. Workshops should be designed toassist instructors in learning techniques for increas-ing the frequency of opportunities given to studentsto think at higher cognitive levels, thereby enhancingthe cognitive processing skills of students.


Poster Abstracts

#24. Enhancing Programs Designedto Increase Student Retention

#25. Integrating Multimedia into AgEducation Instruction

#26. Faculty-Coached StudentPanel Collaborations: Partnershipsfor Teaching and Learning

David Knauft and Brian GlaserUniversity of Georgia

Kevin ShepardUniversity of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Walter Hurley, Darrel Kelser, and JudtihSundermanUniversity of Illinois

Many colleges of agriculture report increasedacademic standards for matriculation. Academicfailure still occurs among students accepted intothese programs, although their academic credentialspredict college success. The causes of these academicdifficulties are complex, and single approaches toassist these students have been unsuccessful. Anacademic counseling program was established at theUniversity of Georgia to provide individualizedassessment of the causes of academic difficulty and toconstruct specific programs for each student toremedy their academic problems. In initial studies itwas found that student participation in the counsel-ing program significantly improved grade pointaverages and the opportunity to remain in college.Differences in the success rate of students participat-ing in the program led to further evaluation ofunderlying causes. Students on academic probationperceived that barriers to academic and career goalswere higher, and career decision self-efficacy waslower, than for students not on probation. The abilityof the students on probation to cope with thesebarriers was also lower. There were no genderdifferences on career decision self-efficacy, perceptionof barriers, or perception of coping skills. Non-Caucasian students perceived more barriers to careerand academic goals. As counseling programs forstudent retention interact with students, attention tocareer decision self-efficacy, perception of barriers,and perception of coping efficacy may enhance overallsuccess of retention.

Alabama A&M University, one of the largestHBCU schools, is providing a valuable opportunityfor the agricultural education students and generaleducation students to engage in a computer-basedMultimedia Talent Initiative to tap their multimediatalents. Students are provided with the computer-based learning tasks and activities, such as graphicsdesign, animation, sound production and videoproduction associated with content areas. The majorstrategies used in the learning process are composedof modeling, resource-based learning, discussing,cooperative learning, teamwork, and group evalua-tion. Students claim that the computer-basedmultimedia production is interesting and enjoyableto learn, because it relates to their future life as

teachers. The learning activities have stimulatedtheir learning interests and motivation. In thisprogram, the students not only gain knowledge andskills in multimedia design, but also enhance theirlearning creativity and their attitude toward the useof the multimedia technology. Through the cross-visitof each other's project portfolio, students are proud tosee their visible progress, and are aware that it isfruitful to share each other's experiences and tech-niques. Several of their projects were chosen for thenationwide Adobe College Student MultimediaCompetitions.

Student Carlos Stephenson and Jason Langfordwon the First Place and the Fourth place in the AdobeNational College Student Flash Competition II in2007. This tremendously increased the students' self-image and confidence for success. The information ofAdobe College Student Media Competition 2007could be found at http://www.studica.com/skills/competition.cfm?competitionID=70.

The goal is to develop models of faculty-studentpartnerships that result in effective peer-teachingopportunities for the student partners. This modelexplored the development of faculty-coached,student-led panels aimed at enhancing the interest ofpeer undergraduate students in pursuing interna-tional learning experiences. A class was developed todebrief undergraduates who had participated instudent-centered learning abroad programs duringthe previous year. Course activities capitalized onknowledge gained by the undergraduates duringtheir international programs. The course involvedsuccessive developmental activities that fostered thefaculty-student partnerships. Instructors began byguiding students through reflective exercises thatpromoted self-examination of international perspec-tives and the personal impact of study abroad. Theseexercises allowed instructors to gain insights andunderstanding about how students perceived theirstudy abroad experiences. Students were coached togradually assume the role of teacher and acceptleadership for educating their fellow students aboutinternational learning opportunities. This rolereversal allowed students to take on the challenges ofteaching. The course culminated in the student-ledpanels presenting information and personal experi-ences on study abroad to other undergraduateclasses. Survey data from audiences of these classesindicated three primary outcomes: 1) studentaudiences enjoyed listening to their peers discussstudy abroad experiences; 2) student audiencesindicated that they learned new and interestinginformation from listening to the student panel

Sha Li, Shirley King, Edward Jones, YujianFu, and Xiangzhao Zhao

Alabama A&M University


Poster Abstracts

presentations; and 3) student audiences reportedpositive impacts on their interest in study abroad.Faculty-student partnerships, in the form of student-led panels, can result in effective peer-teaching by thestudent partners.

This research was undertaken to develop a betterunderstanding of how students think about theirstudy abroad experiences. What meaning do studentsattribute to their international experiences? How canthe benefits of international study be more effectivelyincorporated into the classroom? Global interdepen-dence has created new circumstances requiringeducational opportunities that cultivate lasting skillsets applicable to international environments and theability to appreciate other cultural perspectives.Institutional programming designed to instillinternational competencies in undergraduates needsto be based on a clear understanding of the nature,durability, and process through which internationalexperiences are integrated into the academic andpersonal lives of students. To address these ques-tions, an experimental course was developed togather qualitative data in the form of reflections fromstudents who had participated in learning abroadprograms during the previous year. Results of theanalysis validated previous research on the fourgenerally recognized categories of study abroadbenefits: academic commitment, global perspective,personal development, and career focus. A furtherfinding revealed patterns in the way that studentsthought about their international experiences andrecognized the effects of their experiences. Fourpatterns in thinking about the personal impact ofstudy abroad were observed: 1) confronting issues ofidentity and self-understanding; 2) recognizing newknowledge and insights about abilities and compe-tencies; 3) sharing and using new knowledge; 4)integrating new knowledge and understanding intopersonal identity. These findings reveal the emer-gence of multicultural perspectives and illustrate thenature of student thinking arising from internationalexperiences.

The goal of this study was to explore the emer-gence of roles and processes in online group projects.

The primary research question was: How do studentsdefine their roles and responsibilities in online groupprojects. One hundred and twenty-six students in sixFamily and Consumer Sciences online courses (3Freshman level and 3 Senior level) participated inonline group projects as part of their course require-ments. Transcripts of planning threads and chat logswere coded for emerging themes and issues. Theartifacts were coded independently by all threeresearchers who then discussed the emerging data tocreate the collapsed codes. Four themes were identi-fied: testing the waters, apologies as “being nice”,“tag – you're it” and struggling to find one's role. Incontrast to typical roles defined in the literature,students created alternate roles as they went throughthe group project process. These roles included: (1)Leader – one who facilitates and keeps the group ontask, (2) Wannabe – tries to control the group withouttaking responsibility, (3) Spoiler – very infrequentparticipant who tries to change the direction of thegroup then fades out again, (4) Agreeable Enabler –one who goes along with all suggestions even whentasks shift and continues to do the work, (5) Coat-tails – tries to act like a participant but does no work,(6) Supportive Worker – understands assignmentcriteria and the group dynamics, follows through, andtakes initiative to ensure the groups success. Insummary, results support the need for a balancebetween an approach that allows students to createand experience roles on their own and an approach inwhich faculty assign roles and direct the groupprocess.

Connect. Develop. Achieve. What do they have incommon? According to qualitative research, they arethe strengths of the North American Colleges andTeachers of Agriculture (NACTA) and keys torecruiting and retaining NACTA members. To assistin updating NACTA's image and brand, students in apublic relations course at Kansas State Universitycompleted a semester-long project to researchtargeted NACTA member demographics andpsychographics. After determining precisely thevarious segments of NACTA membership andeducating themselves on the organization, studentsupdated the brand image, provided suggestions for

#27. Global Pursuits: StudentReflections on Short-term LearningAbroad Experiences

#30. Leader, Spoiler and Wannabe:Emerging Group Roles for Today'sOnline Groups

#31. Connect. Develop. Achieve.The Essence of NACTA

Walter Hurley, Darrel Kelser, and JudtihSundermanUniversity of Illinois

Kari Morgan, Karen Williams, and BruceCameronUniversity of Wyoming

Dana Minihan and Linda HarveyKansas State University

Courtney MeyersUniversity of Florida

Emily RhoadesThe Ohio State University

Shelly SittonOklahoma State University


Poster Abstracts

brand awareness, and created new recruitingmaterials for the organization. Through the experi-ence, students learned the importance of connectingresearch obtained both through primary and second-ary methods to develop a focused and concise commu-nications effort designed especially for NACTA.Using the research and communication materialswill promote greater awareness and an improvedimage for NACTA.

There is a need to increase the internationalexperiences of students studying agriculture at U.S.universities, but there are several barriers that existsuch as financial costs and time constraints. There isstrong literature support that students with fluencyin a foreign language and critical thinking skills aremore likely to be recruited by employers in today'sever expanding global marketplace. Universitiesmust transition to meet this valuable need by devel-oping opportunities for students to succeed in diversecultural and international settings. The objective ofthis project is to identify and assess the attributesthat impact the global competence of agriculturestudents and faculty. Students can gain valuableinternational competency through a combination oflanguage immersion, internationally focusedcurriculum, directed research projects, and travelstudy opportunities. A pilot project of 11 students andfaculty participated in a travel study program with aMexican university partner in the spring of 2008. Allparticipants were pre and post tested based on aseries of 30 questions regarding their perceptions ofinternational agriculture and cross cultural compe-tency. Initial data results show increased interna-tional awareness of participants and desire to learnmore about the host country. Students and faculty areable to share these experiences with others oncampus and increase global awareness among thecommunity. Faculty participants enhanced theirinternational professional development and teachingeffectiveness in the classroom. Student participantsreceived increased global competency and a morecomplete understanding of how U.S. agriculturecompetes in a global market.

Rapidly growing knowledge of the genomes ofanimals and pathogens has opened new horizons inveterinary medicine, agriculture and other

biotechnical areas. A new generation of scientistsmust be trained to harness the benefits of genomicinformation to strengthen animal agriculture in theUnited States. The College of Veterinary Medicineprovides our students with strong systematic accessto basic and translational research training. Thisexperiential training enables students to addresscritical issues facing veterinary medicine in this era ofincreasing awareness of the importance of zoonoticdisease and food safety. Our students work withfaculty in their research laboratories during thesummer. Students are competitively selected basedon short research proposals they prepare based on thementors area of research interest. Proposals areranked and approved by a steering committee. Inaddition to the research project they are expected toparticipate in a weekly seminar program where topicsinclude ethics of animal research, scientific writing,keeping a databook and alternative careers forveterinarians. Our program is currently recruitingthe seventh class of Scholars. Of the 74 students whohave participated over the past six years, three havebeen admitted to and/or completed the PhD degree,one student has completed the MS and several are inresidency or internship programs. Seventeen areenrolled in the DVM program and five have com-pleted the degree. Funding for this program has comefrom the USDA Challenge grant, grants from theMerck-Merial Scholars program and the College ofVeterinary Medicine.

The Department of Family Studies, College ofAgriculture, conducted an Alumni Survey ofBachelor's Degree recipients from 2001-2006 toprovide scholarly assessment of students regardingcurricula. The survey instrument was developed withinput from the faculty, identifying 49 learningoutcomes from course competencies in the areas ofpersonal finance, lifespan development, interven-tion, and advocacy and policy. Graduates indicatedresponses based on whether they use the learningoutcomes in their workplace, family, or communitylives, or combinations of these roles. Three mailingswere sent and as of this date, 93 of 371 graduates haveresponded (39 addresses were undeliverable). Themajority of graduates were women (n=87), 59% weremarried, and 70% were 25-34 years of age. Eighty-four percent were Caucasian and 11% were AfricanAmerican. Seventy percent worked fulltime, 84% hadone job and 24% were working in education.Responses varied across the 49 learning outcomes.Respondents most often attributed learning out-comes to family roles, followed by combined roles(work, family, and community). This was especiallytrue for the personal finance and lifespan learning

#32. Enhancing Student GlobalCompetency through Curriculumand Travel Study Programs

#36. Research in VeterinaryMedicine – Does ExperientialLearning Make a Difference?

#40. Student Learning Outcomes:Applications for Workplace, Family,and Community Roles

Joey Mehlhorn, Andrew Brown, and RichardJoostUniversity of Tennessee- Martin

Bert Stromberg and Mark RutherfordUniversity of Minnesota

Cheryl Mimbs and Claudia HeathUniversity of Kentucky


Poster Abstracts

outcomes. Intervention learning outcomes weremore specifically attributed to roles based on the typeof intervention. Advocacy and policy learningoutcomes were used mostly in the application of workroles. Learning outcomes were rarely attributed tocommunity roles; this suggests more community-based internship placements are needed.

Evidence that graduates have used studentlearning outcomes in their workplace, family and/orcommunity roles provides assessment data forcurricula change for program quality enhancement.

Querying genomic databases has become asfundamental to biology as molecular techniques. Ourcollaboration has produced an undergraduatecurriculum that enables students to understand howdata becomes knowledge through the use ofbioinformatics. The specific objectives of our projectwere to: 1) Familiarize students with the tools ofbioinformatics through the exploration of databases,analysis of sequences, prediction of gene functions,and inference of phylogenetic relationships; 2)Provide students with an understanding of theprocess by which new knowledge is derived fromsequence data by engaging students in the process ofannotation and assembly of genomes; and 3)Encourage the development of critical thinking skillsby providing students with open-ended questionsthat they must address with plausible hypotheses.

Over 2000 students at MU, UCLA and USF wereinvolved in DNA sequencing and genome annotationof the bacterium Ammonifex degensii. Our projecthas enabled completion of the genome sequencingand annotation of the genome has begun. Throughthe annotation of pathways, students have been ableto learn more about the physiology and ecology of thisparticular bacterium as well as other similar organ-isms. Students participating in these courses rou-tinely report that doing real research is more motiva-tional than textbook learning and gives them a newappreciation for what researchers do. This collabora-tion has resulted in a national pilot project involvinggenome annotation performed by undergraduates atall levels. At the conclusion of this project, theannotation platform as well as instructional tools willbe available for other institutions to use.

Many natural resource managers have reducedthe amount of time doing manual labor and increasedthe time devoted toward problem solving. Thischange in resource allocation is typical of the infor-mation age. However, because natural resourcemanagement is a tradition-dominated industry, othermanagers have only slowly adopted information agetechnologies. Looking back in history, the transitionfrom horse power to tractor power was truly aninevitable and monumental change. The language ofthe information-age is that of mathematics andcomputers. Natural resource managers traditionallyhave been trained in the biological sciences with afocus on developing cognitive skills rather thanmathematical skills. This project developed a manualentitled, “Mathematics and Science for ImprovedAgronomic Decisions.” This manual provides: 1) abasic understanding of the scientific method; 2)information needed to conducted and analyzeexperiments, and 3) training on how to calculatevalues based on equations. The document has beenassessed by scientists, trainers, and students.

With reductions in resources available forteaching and the loss of faculty teaching positions,curricula in the plant agricultural sciences have comeunder significant pressure. Course offerings havebeen downsized which has resulted in a less thoroughcurriculum and has limited the ability of institutionsto address emerging educational needs. The partici-pating institutions received USDA-HEC funding todetermine how the participating institutions mightdevelop shared courses to address this problem. Aseries of meetings were conducted at which issuesrelated to course sharing among the institutions wasdiscussed. These meetings included faculty, adminis-trators, registrars and specialists in distance educa-tion and academic alliances. Issues addressed in thesesessions included course needs, delivery systems,

#41. Sequence and Consequence: AHands-on Approach toBioinformatics Research forUndergraduates

#43. Mathematics and ScienceCurricula for Improved AgronomicDecisions

#45. The Alliance for CooperativeCourse Exchange in the PlantSciences

Shari FreyermuthUniversity of Missouri

Cheryl KerfeldJGI/University of California-Berkeley

Kathleen ScottUniversity of South Florida

David Clay, Sharon Clay, and Gregg CarrlsonSouth Dakota State University

Michael EvansUniversity of Arkansas

Janet ColeOklahoma State University

Richard HarkessMississippi State University

Jeff KuehnyLouisiana State University


Poster Abstracts

registration issues, tuition sharing and numerousother issues critical to the successful inter-institutional sharing of courses. As a result of thesemeetings the participating institutions developed theAlliance for Cooperative Course Exchange in thePlant Sciences (ACCEPtS). A series of operatingdocuments, including bylaws, were developed andapproved which will govern the operation of theACCEPtS program. A Board of Directors will admin-ister the ACCEPtS program and the Institute forAcademic Alliances at Kansas State University willbe contracted to handle the mechanics related toregistration, tuition billing and reporting among theinstitutions. The participating institutions will use20% of the tuition collected from ACCEPtS coursesfor operations and future course upgrades and for thedevelopment of shared courses. Additional institu-tions will be allowed to join the ACCEPtS program.

We have undertaken a comprehensive plan tointegrate environmental education (EE) by using twoapproaches institutionalizing EE at KSU by incorpo-rating environmental topics in the curriculumthrough faculty mini-grants and forming a collabora-tive partnership with local middle and high schools toassist them in implementing an environmentaleducation program in the schools. The primary goalof the faculty mini-grants program is to improveenvironmental literacy for all KSU graduates,especially those who plan to become teachers. Thesemini-grants are designed as part of our efforts toinstitutionalize environmental education at KSU bycreating or supporting coursework that provides in-depth, cross-disciplinary instruction that is ecologi-cally sound and promotes responsible civic actionstoward the environment. The program providessupport for either development of new courses orenhancing existing courses by incorporating environ-mental issues or topics. We have also established anEE Center on a 300 acre nature preserve that servesas an outdoor classroom for these activities. Lastsummer, we developed a stream ecology program andoffered it to Kentucky school teachers. Forty twoteachers participated in the week-long summerworkshop. We focused on stream ecology principles,human impacts, field methods, macroinvertebrateidentification, data analysis, and Shannon Diversity.In order to ensure adoption into classroom curricu-lum, we are conducting follow-up workshops andproviding the necessary equipment and support tothe participating schools. We will present dissemina-tion methods, lessons learned from our summerworkshop, services that will benefit teachers andcurriculum adoption, and the results of the fall 2007follow-up workshop.

Rarely do university students get the chance tocommunicate what they learn in class to the largercommunity outside of the university. In the AnimalScience 200 (Principles of Animal Agriculture),students follow- up their major project with a newsarticle that highlights an issue in animal agriculture.The objective of this project is to make studentsaware of consumer perceptions of agricultural issuesas well as give them the opportunity to developwritten communication skills that will last them alifetime. Groups of two to four students answer aquestion related to animal agriculture and presentten science points about the subject. After presentingthe answer through oral communication in a publicforum, the group presents it through written commu-nication in a news article format. While previously inthis class, students wrote papers that were read solelyby the professor and TAs, these student-writtenarticles are published now for the general public.Each month, a student article is published in twomajor city newspapers, the Edmonton Journal andthe Calgary Herald. Articles are also published in twomagazines: “Food for Thought” and “Small Farm.”Students writing as a team gain skills in dealing withgroup dynamics. They must also learn to write at thelevel of their audience and convey their message in ashort and concise manner. Students also get thesatisfaction from seeing their articles reach foodconsumers. A full project description, objectives forthe project, and student testimonials will be pre-sented.

Assessment of student performance in 2006 and2007 revealed that information literacy (IL) was aweakness in the Horticulture, Crops, and Soilsprograms. Therefore, to help our students develop ILskills, instructors in the introductory Hort/Crops 102course collaborated with the WSU Libraries'Information Literacy Education Project to incorpo-rate an additional component into an existing plantscience assignment that directly addressed standardIL elements. The class was composed of studentsfrom the freshman to senior levels. The specificobjectives are to: 1) describe the incorporation of anonline IL tutorial in a plant science class, 2) evaluate

#47. Integrating EnvironmentalEducation in the Curriculum

#48. Communicating to theConsumer through a StudentWriting Project in an IntroductoryAnimal Science Class

#52. Incorporating InformationLiteracy into an Introductory PlantScience Course

Kazi Javed, Tamara Sluss, Charles Bennett,and James TidwellKentucky State University

Frank Robinson, Dana Penrice, ArranLamont, and Steve KoeckhovenUniversity of Alberta, Edmonton

Kathleen Williams, Teresa Cerny-Koenig,Caroline Pearson-Mims, Stephen Borrelli,Corey Johnson, and Cathy PerilloWashington State University


Poster Abstracts

its effectiveness for improving students' understand-ing and application of IL, and 3) improve the students'abilities to find and use information. The websitefeatured a series of tutorials covering the IL stan-dards: Needed information, Accessing information,Evaluating information, and Using information,followed by a quiz and assignment specific assess-ments (ASA) for each standard. The ASAs and a finalcomprehensive crop report tested the students'abilities to apply the information from the tutorials.The class average on the pretest, taken before theonline tutorials, was a 59%. The average quiz scoreafter completing the tutorials was 89%. Scores on thefinal crop report (88%) were correlated with both theonline quizzes and the ASAs. There were no signifi-cant differences in averages on the pretest, quizzes,ASA or final crop report among class levels.Preliminary data suggest that the website learningtool shows promise for improving undergraduatestudents' understanding and application of IL.

Iowa State University has undertaken thedevelopment of integrated curricula to enablegraduate learning in science-based risk analysis anddecision-making pertaining to food, agriculture, andveterinary medicine. Our longer-term goal is todevelop and adapt curricula and related materialsleading to the establishment of a graduate certificateand a graduate minor in Risk Analysis and Decision-Making (RA&DM). Risk analysis offerings withinmultidisciplinary certificate and minor programs willequip students to meet challenges in domestic orinternational food and agricultural markets and todeal with public concerns regarding food safety andsecurity. The courses will train students to effectivelydeal with risk from a science-based perspective andwill better prepare students who pursue research andnon-research careers in education, industry, govern-ment, or non-government organizations to deal withthe interface of science and policy. An initial offeringin quantitative risk assessment has now been taughtthree times to combined sections of on-campus anddistance learners. Initial learning outcomes andassessments will lead to revision of this graduate-level course to move from a lecture format to areadings format augmented with backgroundmaterials and group analysis. An interdisciplinaryoffering – Science, Policy and Food – was taught forthe first time and is listed for both undergraduate andgraduate students within three colleges. An offeringin risk communication and perception is in develop-ment and will bridge to an emerging graduateprogram in science communication. Finally, an upperlevel undergraduate survey course in risk analysis is

in development which will serve undergraduateinterests and act as a magnet for the graduateofferings.

Today's students are known to be a product of thevideo game era. Secondary classrooms across thecountry have adapted to meet the needs of thesestudents through integration of SMART Boards,classroom-based computer labs and numerous othertechnological innovations. In parallel, many organi-zations and agricultural science industries providepromotional and educational programs in digitalformats, such as DVD, that can be used in classroomsettings. However, teachers may wish to incorporatespecific segments of these fair-use DVDs into theirpresentations in a single multimedia delivery tool.The primary objective of the workshop was to teachinstructors how to 'deconstruct' a “Holiday Lecture”DVD provided by the Howard Hughes MedicalInstitute (HHMI) in order to assemble the compo-nents into a presentation that is 'personalized' forclassroom use. The workshop began with a one-dayintroduction to the topic, including hands-on activi-ties, taught by SC LIFE faculty. The HHMI mediateam worked with teachers for two days to demon-strate to them how to excerpt components of the DVDto create a classroom presentation. Content expertsalso assisted teachers in determining specific clips forthe multimedia presentation. Results from anassessment of content and delivery by the teachersattending the workshop indicated that they werepleased to learn to acquire video clips from the DVDs,to incorporate the media into thematic PowerPointpresentations, and to use creative techniques forintegrating the presentation in an interactivemanner with students. Due to its success, the work-shop will continue in 2008.

Teaching partnerships between undergraduatestudents and faculty consist of undergraduatestudents helping instruct their own peers. Thesepartnerships are hypothesized to result in greaterlearner performance, in part due to greater self-efficacy. We tested this hypothesis by employingundergraduate – faculty teaching partnerships atLincoln University of Missouri between 2006 and2008 in our Environmental Science classes. To testwhether our program resulted in improved testscores and self-efficacy, we employed a two-fold

#54. Enabling Graduate Learning inRisk Analysis

#55. D-V-Deconstruction: RippingFair-use DVDs for Integration intoClassroom Presentations

#58. Outcomes of Undergraduate –Faculty Teaching at LincolnUniversity of Missouri

Lulu Rodriguez, Alicia Carriquiry, Ana PaulaCorreia, Scott Hurd, Helen Jensen, AnnetteO'Connor, and Jeff WoltIowa State University

Dale Layfield and Barbara SpezialeClemson University

Adrian AndreiLincoln University of Missouri


Poster Abstracts

approach. First, we employed the help of undergradu-ate peer tutors to provide supplemental educationoutside the classroom, and we compared test scoresbetween students who attended tutoring sessionsand those who did not. Second, we offered extra creditto students in exchange to teaching a specific subjector chapter in class. The later approach involvedextensive bibliographical research and multipleconsultations with the instructor. With the help ofquestionnaires, we examined whether studentsteaching their peers and learners taught by theirpeers reported increased self efficacy and improvedlearning skills. Possible answers on the question-naires ranged from 1 (i.e., “strongly disagree”) to 4(i.e., “strongly agree”) or 1 (i.e., “not a lot”) to 5 (i.e.,“a lot”). Students who attended tutoring sessionswith their peers achieved average test scores thatwere 26% greater than those who did not. Both peerinstructors and peer learners strongly agreed thattheir speaking, listening, and thinking abilitiesimproved. Peer instructors and learners alikereported increased self-confidence, understanding ofthe subject matter, and greater problem solvingabilities. Learners also reported increased creativethinking, greater comfort sharing ideas, confidencein achieving professional goals, and greater motiva-tion. Our results point to peer teaching as an effectiveinstructional tool. However, it must be noted thatpeer teaching is a time consuming approach, espe-cially for introductory and freshman classes.

Our graduating senior survey from the past threeyears showed the College of Agriculture and LifeSciences (CALS) at North Carolina State University(NCSU) had a higher percentage of students whowould choose NCSU again than the university did(80.3% CALS, 76.2% NCSU, P = 0.05). In the depart-ment of Animal Science, 90.6% of graduates wereeither very satisfied or moderately satisfied with theAnimal Science department (std. dev. = 0.72), andonly 9.5% said they would not choose Animal Scienceagain as their major (std. dev. = 2.0). We attribute thisto efforts from the department and college to providetimely advising information to the faculty, who inturn are able to better serve as advisors for theundergraduates. Faculty meet once per year for theCALS academic faculty meeting and new teachingfaculty are required to attend a session on advising.The Animal Science (AS) Undergraduate TeachingCoordinator (UTC) meets with all new AS faculty toexplain the curricula and the advising rules prior toassigning advisees. The CALS maintains an e-maildistribution list of UTC in the college, and all updatesand announcements are distributed in a timelymanner. The AS UTC maintains an e-mail distribu-tion list for departmental advisors, and when an

advisor asks a question others would most likelybenefit from hearing the answer to, the question issent (anonymously) along with the answer to alladvisors in the department. This allows timely,departmental- and college-relevant advising infor-mation to be distributed to all advisors in the depart-ment.

Employers consistently cite effective oralcommunication skills among the top criteria forsuccess of new hires, but often find candidatesunprepared in these skills. In addition, recentresearch indicates that poor oral communicationskills and communication apprehension (CA) arelinked to lower academic performance and highercollege dropout rates as compared to other students.Undergraduates at a large land grant universityparticipated in a required class, “CommunicatingAgriculture and Life Sciences in Speaking, ” specifi-cally designed to reduce students' CA while improv-ing presentation and public speaking skills. Students'CA levels were measured using the Personal Reportof Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24), whichassesses four categories of CA: group discussion,meetings, interpersonal communication, and publicspeaking. The PRCA-24 was administered to stu-dents (n=56) pre and post course work. Over thesemester, statistically significant declines wereobserved in three of the four categories (groupdiscussion, meetings, and public speaking). Theprimary intervention attributed to the change wasskills training. Other strategies known to reduce CAinclude systematic desensitization, cognitive restruc-turing, and visualization. The findings of this studysupport continuation of the communications coursefor undergraduate students of agriculture. However,the CA reduction strategies have broad applicationsand benefits to courses without a communicationfocus. The researchers recommend that all collegeprofessors consider incorporating CA reductionstrategies into student assignments and classroutines. The result is likely to be more confident andbetter prepared graduates entering the workforce.

The purpose of this study was to test a learningtheory first proposed by pioneer psychologist LevVygostsky called the Zone of Proximal Development(ZPD). This theory implies that social interaction andcollaborative problem-solving can accelerate learn-

#59. Helping Advisors: One Way toRetain Students

#62. Retaining the Best throughCommunications Skills Training

#63. Undergraduate Teachingthrough their Experience andResearch

Jeannette Moore and Kenneth EsbenshadeNorth Carolina State University

Eric Kaufman, Richard Rateau, Jill Casten,and Holly KasperbauerVirginia Tech

Kyungmi KimSouthern Illinois University


Poster Abstracts

ing. Vygotsky's views have influenced development ofa wide range of psychological and educationaltheories.

Vygotsky's premise was that people learnthrough social interactions and by being challenged.With this mind, students in my class were challengedto apply course content to real-world situations. Mostlearning activities were conducted in small groupswhere students had to work as team to completeprojects outside of class. During class, students wereasked to make presentations to their peers aboutwhat they had learned in their small groups and tolead class discussions on assigned topics.

At the end of semester, students were given asurvey designed to evaluate whether their learningreally benefited from the peer interactions. Thesuccesses and challenges of this instructionalapproach were revealed by this evaluation. Moststudents who participated in the class of 2007commented that the learning objectives were moreeasily achieved through the more experientialmethods that I employed. The results of the classevaluations veering a two-year period will be sharedand discussed during this workshop session.

Meeting challenges of the future requires citizenswho effectively interact with others, and who engagein life-long learning that goes beyond the technicalcontent of most college courses. A group of faculty atIowa State University is working to help studentslearn, not only the technical content of their disci-pline, but also develop critical habits of mind toprepare them to be better citizens. Supported byfunding from Higher Education Challenge Grants,we are providing workshops and bi-weekly groupmeetings to help faculty shift to a learning-centeredapproach in their classrooms. Faculty participantshave made learning-centered changes in more than60 courses in 18 different departments in five differ-ent colleges. The effort to help students take moreresponsibility for their learning has focused on twotrans-disciplinary courses. The courses help studentsdevelop more effective approaches to their ownlearning and foster development of habits of mindthat provide students with a better basis for dealingwith the complex, issue-laden problems facing themthroughout life. Pre and post assessments wereconducted for faculty and student participants. On asix-point ascending scale, faculty showed an averageincrease of nearly two points in their understandingof 10 facets related to learning-centered classrooms.Students showed an average increase of 1.2 points in

their understanding 10 facets related to their learn-ing and habits of mind.

Traditionally, students employ 2D draftingmethods in the form study phase of landscape design.While 3D modeling software is used regularly as apresentation tool for perspective views and animatedwalk-throughs, students rarely design in the thirddimension. Many students find it difficult, whenworking on 2D plans, to visualize the 3D spatialqualities of their design. With software such asGoogle SketchUp, traditional 2D methods of designcan be easily converted to 3D forms. When studentsgain the ability to view their project from an infinitenumber of vantage points, they gain a better under-standing of how objects relate to each other in termsof scale and proportion. By using 3D modelingtechnology, students are able to study form relation-ships more effectively resulting in enhanced under-standing of spatial relationships during a criticalphase of the design process

Graduate student teaching assistants are oftenfound behind the scenes out of the classroom environ-ment completing marking for professors or providingextra help. Some TA's are not incorporated as anactive part of the learning environment. There ispotential to use a TA as much more than simply amarker. In Animal Science 200 (Principles of AnimalAgriculture), graduate student teaching assistantsare an active part in the classroom. The TA's attendclass just as any other student would and sit with thestudents. The TA's participate in activities andencourage discussions with the students duringlectures led by the professor. A professor and auniversity classroom can be an intimidating environ-ment and the presence of a graduate TA can ease anystudent apprehensions. TA's expand on any topicsthat may have been missed by the professor and askquestions that may start a classroom discussion inthis 'surround learning' environment. The TA can actas a liaison between the professor and the students inthe class which has been shown to ease studentapprehensions in asking questions or conveying theiropinions. Student and teaching assistant testimoni-

#67. Preparing MindfulProfessionals and Citizens: A PilotAcademy for Leadership inLearning

#68. Enhancing Students' Ability toVisualize Spatial Qualities duringthe Form Study Phase of LandscapeDesign

#72. Enhancing the StudentLearning Environment through DailyParticipation of TeachingAssistants in the Classroom

Steven Jungst, Janette Thompson, BarbLicklider, and Suzanne HendrichIowa State University

M. Mohney and D. StearnsThe Pennsylvania State University

Steven Koeckhoven, Frank Robinson, ArranLamont, and Dana PenriceUniversity of Alberta


Poster Abstracts

als from current and previous Animal Science 200classes will support the need and effectiveness ofincorporating graduate student teaching assistantsin the classroom environment.

The North American Intercollegiate DairyChallenge contest allows undergraduate students toapply their knowledge in a real-world evaluation ofthe management practices of dairy farms. Universityfaculty partnered with industry representatives todevelop one national and four regional DairyChallenge contests funded by the dairy industry.Approximately 30 four-year institutions in theUnited States and Canada participate in the nationalcontest each year. The regional contests inviteparticipation from two-year and four-year programs,and feature aggregate teams of students fromdifferent institutions. During a 10-hour period,teams of four or five students critically evaluate acommercial dairy farm by visiting farm facilities,evaluating herd records, interviewing the farmowner, and assessing farm operations. Subsequently,teams provide a 20-minute presentation to a panel ofjudges. Teams are evaluated on their assessment ofmanagement practices and soundness of recommen-dations for improvements. Additionally, teams areappraised on apparent level of preparation, speaking,presentation skills, and responses to judges' ques-tions. Post-contest surveys over a three-year period(n=232) indicated that participants considered thenational contest as an effective test of studenttraining in dairy management (9.3; 1=agree,10=disagree), and networking with industry spon-sors was an important element of the contest (9.5).Using cognitive methods, the Dairy Challengeprovides students with novel means to apply, analyze,synthesize and evaluate the knowledge they con-struct in the context of real-world situations. Thisexperience merges students into authentic practicesthrough activity and social interaction with industryprofessionals in a way similar to that of learning bycraft apprenticeship.

Faculty from different disciplines need to collabo-rate to create new courses to teach emerging interdis-ciplinary knowledge in the life sciences. A coursedevelopment workshop was conducted to bringinterdisciplinary faculty in the fields of horticulture,food science, nutrition, and biochemistry togetherfrom three land-grant universities to design a newinterdisciplinary course to teach functional foods toundergraduate students. Professors' epistemologicaland motivational beliefs shape how they think aboutknowledge, teach it to others, and exert effort inteaching their students. A questionnaire was devel-oped and administered before and after the workshopto assess professors' teaching conceptualizations andmotivations to teach a new interdisciplinary course ina collaborative partnership. Results showed profes-sors strongly agreed (92%) students should developnew ways of reasoning about the subject matter andknow how to apply the subject matter in real life.Prior to the workshop, professors believed that theimportant reasons to collaborate were: trust amongfaculty members, ability to contribute with a valuableexpertise, the benefits of interdisciplinary work, andthe collaborating university. Professors were mainlyconcerned about the quality of the project result dueto a fragmented vision, and the interference incollaboration caused by conflict avoidance andcompetitiveness. The workshop reduced the profes-sors' concerns, such as competitiveness and conflictavoidance (17%), and increased the motivation todevelop a more diversified program as well as theimportance given to the participants' universities(14%). Finally, professors agreed they learned tothink from students' perspectives (20%) and tointegrate different knowledge (20%). This project isfunded by a USDA Higher Education ChallengeGrant (#2006-38411-17095).

#76. A Novel Dairy ManagementLearning Experience forUndergraduates: The DairyChallenge

#77. Faculty TeachingConceptualizations and Motivationto Collaborate on Developing a NewInterdisciplinary “Science of Foodsfor Health” Course

Amin AhmadzadehUniversity of Idaho

Larry MullerPennsylvania State University

Miriam Weber NielsenMichigan State University

Neil KnoblochPurdue University

Bhimanagouda PatilTexas A&M University


Poster Abstracts

#79. Creating a NewInterdisciplinary “Science of Foodsfor Health” Course through aCollaborative Partnership of Multi-state Land Grant Universities

#84. Preserving and Enhancing theVirtual Museum of Minerals andMolecules

#86. Using Student Farms forCurriculum Enrichment and StudentRetention at Colleges andUniversities in the United States

Bhimanagouda PatilTexas A&M University

Neil KnoblochPurdue University

Phillip BarakUniversity of Wisconsin-Madison

Anna Leis and M. S. WhittingtonThe Ohio State University

New courses need to be developed for undergrad-uate students to learn emerging interdisciplinaryknowledge in the foods for health. The purpose of thisproject is to develop a new interdisciplinary under-graduate course focused on foods for health. A coursedevelopment workshop was conducted to create acollaborative partnership of faculty in the fields ofhorticulture, food science, nutrition, and biochemis-try from three land-grant universities and develop acourse syllabus, including concepts, topics, anddesired learning outcomes. Observation field notesand faculty responses to open-ended questions at theend the workshop were used to assess the quality ofthe workshop and determine if the workshopaddressed the professors' expectations. Resultsshowed the workshop improved 85% of the profes-sors' knowledge about the curriculum design process,and 77% stated the workshop met their expectations.During the workshop, professors envisioned thecourse from their own disciplinary perspectivesrather than an interdisciplinary course from a newsynergistic perspective. At this point, a professorstated, “We need to think more interdisciplinaryabout our approach.” After much discussion, profes-sors agreed the course would begin by framing theproblem and establishing opportunities, then focusedon consumer preferences and educational strategies(people), followed by bioactivity (science), andfollowed by optimizing and research, recommenda-tions, and policy (technology). After the process wascompleted one professor acknowledged, “Thisprocess seems familiar with an interdisciplinaryresearch project.” Eventually, the goals of theworkshop were achieved and the faculty expressedappreciation and need for developing an interdisci-plinary course by partnership efforts. This project isfunded by a USDA Higher Education ChallengeGrant (#2006-38411-17095).

Innovative teaching approaches that employtechnology-enhanced learning require considerationof replacement cycles to avoid technological obsoles-cence. The Virtual Museum of Minerals & Molecules,

placed on line in 1998 as a web-based interactivedisplay of 3D structure of minerals and molecules ofenvironmental interest, originally operated on allmajor computer operating systems and browsers ofthe time, using proprietary browser plug-in technol-ogy. In the intervening years, platforminteroperability has been reduced to a single operat-ing system and single browser, and user resistance toinstalling plug-ins has increased. Fortunately, anopen source molecular visualization community hasarisen and, using Java and JavaScript, has allowedthe VMMM to be completely rewritten and reformu-lated for the entire breadth of modern operatingsystems and browsers. After a year of preparation, ona single day, the entire VMMM was transformed fromits plug-in-based former self to a Jmol-enabledversion. Over 35,000 unique visitors are servedannually at http://virtual-museum.wisc.edu

College and university student farms can play animportant role in enriching curricula by integratingresearch, extension, and teaching missions, reinforc-ing classroom instruction, and improving job skillsand career training. Student farms are defined assites of agricultural production and marketing(associated with a college or university) at whichundergraduate and/or graduate students have,through coursework and/or internships, the opportu-nity to conduct independent and collaborativeprojects that supplement classroom instruction with"real world" experience. The role of student farms incollege curricula began decades ago, but recentlytheir initiation has increased. Many of the recentlyestablished farms have been in conjunction withcourses or curricula in organic and sustainableagriculture, which have been and are being developedin response to increased interest in this area. Despitethe increasing presence of student farms, a study oftheir structure, programming, and operating princi-ples and resources had not been completed.Consequently, the development of new student farmshas been hindered by lack of comprehensive knowl-edge of their role, logistics, and potential as a meansfor curriculum enrichment and student retention.Therefore, using an online survey of student farmmanagers (collected using a snowball approach toframe development), telephone interviews, and sitevisits, a comprehensive description of the currentstatus of student farms in the United States, their usein curriculum, internships, development of employ-ability skills, and retention of students was compiledfor use by Associate Deans and others interested instudent farms as a tool for student engagement.


Poster Abstracts

#89. Life Skills Developed DuringUniversity Equine Training Courses

P. Evans

#90. TIPS for Writing Introduction(Chapter One) ofThesis/Dissertation: The ConeAnalogy

#92. Assessing the Need:Communications and MarketingResources and Training forOklahoma Cooperative ExtensionService Educators

Utah State UniversityN. Jack and J. JoganUniversity of Arkansas

L. GagnonMontana State University

Rama RadhakrishnaPenn State University

Shelly Sitton, Amanda Erichsen, DwayneCartmell, and Charles CoxOklahoma State University

Many two and four year universities and collegesoffer equine programs. While students enter theseprograms with the intent of pursuing a career in theequine industry, many will ultimately have a career inanother field. With this in mind equine programsshould evaluate whether enrollees develop skills thatmay help them regardless of career path chosen.Toward that goal, three universities teaching asemester long course in equine behavior and trainingsought to determine whether enrolled studentsgained useful life skills during the semester-longcourse. An IRB approved survey instrument wasdeveloped and administered in an effort to determinechanges in interpersonal skills levels for ten criteria.For all ten criteria studied, enrollees reported apositive shift in life skills obtained during the course.Most notable was a mean increase of 24% in under-standing and use of non-verbal communication skills,a 21% increase in patience, and a 14% increase inconfidence as a leader.

Writing a clear, well-articulated, and convincingintroduction chapter for a thesis/ dissertation is veryimportant to attracting and sustaining readers'interest. The purpose of this poster presentation is toprovide guidelines for writing introduction orchapter one of a thesis/dissertation using a coneanalogy where the top part of the cone represents abroad topic or a problem, while the tip of the conerepresents the specific problem indicating filtering ofinformation into a logical sequence. In addition, TIPSfor writing chapter one of thesis/dissertation are alsopresented. Using the cone analogy will help graduatestudents and faculty alike to develop an outline forwriting introduction chapter.

The purpose of writing the introduction chapteris to introduce the problem under investigation to thereaders. Begin the introduction chapter by establish-ing the importance of the problem. Second, documentthe evidence of the problem with facts and figures.Synthesis of up-to-date literature relevant to theproblem is critical for establishing the importance ofthe problem. The first two slices of the cone (impor-

tance and evidence) should help identify the gaps(third slice) relative to the problem. The need for athorough review and synthesis of literature pertinentto the problem is critical for providing a solid ratio-nale for your study (slice four). By completing slicesone through four of the cone, you are now ready to tellthe reader how you will carry out the study (slice five)by specifying the purpose/goals, research type, andobjectives/research questions and/or hypothesis to betested.

While branding Cooperative Extension is a desirefor the Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service(OCES), no well-defined marketing vision or plan isavailable for its educators. This study providesbenchmark research to identify the perceived needsof educators regarding communications efforts,media sources, and resources of OCES educators.According to Knowles' andragogy theory, learnersmust understand how a learning experience will helpthem improve their skills and attitudes in worksituations. The facilitators of any OCES training canapply the principles of andragogy by working witheducators to develop what they need to learn usingthe learning environment best suited for them.Through a survey administered at a statewideconference in January 2008, OCES educators sharedtheir media resources, perceptions of how often andhow well they use specific media, how they prefer todeliver information to clientele, and their level oftraining regarding mass communication skills. OCEScounty educators perceive to have the highest skill indeveloping newspaper articles, Extension fliers ornewsletters, and e-mail, and they prefer to use thesame methods to reach their audiences. OCESeducators spend an average of 17 hours per month inmarketing/communications efforts. A majority ofOCES educators expressed an overall need for moreaccess to communications and marketing assistance,training, and resources. The recommended next stepfor OCES administration is to develop a marketingplan and to develop marketing and communicationstraining to meet the educators' perceived needs in amanner that is applicable for everyday use for countyeducators.


Poster Abstracts

#93. Students' Attitudes towardVirtual Experiments in FoodProcessing

#94. Retaining the Best Studentsand Small Manufacturers inOklahoma

#97. Innovations in Food SystemsEducation: Interdisciplinary,Service-learning and Community-Based Research

Mark MorganPurdue University

Cindy BlackwellOklahoma State University

Christopher KolibaUniversity of Vermont

Virtual experiments were incorporated into ajunior-level food processing course to study whetherstudents' learning styles affected their attitudestoward the use of these computer-based laboratoryexercises. These virtual experiments include back-ground information on the processing concept,experimental procedures, a “process simulator” anddata analysis instructions incorporated into a web-browser-based software module. Four virtualexperiment modules were used in the course and asurvey instrument was developed to assess thestudents' attitudes regarding the user interface,information content and effectiveness of eachmodule. Previously, each student's learning style wasassessed and categorized based on Gregorc's fourcategories of learning styles. Results from the virtualexperiment surveys showed that students' learningstyles did not affect their attitude towards the virtualexperiments. However, some differences wereobserved between learning styles in the time requiredfor completion of the exercises. Overall, the resultssuggest that virtual experiments may be used forstudents regardless of their dominant categories oflearning style.

The New Product Development Center (NPDC)at Oklahoma State University (OSU) was establishedto assist small, rural manufacturers throughoutOklahoma with everything from engineering assis-tance to business planning to marketing communica-tions in order to retain manufacturers as viableworkplaces in rural areas. To assist with marketingcommunications projects, OSU AgriculturalCommunications (AGCM) students are assistingNPDC clients with developing strategic marketingcommunications materials for the small manufactur-ers offering the businesses the unified image neededto remain viable in a demanding marketplace. AGCMseniors are getting a valued team experience creatingmarketing materials in real-time with the outcomebeing excellent additions to their portfolios. UsingKolb's Experiential Learning Model, the AGCM classis structured so that lectures offer abstract conceptu-alization, lab times offer active experimentation,readings and assignments offer concrete experience,and weekly memos and group update presentationsoffer reflective observation. Students exploreeverything from industry audits to team dynamicswhile learning how best to meet the clients' needs.

The experience is filled with real-world experiencescomplete with successes, disappointments, andbusinesses that close up shop mid-semester. Both thesuccesses and challenges help students to betterunderstand the everyday struggles of small, ruralbusiness owners, and many students begin to demon-strate an appreciation for the contributions small,rural manufacturers make to the state. This presen-tation explains the framework used to offer studentsachievable challenge from which they can learn.While the facilitation is a challenge, the outcomehelps to retain both manufacturers and students inOklahoma and some projects have won state andnational awards.

Food systems may be understood as complex,adaptive systems of: social actors, including farmers,land use regulators, distributors, marketers, retail-ers and restaurateurs; natural ecosystems; andpublic policies. For students to gain an appreciation ofthe interplay of these actors within the dynamicsocial, natural and political systems, traditionalcourse structures lead to significant pedagogicalchallenges. For students to apply such systemsthinking to the natural and social food cycle innova-tive pedagogical approaches are called for. Studentsmust approach food systems issues through a decid-edly interdisciplinary lens that provides them withopportunities to have direct access to multiplecomponents of the food system. The center piece ofthe food system project was a three credit, interdisci-plinary “Going Local-Food Systems” seminar thatrelied on a combination of service-learning andcommunity-based research approaches used withinthe context of an interdisciplinary team teachingenvironment involving faculty from communitydevelopment, public policy, plant and soil science,animal science, and nutrition.

The objective of this presentation is to providethe audience with: 1. An overview of the curriculardesign; 2. An assessment of the impacts of thecurriculum on student learning outcomes; and 3.Generalized implications for replicated the curriculardesign. The author provides a descriptive account ofthe innovative food systems project undertaken bymultiple departments within the College ofAgriculture and Life Sciences at an Eastern LandGrant Institution. The results of data collected fromstudent and community partner surveys are ana-lyzed, with results indicating that student learningoutcomes were positively impacted by the curricularinnovations used in the Going Local-Food Systemscourse. Additional interview data culled from


Poster Abstracts

participating faculty interviews surfaced a range ofopportunities and challenges to conducting theproject. Lessons for the replication of the curriculardesign are discussed.

Three University of Wisconsin comprehensivebaccalaureate institutions that offer programs inagriculture, life science and natural resources,collaborated to integrate service-learning activitiesinto their curricula. The campus coordinators andparticipating faculty attended a two day training onservice-learning led by staff of the Wisconsin CampusCompact office. Faculty from each campus thenenlisted and trained students in service-learningmethodology. This corps of students acted as Service-Learning Assistants, helping faculty with theplanning and implementation of service-learningprojects in individual courses. Through this project atotal of 25 courses across the three campuses haveintegrated a service-learning component. Nearly 400students have been impacted across a diverse set ofprogram areas including: animal science, dairyscience, agricultural business, and horticulture, landuse planning, wildlife management, water resources,forestry and recreation, environmental engineering,biology, reclamation and conservation, waste man-agement and recycling, agricultural and environmen-tal education and geography. The service-learningactivities in each course result in a product or aservice ranging from feasibility studies, surveys,brochures and videos, to landscape designs, compre-hensive land use plans and lesson plans. At first,students feel some fear and anxiety about applyingtheir classroom knowledge to a real world situation;by the end of the project they are more confidentabout their roles and skills. As information pertain-ing to completed projects is disseminated, thecampuses are increasingly being seen as a resourcefor local government, agencies and the general public.Faculty report they are being proactively contactedby a variety of groups with future project opportuni-ties.

The problem solving approach to teaching is awidely-accepted strategy in Agricultural Education.At a land-grant university, agricultural extensionstudents enrolled in the teaching methods course hada new problem presented on the first day of class: theywill teach first grade students on the last day of class!The objective was to give these students real-lifeopportunities to teach and enhance the transfer oflearning, while improving agricultural literacy inyoung children. To achieve this goal, a partnershipwith a local elementary school was created. Thecollege students created real dairy lessons for theirlaboratories, and then visited the first grade classesearly in the term. Each group of college students usedthe methods that they demonstrated in their labs toteach their respective group of first grade students.While visiting the elementary school, the futureextension educators conducted a demonstration withthe children on how to make real butter. Taking thisexperience and adding material learned in the course,the college students improved their teaching meth-ods. During the last week of the course, the same 34first-graders visited the university's dairy farm, anon-traditional learning environment. The collegestudents were again able to practice their methodsand show the first graders the importance of dairyfarms and agriculture. Content of the dairy tour hadto include science standards; each group focused on adifferent benchmark or standard. This collaborationbuilt relationships between elementary teachers andfuture extension educators, while incorporating realteaching of young students about agriculturalliteracy.

Two factors commonly considered when studentsapply for graduate school are undergraduate gradepoint average (GPA) and scores on the GraduateRecord Examination (GRE). This study was con-ducted to determine if a relationship existed betweenstudent performance on the GRE and undergraduateGPA, and subsequent performance in graduateschool as indicated by the graduate GPA. Dataanalysis was conducted to determine if a genderdifference existed in GPAs and GRE scores amonggraduate students in the Department of Agriculturaland Industrial Sciences at Sam Houston StateUniversity. These data were analyzed to determinethe mean GRE score, mean undergraduate GPA and

#98. Integrating Service-Learningin Wisconsin Colleges ofAgriculture, Life Science andNatural Resources

#100. The REAL Deal

#105. Gender Affects ofUndergraduate GPA and GREScores on Graduate StudentSuccess

Jerry NechvilleUniversity of Wisconsin-River Falls

Stanley SzczytkoUniversity of Wisconsin-Stevens Point

Sue CurtisUniversity of Wisconsin-Platteville

M. Susie Whittington, Jeremy Falk, andWhitney BeckThe Ohio State University

Marcy Beverly, Matt McMillan, and KyleStuttsSam Houston State University


Poster Abstracts

mean graduate GPA by gender. The results indicatedthat females averaged a 3.25 undergraduate GPA,whiles males were a 3.09 GPA with no significantdifferences (P>.15). Mean graduate GPA for femalesand males were much closer at 3.78 and 3.73, respec-tively, no significant differences existed (P>.44).Males performed better (P<.05) on the GRE with amean score of 939.30 compared to females with amean score of 867.3. Data were also analyzed todetermine if a relationship existed between GREscore and undergraduate GPA or graduate GPA.Results indicated a positive correlation (P<.05)existed between undergraduate GPA and GRE score(r = 0.37), but there was no correlation betweengraduate GPA and GRE score. Results indicated nodifference between males and females for undergrad-uate or graduate GPA, but males did outperformfemales on the GRE. These data also indicated that arelationship does exist between undergraduate GPAand performance on the GRE.

We conducted an Undergraduate FacultyTeaching Project to increase freshmen integrationand retention through student-led courses. ThisUSDA Higher Education Challenge Grant allowed usto utilize undergraduate students to lead small groupdiscussions. This Animal Sciences Orientation courseat Purdue University included 160 students duringthe first eight weeks of the spring semesters of 2007and 2008. Approximately 20 small group discussionleaders were trained and coordinated by a faculty-supported undergraduate. Student leaders served asrole models and mentors in the small group. Topicsincluded: clubs, careers, majors, research, contempo-rary issues, and study abroad. Data collected onmatriculated freshmen indicated retention in thesubsequent spring semester to be 83.2% and 88.7% in2006 and 2007 respectively. During the last class,students completed questionnaires to assess theactivities, topics, and effectiveness of the learningmethod. We collected qualitative comments andquantitative responses (scale of 1-5; 1 = worst and 5= best). Group discussion leaders' effectiveness wasranked either 4 or 5 by 74% of the students. Seventyeight percent stated small groups helped them meetmore Animal Sciences students and 71% stated theylearned more about Animal Sciences. A debriefingsession was held and evaluation of the studentleaders' feedback was collected. Discussion leadersstated they gained skills in group facilitation andstruggled to find balance between leading and

facilitating the discussion. The involvement ofundergraduate group discussion leaders added valueto the freshmen experience, but the quality of theexperience depended on the training and facilitationskills of the undergraduate leaders.

Have you ever wondered how livestock knowwhat to eat and avoid when grazing on pasture orrangelands? Is food intake only determined by thenutrient content or intake rate of forage? Considerthe following situations: 1) Three-year-old sheepwon't eat wheat. 2) Cattle prefer to graze in theuplands rather than in or near riparian areas. 3)Cattle cost less to finish when given choice of foodsrather than a total mixed ration balanced specificallyfor them. 4) Cattle in the West eat weeds such asdistaff thistle, Canada thistle, late-season diffuseknapweed and more, weeds they aren't supposed toeat. 5) Some cattle in the Netherlands eat deadrabbits. Why do animals behave this way? Range andAnimal Science students are taught about thenutrition of livestock and the nutrient composition ofanimal feeds and forages. However, little time, if any,is spent on diet selection of livestock or how experi-ences in life and feedback from plants can affect dietselection. Understanding animal behavior can enablemanagers to change livestock habitat preferences,improve weight gains and food intake, transformweeds into forage, help livestock eat and detoxifytoxins in forages more efficiently, even change theway an animal's body functions. CDs with slidesshows and videos for classes in sheep and beefproduction, rangeland management and range andruminant nutrition will be available. Materials arebased on 25 years of research on how ruminantschoose what to eat and where to live.

Individuals involved in education are constantlyseeking new methods and techniques to engagestudents in learning and increase their academicsuccess. One innovative approach being embraced byhigher education is peer teaching/learning. Peerteaching/learning encourages interaction betweenstudents and faculty, develops reciprocity andcooperation among students, uses engaging learningtechniques, and respects diverse talents and ways oflearning. A peer teaching program for undergraduatecourses in leadership and communication wascreated at the University of Missouri. Three courseshave utilized Peer Learning Assistants (PLAs) since

#107. Increasing FreshmenIntegration and Retention throughStudent-Led Animal ScienceCourses

#110. You Can Make them want toBEHAVE

#111. Peer Teaching/Learning:What Can We Learn From EachOther?

Barry Delks, Alan Grant, Mark Diekman,Mark Russell, Rod Allrich, Amanda McGuire,and Colt DaughteryPurdue University

Beth Burritt and Kathy VothUtah State University

Amy Smith and Bryan GartonUniversity of Missouri


Poster Abstracts

inception in fall 2006. Since that time, approximately300 students have had the opportunity to experienceand benefit from peer teaching/learning. Whilechallenges were involved in planning and carryingout a peer teaching/learning program, the benefitswere numerous. Students being “taught” benefitedfrom the expertise and knowledge of older, moreadvanced students; while students performing the“teacher” role benefited from the experience bygaining additional employability skills and experi-ence in education. To successfully utilize a peerteaching/learning approach, faculty members mustbe prepared to invest additional time into the plan-ning and preparation of course materials and insurethat the PLAs are adequately informed of andprepared for their role. Additionally, funding must beavailable to allocate a stipend for PLAs. Finally,students enrolled in the courses must be made awareof the PLAs and their experience and credibility sothat the PLAs are utilized more often throughout thesemester.

A portfolio is a reflective self-portrait of thelearner. More and more students are preparingportfolios to document their academic preparationwhile in college. This project utilized undergraduatepeer teachers to introduce electronic portfoliosthroughout the agricultural and extension education(AEE) curriculum. Four undergraduates wererecruited to work with undergraduate AEE majors intwo courses: Introduction to AEE, and SeniorSeminar in AEE. The peer teachers held regularoffice hours to provide one-on-one assistance to thestudents as they developed their electronic portfolios.The students utilized Folio21®, a standard electronicportfolio format supported by the career servicesoffice of the college of agriculture. The four peerteachers spent seven class hours instructing studentsabout Folio21®, held regular office hours makinginstruction assistance available for an additional 40hours in the 10 week quarter. Peer teachers consultedwith 22 students a total of 36 times resulting in 40completed electronic portfolios. Students' portfoliosincluded their professional resumes, philosophy ofteaching, philosophy of experiential education, unitsof instruction, lesson plans, extension programs ofwork, samples of their scholarly writing, photos, anddigital videos. Students keep their portfolios on thecollege's career services website and can give anypotential employer access to view their accomplish-ments. All students in the two courses left withenduring evidence of their scholarly achievements asthey complete their degree and prepare for theircareers in agricultural and extension education.

“A critical purpose of postsecondary education isto prepare students for their future professionallives” (Thompson, Licklider, & Jungst, 2003, p. 133).To meet this purpose, students' critical thinkingabilities must be improved. Institutional examina-tion of current practice is critical including, “. . . amore intense reexamination of the tried and truemethods of instruction . . .” (Bess, 1998, p. 3). Ewingand Whittington (in review) found that professorsand students should work together to increase thelevel of student engagement through a class session.The Principles of Teaching and Learning Assessment(PTLA) study's purpose is to develop an instrumentto measure the instructor variable of frequency ofutilization of principles of teaching and learningguided by the following research objectives are:operationalize principles of teaching and learning bydeveloping concrete classroom observation criteriafor each principle; establish face and content validityof the PTLA as measured using qualitative data froma panel of experts; establish reliability of the PTLA asmeasured through a pilot test and analysis of test-retest data; and write guidelines for using PTLAduring class sessions. The implementation of princi-ples of teaching and learning as presented in Methodsof Teaching Agriculture (Newcomb, McCracken,Warmbrod & Whittington, 2004) could lead to well-planned lessons, questions gained, and improvedstudent interest. If there is a relationship betweenstudent engagement (Ewing & Whittington, inreview) and utilization of these teaching and learningprinciples, that knowledge can benefit universities inachieving student success through student engage-ment at higher cognitive levels. Having an instru-ment to measure the principles of teaching andlearning will allow for appropriate analyzing ofinstructional practices currently used. Futureapplications include using in different disciplines andcontexts.

The Global Seminar (GS) is an internationalcollaborative effort that offers a course to undergrad-uate and graduate students on the Environment and

#112. An Undergraduate PeerTeaching Approach to PortfolioDevelopment across the Curriculum

#113. Principles of Teaching andLearning Assessment (PTLA) -Developing an ObservationalInstrument

#114. The Global Seminar Project -Designing and Implementing anExperiential Learning Environmentvia Technology

M. Susie Whittington, Jamie Cano, DanielFoster, and James ConnorsThe Ohio State University

M. Susie Whittington and Daniel FosterThe Ohio State University

Dennis Duncan and Maria NavarroUniversity of Georgia

Pavli MykereziVirginia Tech


Poster Abstracts

Sustainable Food Systems. The conceptual frame-work of the GS is based on a constructivist approachto teaching and learning, that promotes criticalreflection and experiential learning based on realglobal problems. Specifically, the GS uses case studiesof real events and people to investigate key conceptsand policy issues that are embedded in real worldproblems. The pedagogical objectives of the GSinclude: 1) Develop and organize an interdisciplinaryknowledge base in the form of modular case studies;2) Build linkages with, and foster participation byinstitutions and subject matter specialists; 3) Assiststudents in developing higher order cognitive andlearning skills needed to address problems of globalproportion; 4) Develop a diverse and inclusivestudent community that cultivates mutual culturalrespect and diversity of opinions; and 5) Developdelivery systems to incrementally make this seminaraccessible across the globe. To meet the aforemen-tioned objectives, faculty must successfully plan andorganize a learning environment that uses guestl e c t u r e r s , a s y n c h r o n o u s ( We b C T ® a n dBlackboard®) and synchronous platforms (Skype,Tandberg videoconferencing, and Horizon Live®).We present an overview and analysis of the planning,implementation, and evaluation of a new GS coursein the University of Georgia, including: Securinginfrastructure and required technology; organizinginternational student groups; designing and develop-ing cluster web pages; scheduling, organizing, andimplementing educational chat sessions; establishingvideoconference protocol; and continuous assess-ment of pedagogical processes.

Although today's college student must deal withmany of the same developmental issues that haveexisted for past generations of college students,students classified as millennials (born 1982-2003)have been reared in a culturally different and com-plex environment. Newton (2000) concludes thecurrent turbulent social landscape “has dramaticallyaffected the attitudes, behaviors, and aspirations ofstudents and altered how the college years function inhelping students make the transition from adoles-cence to adulthood” (p. 8). Couple this with the“ubiquitous nature of technology in their lives” (p.29), and higher education has a new breed of studentthat has different learning styles and an increasedneed for assistance in personal clarification anddevelopment (Nicoletti & Merriman, 2007). Valuesdevelopment and clarification are key conceptscovered in an undergraduate leadership educationcourse at a land-grant university in [state]. Duringthe course, students are asked to identify what they

believe are their core values, and why they hold thesevalues as important. Students are also challenges todevelop their leadership philosophy, leadershipdashboard and complete a series of leadershipinventory questionnaires. Quantitative and qualita-tive data collected not only assists the student inidentifying their core values and strengths as aleader, it gives faculty insight into what shapes andmotivates this generation to lead and serve bothnationally and internationally. Conceptualizing andverbalizing values is paramount in personal leader-ship development. Komives, Lucas, & McMahon(2007) note that personal values clarification is thefirst step in becoming an ethical leader.

The Department of Agricultural and IndustrialSciences at Sam Houston State University hasoffered International Study (Travel Abroad) opportu-nities through formal coursework and out-of-countrytravel experiences intermittently for the past sevenyears. The format has been to offer two concurrentsummer courses during the first summer term, withapproximately two and a half weeks of the summerterm spent on the SHSU campus in a formal class-room setting and about three weeks of the term in thecountry of destination. To date, such experienceshave been offered in Mexico, China, and Costa Rica.While prior research has dealt with the perceivedbenefits of study abroad experiences by undergradu-ates and graduate students alike, few have attemptedto determine the long-term effect such experienceshave on the individuals involved. Through a survey ofcurrent and former students, as well as participatingfaculty members, the goal of this study is to deter-mine if such experiences were instrumental inparticipants' current profession/occupation, influ-ence on one's current level of international travel andinvolvement, and current attitudes, opinions andbeliefs regarding those from other regions of theworld. Additionally, this research will addresspersonal issues related to participants' internationalexperiences, such as changes in comfort level involv-ing travel abroad, personal and academic knowledgegained during the experience, and whether theexperience is perceived to have improved teamwork,interpersonal skills, problem-solving skills, andmotivation to help others.

At Virginia Tech, a comprehensive land-grantuniversity, general education requirements are found

#115. The Integration of ValuesClarification for Millennial Studentsin Colleges of Agriculture

#124. Are International TravelCourses Worth the Investment?

#126. “Agriculture, the Arts andSociety ” Meeting the Goals of aCurriculum for Liberal Education

Dennis Duncan, Jennifer Williams, and ChrisMorganUniversity of Georgia

Robert Lane and Darcy HubbardSam Houston State University

Cynthia Wood and Donna MooreVirginia Tech

:


Poster Abstracts

in the Curriculum for Liberal Education (CLE). Oneof the seven CLE areas is Creative and AestheticExperience. ALS 1004 “Agriculture, the Arts, andSociety” was developed specifically for that area ofthe CLE. Since 1996, the course has grown from asmall (n=28) class of agriculture majors to one thatroutinely fills to capacity (n>100) with studentsrepresenting a variety of majors. In spring 2008, 79 of124 students were majoring outside Agriculture andLife Sciences. A one-credit, pass-fail course, ALS1004 encourages active student participationthrough in-class assignments and small-groupdiscussion, as well as an experiential photographyproject that directly engages students in the creativeprocess. The final exam requires students to summa-rize what they have learned in the course, and howwell they feel they have met the course objectives andCLE goals. The majority of students from outside thecollege feel that they have a better understanding ofagriculture and how the arts do link to agriculture.Students majoring in agriculture often note that thiscourse affirms their choice of major while allowingthem “permission” to venture outside their profes-sional choices. Student perceptions of the course aregenerally quite positive, based on the final exam,written comments provided during the courseevaluation process, and enrollment requests. Most ofthem enjoy the give-and-take in class generated bythe diverse enrollment but by far the photographyproject is the most popular aspect of the course.

To be competitive in the job market, agricultureand biology graduates must have an understanding ofbiotechnology. Students beginning studies at univer-sities need an increased awareness of biotechnologyto be competitive with their degree. We are in theearly stages of a project to increase biotechnologytraining at Virginia State University and surround-ing school systems. For K-12 teachers and students,we have developed workshops held for sevenSaturdays and culminating in a two day mini-symposium on bioinformatics. The workshopsprovide expert training in areas of biotechnology andsuggested lesson plans and materials that teacherscan use in their classroom. Additionally, we haveconducted programs in the classroom at schools tointroduce biotechnology to the students. The initialprograms were well received and attended by about25 students. For current undergraduate students, wehave sponsored speakers to meet with students ontopics such as undergraduate research and careeropportunities in biotechnology. These seminars havebeen interdisciplinary in nature with students frombiology, agriculture, mathematics, computer scienceand engineering all participating. We have also

developed undergraduate research opportunities forstudents and currently have about 12 studentsinvolved in biotechnology research projects. This isan increase from previous years, indicating our initialefforts to increase awareness have been successful.The nature of careers in agriculture and biology ischanging and students need more training in biotech-nology to be competitive in the job market. Increasedawareness of biotechnology in the high school andundergraduate programs will increase the opportuni-ties for these students after graduation.

University courses can be daunting for not onlyfirst and second year students but for anyone.Lackluster labs, mind-boggling midterms, painfulpapers, and severe schedules are often a highlystressful amalgam, resulting in a less-than-fulfillinguniversity experience. Students coming from far andwide are usually subjected to a curriculum that islargely monotonous and unappealing. Students havetalents and interests that lie outside the classroom.Interest in the arts, or some form of it, is not uncom-mon for a science student. People accept that stu-dents learn in different ways. Animal Science 200 is aclass that values these individual qualities andencourages students to incorporate them into thepresentation of their projects. A project entitledThere's a Heifer in Your Tank was designed toaccomplish exactly this. In groups of four or five,students prepare a three and a half minutePowerPoint presentations, made up of at least tenscience points, regarding an agriculture issue. Duringthe term, students have a presentation night in whichthey communicate the issue they have chosen to over600 people from the general public. We as educatorsencourage the students to utilize their diversequalities as a vehicle to effectively communicate theirchosen issue. Presentations often include drama,comedy, singing, dancing or even fiddle playing.Through support and unconditional positive regard,student engagement is elevated. By introducing thisinterdisciplinary pedagogical approach, studentshave reported on survey data that they learn better.

It is imperative that animal science graduatespossess a balanced combination of base knowledgeand independent thought combined with criticalthinking ability. In order to produce students with

#127. Enhancement of AgriculturalBiotechnology Training at VirginiaState University

#129. An Interdisciplinary Approachto Enthusiastic Learning andCommunication

#130. Levels of “AcademicChallenges” Provided to Studentsin Selected Classrooms

Brian SayreVirginia State University

Arran LamontUniversity of Alberta, Edmonton

Dale LayfieldClemson UniversityLaura Morgan


Poster Abstracts

this level of cognitive capability, challenges must beprovided in academic classrooms that appeal tohigher levels of learning. Popular opinion indicatesthat students in an evaluation class gain needed anduseful experience in analytical and critical thinking,judgment, and written and oral communication. Ourobjective is to qualify the level of academic challengesprovided to students in selected classrooms using aresearcher-developed instrument. A sample popula-tion consisted of upper (300 – 400) level courses(n=10) in an animal and veterinary sciences depart-ment. Courses were categorized as (E) evaluation(n=2) or (N) non-evaluation (n=8). All “academicchallenges” provided in and outside of class wereassessed to determine levels of cognition. All datawere analyzed for frequency, type and number ofchallenge presented, and contribution to final coursegrade. Finally, a comparison was made to determine iflevel of academic challenges differed betweenevaluation and non-evaluation courses. All coursesaveraged 13.9 total challenges. Evaluation coursesaveraged 25 challenges, with 72% at higher levels ofcognition while non-evaluation courses averaged 11,with 20.5% at higher levels of cognition. Studentsenrolled in evaluation courses were exposed to higherlevels of cognitive thought. Plans are currently inprogress to assist instructors of non-evaluationcourses to create an environment that facilitateshigher levels of cognitive development.

Academic programs strive to retain and challengeour best students and create workplace-readygraduates. Students who learn effective communica-tions, problem-solving and critical-thinking skills aremore valuable to employers. This project addressesan immediate need to prepare engineers, businessspecialists and communicators to address interdisci-plinary innovation development problems faced byU.S. small-sized manufacturers. Separation ofengineering/technical components from business andcommunications components reduces the possibilityundergraduate students will learn innovation bestpractices. To address this issue, 12 faculty in eight

departments at three universities received a three-year USDA Higher Education Challenge grant(funded at $465,595) to conduct an interdisciplinaryc a p s t o n e c l a s s e s a n d s e n i o r p r o j e c t s .Interdisciplinary teams of students in engineering,business and communications will help companiesdesign innovative products and develop innovativebusiness, marketing and communications strategies.To begin the project, faculty taught a one-credit“Introduction to Innovations” course in Spring 2008to provide undergraduate students with interdisci-plinary, problem-based, real-world, learning experi-ences through team assignments including a busi-ness/marketing plan, communications products, anda working prototype of the innovation. The educa-tional strategies for the project are interdisciplinary,problem-based, experiential learning and curriculumdevelopment. The curricula materials created anddistributed cause students to apply their knowledgeto real-world problems requiring cross-functionalsolutions. When completed, this project will: 1) helpuniversities retain our best students; 2) createworkplace-ready graduates capable of participatingin and eventually leading private sector innovation;and 3) enhance the educational experience of agri-business, engineering and communications students;and 4) develop and disseminate interdisciplinarycurricula for use at other universities.

Research touts the importance of academicadvising with regard to student satisfaction andretention. A key to quality academic advising isassessing and meeting the needs of students. Thecurrent literature is inconclusive with regard to thestyle of advising that works best, what studentsneed/expect, and what advisors/administrators thinkabout advising. The purpose of this study was three-fold: 1) assess the importance of academic advisingcharacteristics as perceived by undergraduatestudents in the College, 2) examine faculty perfor-mance, as perceived by advisees, with regard to theacademic advising characteristics, and 3) identifyfactors that influence students' academic advisingneeds and satisfaction. The Faculty AdvisingInstrument and Insight Inventory® were distributedvia email to all students enrolled in the College (N =1619). A total of 726 students (44.8%) completed theinstrument. Overall, students reported a high level ofsatisfaction with faculty advisors' performance.Results indicated that students' academic advisingneeds and their evaluation of faculty performancevary little based on sex, academic level and under-graduate degree program. Using the Borich needsassessment model, ten items were identified forpotential enhancement. The three items with largest

#131. Retaining the Best byCreating Workplace-ReadyGraduates through InterdisciplinarySenior Capstone InnovationProjects

#133. Retaining the Best: MeetingStudents' Needs through FacultyAdvising

Shelly R. Sitton, Dan Tilley, Paul Weckler,Cindy Blackwell, Rodney Holcomb, and RonDelahoussayeOklahoma State University

Marcia Tilley, W. Howard, Richard Cavaletto,and Mark ZohnsCalifornia Polytechnic State University

David Jones and A. YianakaUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln

Amy Smith and Bryan GartonUniversity of Missouri


Poster Abstracts

mean weighted discrepancy scores related to identify-ing employment opportunities after college, provid-ing information about financial assistance and beingaware of academic progress. The Insight Inventory®indicated that the largest proportion of students wereslightly indirect, very outgoing, very steady andmoderate when dealing with details. No relationshipswere found between students ' personal-ity/communication profiles and academic advisingneeds.

Several studies have shown that there is directcorrelation between factors such as pre-entryattributes, learning style, and study skills to studentretention rates of freshman in nationwide colleges ofagriculture. The statistics are grim: more studentswill leave prior to degree completion. Studies indicatethat many students do not progress beyond thesecond semester of their freshman year and thatspecial attention is needed to positively influencedropout decisions as early as their first semester.Coordinators of the Agricultural Sciences undergrad-uate degree program at a land-grant institution haveexperienced similar trends of students not maintain-ing a successful course towards degree completion. Inan effort to foster academic, individual, and commu-nity success, and to increase student retention rates,coordinators have developed a first-year experiencecourse that frames its focus based on factors affectinga student's departure decision as addressed by Tinto'sretention model. This innovative approach to coursedevelopment looks to plant seeds of thriving aca-demic and social integration through scaffoldingstages: planning, preparation, and performance andby asking students to make a full investment in andcommitment to their college experience. The theoret-ical and conceptual framework for the experiencecomprises components of Tinto's retention model asaddressed by the new course, including basic princi-ples used in planning, strategies used in selection ofcourse themes, and contents of the course includingspecific assignments and projects. Further researchwill be conducted with the implementation andevaluation of the course's effectiveness in: delivery,connection of content, and ability to increase studentretention.

Movies limit our sensory inputs to two: we watcha large visual image on screen as we sit in a dark roomand listen as sounds surround us. We are enveloped

by the movie, pulled into the images, thoughts,feelings, and ideas on screen. We are completelyengaged and connected, and we react on a personallevel. This is the power of movies. While the instruc-tional use of movies is not new, successful utilizationof learning guides, establishment of context sur-rounding the movie, and cultivation of student-centered analysis and reflection are innovations thatraise teaching leadership ideas and theory withmovies to a new level. This is the teaching power ofmovies.

Strong visual images in movies seem to reinforcelearning and knowledge retention more effectivelythan concepts that are only written or spoken. Byusing learning guides we demonstrate the relevanceof the objectives of the course, focus student reactionsas they interact with leadership concepts and themes,and strengthen critical evaluation skills. Using alearning guide before a movie places questions in thestudent's mind, and primes the search for answersand connections. Students are empowered to findrelevance and establish linkages with their ownexperience. Later, review and discussion enablereflection on content, implications and themes.Understanding movie context and perspective helpstenor those reflections and allows for critical evalua-tion of the movie and ideas presented in class. Moviesdemonstrate themes and ideas with intensity andengagement, and provide ongoing opportunities forreflection, evaluation, and assessment.

In response to the increasing concern over thesustainability of conventional fossil fuels and theirimpact on the environment, a new course,ABE436/TSM 436- Renewable Energy Systems, wasdeveloped and offered to engineering and non-engineering students across campus at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in spring2007. In this class, problem-based learning was usedthroughout the lectures. The student-centeredteaching with undergraduate faculty teachingpartnerships (UFTP) was implemented to enhancestudent learning. The objective was to facilitate andenhance the learning of the students in this newcourse on renewable energy, using an UFTP learner-centered approach. This course has many opportuni-ties to involve undergraduate teaching assistants andtwo were hired to assist with class preparation. Theirresponsibilities included: (a) preparing class prob-lems for problem-based learning; (b) preparingassignments; (c) leading the discussions; (d)mentoring project teams; and (e) conducting peer-tutoring sessions. The effectiveness of using theinnovative UFTP approach in the renewable energyclass has been evaluated in different ways and proven

#134. Addressing Retentionthrough an Agriculture First-YearExperience Course

#136. Using Movies to TeachLeadership Powerfully

#138. Student-Centered Teachingwith Undergraduate FacultyTeaching Partnerships

K. C. Ellis and T. W. BroylesVirginia Tech

David Jones and Sara BriertonNorth Carolina State University

Xinlei WangUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign


Poster Abstracts

very successful. The mean score for the final examwas 85%. The overall quality of this course as rated bythe students was 4.7 out of 5. The success of thiscourse can also be measured by the significantincrease from the 2007 enrolment to the 2008 class.There are 40 students from 14 departments regis-tered for the spring 2008 course compared to the 13students in the course's first semester in spring 2007.

Sam Houston State University established theStudent Advising and Mentoring Center (SAMCenter) in 2001. The center has three mentoringprograms designed for students who need academicguidance and assistance. While these programs arereactionary due to academic problems the studenthas encountered, they have proven successful inretaining students. The First Alert program entailsfaculty identifying students having difficulty in aclass due to low grades or excessive absences. Theprogram had a 68.3% success rate in the fall 2007semester, meaning students either passed the class,dropped it, or resigned. The Monitored AcademicProgress (MAP) Program is designed for studentswho have been suspended. As a condition of re-entering the University, students are referred by thecorresponding college's dean. Students are givenspecific instructions on courses, course loads, andother course-related specifics. Then, these studentsare referred to the SAM Center for special trackingduring the semester. The fall 2007 semester saw 40%of the students come off probation, and 67% improvedtheir GPAs. Finally, the Study Skills Programprovides students an opportunity to improve theiracademic success through a pre- and post-standardized assessment of their study skills, as wellas six, one-hour seminars focusing on topics such astime management, note-taking, and stress manage-ment. The average GPA of participating studentsprior to early-semester seminars was 1.75; theaverage GPA rose to 2.49 after completing theprogram. Academic success clearly aids in studentretention and these programs have been vital to thesuccessful retention efforts at the University.

As a part of a larger case study of one state'sagricultural education professional development

planning practices, secondary teachers in theplanning group emphasized the value of designingprograms that encourage secondary and post second-ary educators to develop collaborative professionaleducation relationships. In this study the detaileddescription of the planning process required multiplemeans of data collection including meeting observa-tions, interviews, document analysis, and a focusgroup. During the study the teacher-plannersidentified a new program model for the annualinservice program that they created in partnershipwith state staff and university faculty. This newmodel encouraged secondary and post secondaryeducators to collaborate, improve peer-to-peercommunication, provide peer support for newprofessionals, and encouraged the involvement ofmultiple agricultural education organizations. Theteacher planners were specifically focused on promot-ing collaboration with the university faculty involvedin studies at the agriculture research station. Inaddition to their efforts to partner with the experi-ment station faculty the group addressed strategiesto involve faculty from the agriculture communitycolleges. The inclusion of educators as leaders inprofessional development program planning is asignificant shift from university or state agencydriven professional education programs. As educa-tors in this study have shared, they need to be giventhe opportunity to contribute to the development ofrelevant learning experiences that can translate intochanges in professional practice. Furthermore,efforts to improve communication and collaborationbetween individuals may improve the retention ofeducation professionals.

In order to help new freshmen students majoringin the Department of Agricultural Economics make amore successful transition from high school tocollege, a New Student Career Orientation coursewas designed and implemented. The goal for thiscourse is to enhance student success in their aca-demic programs and to increase the level of studentretention among these new students. Through thiscourse students gain a better understanding of thediverse role of University life and are encouraged toestablish both personal and academic goals as theybegin the start of their college studies. Upon comple-tion of this 12 week course, freshmen students willhave accomplished eight measurable learningobjectives leading to a higher rate of student reten-tion for the Department and College. These studentslearn time management skills as well as study skillsfor academic success. Freshmen students are able tobegin identifying potential internship and careeropportunities in their academic program of study, as

#139. Reacting to StudentAcademic Problems as a Means ofRetention

#143. Enhancing MutuallyBeneficial ProfessionalCollaboration between PostSecondary and SecondaryAgricultural Educators

#144. Designing a New StudentOrientation Course for FreshmenRetention

D. Pavelock, D. Ullrich, B. Strauss, and W.FlemingSam Houston State University

Donna MooreVirginia Tech

Ronald HansonUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln


Poster Abstracts

well as international study opportunities. Thisorientation course further promotes student aca-demic success by fostering the development ofstudent leadership skills through campus involve-ment and student activities. During the past sixyears, this course has generated a 96 percent reten-tion rate for freshmen students in the Department ofAgricultural Economics. Students earn one semesterhour credit for completing the course.

The Department of Agricultural Economics isparticipating in a University of Nebraska on-lineassessment project, Program Excellence throughAssessment Research and Learning (PEARL). It isbeing piloted by two colleges at the University—theCollege of Agricultural Sciences and NaturalResources and the College of Education and HumanSciences—before it is implemented University-wide.Assessment plans and follow-up results are enteredon-line each year and are reviewed by cross-collegefaculty teams. In addition to this feedback, thePEARL system enables participants to learn from“best practices” of others. In line with the PEARLproject, the Department defined a mission statementand three learning outcomes. Learning outcomeswere based on knowledge, skills, and characteristicsthat faculty, employers and alumni identified as beingimportant for program graduates. The PEARLsystem involves key elements such as identifyingopportunities for outcome-based learning and the useof direct evidence/measures of student learning. TheDepartment's focus in its first round of PEARLassessment was senior capstone courses. Using gradeand pre-test/post-test data for assessment of twosenior capstone courses, Department findingsindicated a need for additional direct measures ofstudent learning. It is currently involved in a processto extend direct-measure assessment through: (1)identifying opportunities for students to acquireknowledge and skills needed to demonstrate theyhave achieved learning outcomes; (2) determiningstudent products (papers, presentations, pre- andpost-tests, etc.) that can be used for assessment; (3)developing a scoring guide/rubric for assessment useand improvement of Department programs; and (4)establishing permanent monitoring and assessmentmechanisms so assessment programs can be adjustedas need indicates.

Students learn and comprehend subject matterin a variety of ways, but most scholars would agreethat the majority of students truly retain informationif it involves “hands-on” experience. Students from acapstone course (Agronomic Crop Production) helpedcollect, interpret and present water data from an on-going water quality research project. The projectallowed students to: 1) study the effects of tillagepractices and crop residue as it relates to soil erosion,runoff and sedimentation; 2) study the effects ofrunoff from urban areas as it relates to water pollu-tion; 3) understand how to measure water quality andthe importance of water quality; and 4) interpretwater quality measurements. The capstone course isdesigned to tie together many things students learnfrom various courses and provides them the bigpicture of how it all fits together. Incorporating aservice-learning project helps them understandproduction principles, but it also makes them moreaware of problems from rural areas. Results of thestudy indicate that there are potential water qualityproblems from farming operations, but that theremay be even more critical issues coming from urbanareas. Students presented the findings at a Home &Garden Show and discussed the results with thepublic. They investigated various ways they couldhelp educate the public about water quality and showthem that not just farmers affect their drinkingwater. Students agreed that service-learning was aneffective activity and provided a more enthusiasticlearning environment.

An increasing number of land grant and non-landgrant schools are implementing undergraduatedegree programs in alternative, sustainable and/ororganic agriculture. Many of these programs origi-nate as areas of specialized study or concentrationwithin more traditional agricultural science majors.Maintaining the essential elements of an agricultural

#145. Direct-Measure Outcome-Based Assessment

#146. Service-Learning:Investigating Non-Point SourceWater Pollution from Urban andRural Areas

#147. Engaging Agriculture andNon-Agriculture Students in anInterdisciplinary Curriculum forSustainable Agriculture

R. SwartzUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln

R. Stephenson and J. LeikerFort Hays State University

S. MinsonKansas State University

Mark Williams, Mike Mullen, and LarryGrabauUniversity of Kentucky

Victoria BhavsarCal State Pomona


Poster Abstracts

science major while finding room for the additionalrequirements of an interdisciplinary discipline suchas sustainable agriculture can be challenging. In2007, the University of Kentucky (UK) introduced aSustainable Agriculture Curriculum with options forstudents to major or minor. The curriculum's require-ments are closely modeled on the definition ofsustainability used by the USDA's SustainableAgriculture Research and Education (SARE) pro-gram. SARE defines sustainability as a managementsystem applicable to any farm in which the produceroptimizes environmental, economic, and socialresources for the operation's long-term success.While maintaining a strong foundation in thecoursework characteristic of agricultural sciencemajors, UK's Sustainable Agriculture Curriculum istruly interdisciplinary, using courses in biology,economics, and sociology that synergistically comple-ment each other and provide an integrated andholistic approach to sustainable agriculture. Aspecific focus of the curriculum is to provide studentswith experiential learning opportunities. This isaccomplished by requiring all students to completean apprenticeship on UK's organically-managedCommunity Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm,which was established for this curriculum.Additionally, the curriculum has been designed toengage non-agricultural students through the minoroption, and non-agriculture faculty through cross-disciplinary collaboration. These efforts are aimed atbroadening and strengthening the societal supportbase for sustainable agriculture.

AESC 1010 introduces students to agricultureand tries to employ critical thinking therein. In lightof the diversity (major) of students and researchers'suppositions that critical thinking is discipline-specific (Ennis, 1990; Ricketts & Rudd, 2004), thisstudy sought to (1) describe the population of CAESstudents; (2) describe the critical thinking disposi-tions of students in AESC 1010; and (3) comparecritical thinking dispositions of CAES majors andnon-majors. Critical thinking was assessed using thefollowing constructs: Engagement (seeking opportu-nities to use reasoning, foreseeing circumstances thatrequire reasoning and assurance in reasoningability), Cognitive Maturity (being aware of theintricacies of problems, being open-minded, andbeing cognizant of biases), and Innovativeness (beingintellectually inquisitive and having a need to knowand understand the truth). A population of (n = 48)students completed the UF-EMI Critical Thinking

Disposition (CTD) Inventory for this descriptivestudy. Twenty-one (43.8%) non-majors and 23(47.9%) CAES majors were represented. Studentsscored m = 44.22 (SD = 4.76), m = 30.45 (SD = 3.37),m = 27.11 (SD = 3.33), and m = 102.19 (SD = 9.63)respectively on the Engagement, Cognitive Maturity,and Innovativeness Scores, indicating students havea weak disposition for critical thinking (Bisdorf-Rhoades, Irani, Lundy, Ricketts, Telg, 2005). Incomparing CAES majors to non-majors, there was nopractical difference between the two groups. TheCAES seminar should seek new and different meth-ods for fostering critical thinking in and aboutagriculture among all of its students.

Student-created videos constitute active learningopportunities which integrate high level cognitiveskills and address motivation and affective skill levelsas measured by Bloom's Taxonomy. In this three weekproject, student teams selected a biochemical con-cept, then planned, filmed, and edited videos in whichthey explained a biochemical concept using everydayobjects. Graduate teaching assistants and instructorsworked with the groups as needed to refine videoconcepts and biochemistry concepts. Studentsreported high motivation for this project, the buildingof rapport with other students in the class, and adeeper understanding of the biochemistry of theirtopic and other group's topics.

Students in this biochemistry laboratory coursealready use Remembering, Understanding, Applyingand Analyzing, in addition to some Evaluating whenthey perform, analyze, and report laboratory experi-ments. Incorporating this video project adds theRevised Bloom's Taxonomy cognitive level ofCreating, which is described as Designing,Constructing, Planning, Production, Inventing,Devising, Making, as well as the Affective Levels ofTeamwork and Motivation. Future improvements ofthis pedagogy include development of a gradingrubric to be used for both peer, formative, andsummative evaluation of the project. Finished videosand student assessment of this project demonstrateactive cognitive learning and affective skills asevidenced by Bloom's taxonomy. This project helpsstudents relate biochemistry to everyday life andretain their interest and understanding of biochemis-try concepts.

#149. Critical Thinking Dispositionsof Students in a College ofAgricultural and EnvironmentalSciences Seminar

#150. Students Bring Biochemistryinto Focus through Student CreatedVideos

Dennis Duncan, John Ricketts, and JeanBertrandUniversity of Georgia

Cheryl BaileyUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln


Poster Abstracts

#151. Using Peer Teaching toImprove Learning

#154. Using a DepartmentalResume Book as a Service LearningModel

#155. Delivering Plant BiosecurityTraining through ExperientialLearning Activities

Dann HusmannUniversity of Nebraska-Lincoln

Kevin Bacon and Mark HogeWestern Illinois University

Larae WatkinsUniversity of Central Missouri

Daniel Collins, Yadong Qi, Andra Johnson,Kamran Abdollahi, Zhu Ning, and FulbertNamwambaSouthern University

With the rapid development of technology intoclassrooms, instructors in higher education face avariety of challenges to ensure students learn in theleast restrictive environment. As instructors inte-grate new technology into their curriculum, theymust consider what content is being offered, andthrough what system is it being delivered to theirstudents. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln offersa Peer Teaching Project for faculty to investigatespecific learning challenges and problems facingstudents in their courses. In this instance, thepresenter selected a course taught in an undergradu-ate program that involved a sophisticated program inExcel® dealing with financial management. ThisPeer Teaching Project sought to investigate ifstudents enrolled in the course possessed the requi-site knowledge of the basic functions in Excel® and ifthey had a basic understanding of financial manage-ment. During the past two years the course wastaught, the assignment involving the use of the Excel® program along with the financial managementproblem rated very low on the course evaluation fromstudents. The instructor deemed it necessary todetermine if students enrolled in the class the nexttime it was offered possessed the necessary skill andability to navigate this specific assignment in thecourse. Data were collected during the course, whichbrought light to what was needed by students beforeenrolling in the course. As a result, a pre-test wasdeveloped to determine if students possessed therequisite knowledge and skills to learning in the leastrestrictive environment of the course before enroll-ing in it.

As a service learning project, the AgribusinessClub at Western Illinois University publishes anannual resume book in print and electronic form forstudents seeking internship or full time employment.This book has become a major tool for the departmentin their work to assist students' with internship andjob placements. This service project joins classroom,club and community to support student learning in areal world setting. Other campus groups, includingthe athletic department, have expressed interest inadopting this process as a model. Neither studentssubmitting resumes or companies receiving a copyare charged. Club members sell ads to cover the cost

of publication and distribution. The club publishesthe resume book in time for distribution to companiesattending the department's annual career fair.Additional copies are mailed to companies that havehired graduates within the past five years. Feedbackfrom industry has been very positive with severalcompanies requesting additional copies for otherdivisions. Career fair attendees like being able toreview resumes on prospective interns/employeesduring the career fair, especially during any slowperiods. Many companies have commented on theusefulness of having all the resumes in one packageand many prefer having the resumes in printed form.Students have also commented that by the time theyvisit with a company, the person they meet with hasalready reviewed their resume. Club members gainexperience from organizing, soliciting funding andproducing the Resume Book; and the departmentgains from the addition of a student-producedplacement tool.

There is a need to provide more post baccalaure-ate training and experiential learning in plant healthmanagement at U.S. land grant universities tocounter the bio-terrorism threat to our nation'sagriculture. In order to make intelligent agriculturalbiosecurity decisions and effectively protect thisnation's agricultural resources, we also need a highlycoordinated approach at multiple levels ranging fromindividual laboratories to state and federal agencies.Students training in plant biosecurity in amultidisciplinary setting with state and federalagencies involved in plant disease surveillance, rapididentification and detection of plant pathogens andmanagement of plant pathogens that pose a threat toour crops would aid in enhancing our nation'sagricultural security. To address this need the urbanforestry program at Southern University, BatonRouge, LA is incorporating plant biosecurity traininginto the urban forestry graduate curriculum. Theprogram has partnered with various federal and stateagencies and university collaborators to providestudents with experiential learning opportunities inplant biosecurity. These training activities havefacilitated student empowerment and engagementthough interdisciplinary learning activities in plantbiosecurity by means of class forums, symposiums,field trips, laboratory exercises, oral presentations,and research internships.


Poster Abstracts

#157. Selection of Team Membersfor Group Activities

#159. A Curriculum for UniversityAgricultural CommunicationPrograms: A Synthesis of Research

#160. Geographic InformationSystems (GIS) and Remote Sensing(RS): Undergraduate AcademicCurriculum and Pre-collegeTraining Program

Thomas Broyles, Laura Stacklin, andEdward McCannVirginia Tech

T. Ethridge and K. BellahTarleton State University

S. SriharanVirginia State University

L. HaydenElizabeth City State University

G. OzbayDelaware State University

J. Everitt and R. FletcherUSDA-ARS, Weslaco, TX

The implementation of group activities hasbecome a widely used pedagogical method. Thebenefits of group activities have included: generationof multiple ideas or concepts, ability to generatesolutions to ill-defined problems, and skill develop-ment including teamwork and leadership. Theliterature clearly explains that selection of teammembers is a crucial step in the use of group activitiesfor the teaching and learning process .Recommendations from the literature also statesteams should be heterogeneous based on characteris-tics such as: age, gender, and intellectual capability.

The purpose of this session was to exploreanother concept to forming teams that uses problemsolving styles as the primary selection tool. Problemssolving styles address ways people generate ideas andprepare for implementation. The theoretical frame-work for problem solving styles addresses learningstyles, cognitive style, and psychological type.Problem solving styles do not change but by inform-ing team members of their preference, the learnercan learn to adapt and work with other styles.

Arguably, student retention in colleges of agricul-ture, regardless of discipline, are largely contingenton each respective program's curriculum beingcurrent, relevant, and beneficial for student careerplacement upon graduation. As such, departmentsseeking to retain students must periodically focusinwardly on curriculum effectiveness based onstudent satisfaction and perceived career prepara-tion. The primary objective of this study was toidentify and organize previous studies regardinguniversity agricultural communication curriculum.To further propel scholarly study in the agriculturalcommunication realm, a second objective was todelineate research deficiencies. Articles utilized inthis study were obtained through a library databasesearch from seven sources and were publishedbetween 1972 and 2007. Studies pertaining toagricultural communication degree program fea-tures, student characteristics, and curriculumelements were evaluated. Research identifyingcurrent student, alumni, and agricultural communi-cation professional perceptions were also synthe-sized. The majority of previous research utilizedresearcher developed questionnaires or surveys andwas descriptive in design. In addition, many studieswere more than 10 years old, or were regionally

confined; therefore, an updated national evaluationof agricultural communication programs andprogram trends is necessary so that student curricu-lar needs can most appropriately be met. The docu-mented demand for a master's degree program inagricultural communication also implies a variety ofresearch prospects; thereby, allowing for potentialniche transition of students retained from under-graduate to graduate agricultural communicationprograms.

In this collaborative USDA Capacity BuildingTeaching Grant, Virginia State University (VSU) andits partner institutions, Delaware State University(DSU) and Elizabeth City State University (ECSU)developed the geospatial instruction which inte-grates within the science curriculum. At VSU, theGrant activities resulted in developing and offering oftwo courses, “Principles of Geographic InformationSystems-AGRI 280” and the “Introduction to RemoteSensing-AGRI 290”. Students who come to VirginiaState University can choose to major in a variety ofdisciplines, including Agricultural, Aquatic, andEnvironmental Sciences, Natural and SocialSciences, Engineering, and Liberal Arts. The courseon Geographic Information System (AGRI 280) isdesigned to introduce students to the fundamentalconcepts and applications of GIS. The course onRemote Sensing (RS) includes image analysis andintegrating the data in ArcGIS.

The faculty members from ECSU, DSU, andBethune-Cookman University (BCU) participated infaculty development workshops for gaining experi-ences for teaching of the courses on GIS and RS.These workshops were coordinated by the PrincipalInvestigator (Dr. Sriharan) and Co-PrincipalInvestigators (Dr. Hayden and Dr. Ozbay) of theUSDA project. The USDA collaborators, Dr. JamesEveritt and Dr. Reginald Fletcher, provided exposureto field activities and hands-on experiences with GISand RS technologies. VSU has also coordinatedoutreach activities on creating awareness of GISamong the pre-college audiences in Southside


Poster Abstracts

Virginia. This presentation focuses on the successfulresults on the development and implementation ofthe GIS and RS courses at VSU and its partnerHBCUs, and summer programs for high schoolteachers and students

This collaborative USDA Capacity BuildingTeaching Grant prepares students to gain globalperspectives on global issues by their participation inclass and web-based discussion. The students areengaged in writing reflections on assigned readingsand model case studies developed through theinternational program, “Global Seminar” located atVirginia College of Osteopathic Medicine (VCOM),Virginia Tech. By using the concepts of GlobalSeminar, the faculty is mentored in global teaching,creating and accessing the virtual libraries, andintegrating case studies as electives in agriculturaland food sciences. Each institution has developed thecourse, “Global Seminar” for the undergraduates. AtVSU, the Global Seminar is offered to lower-levelundergraduates (AGRI 295) and upper-level gradu-ates (AGRI 401). The students prepare their powerpoint presentations for exchanging their viewpointsvia discussion board, chat, and videoconference atVirginia State University (VSU) and its partnerinstitutions, Florida a & M University (FAMU),University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM), andElizabeth City State University (ECSU). The out-comes of the project activities were disseminated atprofessional meetings in Washington, D.C.,University of Guadalajara, and Florida A& MUniversity. The faculty members associated withGlobal Seminar are developing case studies on FoodSafety, Food Microbiology, Nutrition and Preventionof Obesity, through faculty development workshopsat partner institutions in Virginia, North Carolina,

Florida, and Mexico. The successful results of theGlobal Seminar project activities were presented bythe project director and co-directors at the AnnualPlanning Meetings in Washington, D.C. (2005) andMexico (2007).

Previous SOTL research has evaluated the use ofdifferent teaching techniques on the understandingof basic molecular biology concepts. These studies leftquestions regarding the level of understanding thestudents had upon entry into the course. The coursebeing used for this research is an agricultural bio-chemistry course typically taken by second semestersophomores and juniors. Over 90% of the students inthe course have had a college biology course withabout 75% having also taken a genetics course.Students agreeing to participate completed a five-question pretest and consented to having gradeschecked for previous courses. Students who hadcompleted biology and genetics made up the majorityof the students at 53% (group 1). The second group ofstudents (19%) had completed biology and geneticswhile concurrently taking either animal breeding orplant breeding. The group of students who had takenbiology and were concurrently taking genetics was11% of the course. The average pretest score forgroups one, two and three were 30%, 41% and 22.5%respectively. The number of students for each groupas well as the pretest scores for the groups werecomparable to what has previously been reported.The only deviation is that group two had an averagepretest score of 41%, 11% higher than previousstudies. The correlation between grade in biology andpretest score was 0.354 while the correlation forgenetics and pretest score was 0.325. These correla-tions indicate that performance in the previouscourses has only a slight relationship with pretestscores.

#161. Collaborative Efforts forWriting Case Studies andVideoconferencing: HumanNutrition, Food Safety, andEnvironmental Health

#162. Impact of AcademicAchievement on the Understandingof Basic Molecular BiologyConcepts

S .SriharanVirginia State University

J. Everitt and R. FletcherUSDA-ARS, Weslaco, TXD. SutphinVirginia Tech

V. ThomasFlorida A & M University

A. KhanElizabeth City State University

S. BloemUniversidad de Puerto Rico Mayagüez

Tim Buttles and Bonnie WaltersUniversity of Wisconsin-River Falls


Poster Abstracts

#171. Partnerships between 1862and 1890 Institution for DevelopingModel Case Studies on Food Safetyand Human Nutrition

#172. A Science-based TrainingProgram to Enhance Capacity inFood and Agricultural Biosecurity

#176. To Establish a ModelCapstone Internship in Food Safety

S. SriharanVirginia State University

R. Fletcher and James EverittUSDA-ARS, Weslaco, TXV. ThomasFlorida A & M University

A. KhanElizabeth City State University

Dean SutphinVirginia Tech

S.V. BloomUniversidad de Puerto Rico Mayagüez

S. Nahashon, F. Tegegne, and A. AzizTennessee State University

Verian D. Thomas, Neil James, MitweMusingo and Ray MobleyFlorida A & M University

M. EdlowVirginia State University

A USDA grant created a partnership betweencolleges of agriculture and life science at six 1864 and1890 institutions and a medical school to develop anew program for seamless curriculum and instruc-tion based on a constructivist approach for studentcentered learning. This unique faculty team inagriculture and medicine is a model for futurepartnerships to develop case studies that integrateagriculture, food, nutrition and health. Cases andprimary readings, supplemental references,PowerPoints, teaching notes and other referencematerials are stored in a shared virtual library forstudents and faculty at participating institutions. AHarvard decision case format is applied in a new wayto agriculture and human health real world research-based problems. Learner-centered scientific inquiryuses a six-dimensional matrix as an epistemology forcritical thinking to derive solutions to complexmultidimensional problems. New innovative instruc-tional delivery and dissemination of this curriculumincludes a virtual electronic classroom for asynchron-ous and live interactive videoconference in student-lead problem solving seminars. Teaching protocolsstructure a rotation of presentations by each univer-sity and open discussion during a 90-minute videoconference. Three student scholars from eachinstitution present solutions in seven minutesequences while faculty serve as mentors and facilita-tors, changing the instructor dominated paradigm. Awide range of applications include a range of contentareas, multidisciplinary studies at upper undergrad-uate and graduate levels, and US and internationalcollaboration. Outcomes include a strong theoreticalbasis for teaching, deployment of latest technology,development of critical thinking and problem solvingskills, efficient curriculum development and a facultynetwork for creative curriculum and instructionaldevelopment.

The objective of this work was to provide tradi-tional students, teachers, and agricultural profes-sionals with comprehensive introduction to majorissues in agro-terrorism, appropriate measures toprevent their occurrence and to ensure the safety andsecurity of our food supply. Additional objectives wereto provide hands-on training in counter agro-terrorism skill to college students and to introduceagro-terrorism response skills to middle and highschool science and agricultural teachers. Threeworkshops were conducted by project directors andinvited speakers to address the roles of government,industry, farmers, industry, consumers and others inprotecting plants, animals, and food from deliberatebioterrorist attacks. More than 30 faculty and highschool teachers have participated in the workshops.Overall, more than 100 agricultural personnel haveundergone training. Fifteen students have success-fully trained in rapid detection methods for food-borne and plant pathogens and environmental (soiland water) contaminants that could deliberately beintroduced into the food systems environment.Surveys were also conducted concurrently with thetraining workshops to assess consumers' level ofconcern on agricultural biosecurity and their willing-ness to pay additional to cover the cost of food protec-tion. The level of concern about agriculturalbiosecurity by 87% of respondents ranged from highto very high. Similarly, the vast majority (90%) of therespondents indicated their willingness to pay morefor food protection, which was proportional to theirlevel of education and income. The participation andresults from this project suggest that consumers arecognizant of the need to enhance efforts of protectingour food supply.

During the first year of the three-year projectfunded by USDA/CSREES, a capstone internship wasestablished with a class of nine upper level studentsmajoring in food science. This program reflects apartnership among the Food Science program atFlorida A&M University, the Florida Department ofAgriculture and Consumer Services, the FloridaDepartment of Health, and processing plants nearTallahassee, and its goal is to teach students howindustry and the regulatory state agencies work to


Poster Abstracts

solve real world food safety issues. Students regis-tered in a three-credit-hour course, during the 2007spring semester, and each week they conducted fieldtrips to various state laboratories and industrialsites. During this period, the students also receivedlectures on common pathogens and chemical residuesin foods from the state experts, participated in“hands-on” activities involving common foodpathogens in the Foods Laboratories, conductedinspections of supermarkets, institutional establish-ments, processing plants, and a highway interdictionsite, and learnt how food and waterborne diseases areinvestigated in the state. The students were continu-ally assessed, using knowledge-based pre- and post-tests, weekly reports, presentations, surveys and afinal paper. A comparison of the results from the pre-and post-tests showed clear increases in studentknowledge as a result of the program: eight out ofnine students correctly answered only three or fewerof 15 items on the pre-test, whereas eight out of ninestudents correctly answered 13 or more of 15 items onthe post-test. The overall accuracy rates on the pre-and post-tests were about 13% and 92%, respectively,and this improvement was statistically significant (p= 0.006). In addition, eight out of nine studentssurveyed agreed that the knowledge and experiencesgained from these real world applications greatlyenhanced their training.

Service-Learning is a method of teaching andlearning that integrates community service activitiesinto academic curricula and expands the learning ofstudents from the classroom to the community. Thegoal of service learning is to benefit both the commu-nity and the student. Service learning gives hands-onexperience to students and encourages studentstoward lifelong civic involvement. Thus, studentslearn to become active members and leaders of theircommunity while changing society's view of educa-tion and service. Service-learning projects wereincorporated into Home Horticulture, a surveycourse covering a range of topics from houseplants tolandscaping. Over the years projects have included:1) beautification of a city park; 2) installation of agrass planting in a city park; 3) landscaping of ahumane society; and 4) building of flower boxes andraised beds for pre-school children and the elderly.Funding for the projects came from national grants,local service clubs and university funds. Events werecovered both by the local newspaper and the localtelevision station. A ceremony was held during theevent to thank students and financial contributors.Students wrote about their service-learning experi-ence and then shared their thoughts with others inthe class. Overall, students expressed their increasedunderstanding of the course material and theirfeeling of contributing to the community.

Tuskegee University has partnered with schoolsystems to alleviate the low representation of minori-ties in the AgriScience-related workforce by address-ing: i) limited hands-on laboratory-based exposure;ii) limited infrastructure and resources forunderserved minority schools; and iii) the need forleadership training. The initiative re-enforced thecurricula in AgriScience-related disciplines at thepre-collegiate level. AgriTREK, the two-weekresidential program, created an awareness of theeducational and career opportunities that areavailable in AgriScience through hands-on research.Students participating in AgriTREK conductedintensive hands-on research under the guidance offaculty and staff where they are exposed them to thelatest developments in science and technologythrough research projects based on their careerinterests. Additionally, scholars are introduced toseminars and workshops on leadership developmentand personal enrichment; the ultimate goal is toprovide a holistic approach in training and mentoringthese scholars as future leaders having positiveimpact in their schools and communities. AgriTREKis making a concerted effort to train underservedminorities by re-enforcing science and technologycurricula at the pre-collegiate level thus promotingan effective pipeline of students who elect to attendfour-year colleges. At Tuskegee University there aretwo former AgriTREK scholars enrolled currentlyand for the 2008/9 academic year 28 formerAgriTREK scholars from Selma Early College Highapplied for admission.

This poster discusses how a new multidisciplinaryagriculture program was developed at CaliforniaState University, Stanislaus. Although the universityis located in the heart of California's Great CentralValley, one of the most agriculturally rich areas of thecountry, it had not been able to offer a program inagriculture until recently. State budget cuts and theresistance from some of the existing agricultureprograms in the state made the development of thisprogram even more difficult. However, by using

#186. Service-Learning in HomeHorticulture

#192. Enhancing K-12 ExperientialLearning in Agri-Science RelatedDisciplines through Laboratory-based Training and LeadershipDevelopment

#194. How Community Collegesand Federal Grants were Used toCreate a New MultidisciplinaryAgriculture Program

J. GleichsnerFort Hays State University

Victor BrownTuskegee University

Michelle McKeeSECME, Inc, Atlanta, GA

Eric Houk and Mark BenderCalifornia State University


Poster Abstracts

existing community college resources and securingexternal funding we have been able to create a uniqueprogram that better serves the students in our region.Our classification as a Hispanic-Serving Institution(HSI) has also provided us with special opportunitiesto compete for USDA grants that were specificallydesigned for this classification. Funding from the

USDA's HSI education grants program has allowed usto strengthen our program and attract/retain some ofthe best students in our region. As a result of theseefforts, enrollment in our program has been increas-ing significantly and we are helping increase thenumber of people that are qualified to participate inour country's agricultural workforce.

NACTA

“Advancing the scholarship ofteaching and learning”


Poster Abstracts

june 2008 journal

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