visiting faculty fellowship’s final report · • the final stop on the trip south of the...

20
IPIA1012017 Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report Submitted by: Asst. Prof. Emal Sobat, Herat University Submitted to: International Program in Agriculture, Purdue University

Upload: others

Post on 16-May-2020

0 views

Category:

Documents


0 download

TRANSCRIPT

Page 1: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s

Final Report

Submitted by: Asst. Prof. Emal Sobat, Herat University

Submitted to: International Program in Agriculture, Purdue University

Page 2: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

Page 3: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

Introduction Partnership program between Herat University and Purdue University established in 2014, funded by State Department and its focus is more on exchange programs for both professors and students of Herat University. Exchange of professors are in two different types Intensive Training Fellowship for junior professors (9 weeks) and Visiting Faculty Fellowship for senior professors (One semester), they will get chance to visit Purdue University and engage in different educational/cultural programs.

I was selected as VFF for second year of the program (2015) and Dr. Phillip Owens who is a PhD in Soil Pedology and working on Digital Soil Mapping was selected as my mentor, this program is in 3 stages, first is a pre Purdue research program, followed by a research program during stay in Purdue which will be followed as being in touch with mentor and continuing of the researches in Herat University. Besides the research program there are a list of activities to be done by a visiting faculty through partnership program which are listed below:

Goals of the Program:

1. Auditing undergraduate/graduate classes to observe & learn the teaching methods in US Universities.

2. Discuss with professors and check out outline of their courses to help me out for improving my course syllabus and lecture note.

3. Observe/Learn the methods of teaching in lab/practical classes 4. Conducting a research experiment, in order to make a linkage with professors in

Purdue and for conducting mutual researches in future. 5. Cultural Exchange by talking with different people and making friends for better

understanding of their culture and customs and letting them know ours.

Based on the above objectives I described some of my activities during one semester of my stay at Purdue University as follow:

Attending Classes

• Soils and Land Scape • Soil Physics

Research Work

• Learning GIS Software’s • Soil Classification Map for Herat

Attending to SSSA Annual Meeting

Extra-Curricular and Fun time

Page 4: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

Soils and Landscapes Class (Dr. Philip Owens and Dr. Darrel Schulze) The overall goal of this course was to provide a hand-on understanding and appreciation of how soils occur in the field as components of landscapes and ecosystems. In the process we learned how to write soil profile descriptions, identify landscape features, classify soils using a simplified key to Soil Taxonomy, learn how to use soil maps and learn how soil maps are made. Class covered the following lectures and lab (field) classes throughout the semester:

• Soil Morphology, Soil Forming Factors, Soil Classification, Soil Landscapes and Soil Parent Materials, Soil Mapping, Soil Genesis (Soil Minerals, Weathering, Factors of Soil Formation), Soil Geography (Overview of Soil Orders and Suborders, Distribution), Soil Interpretations

Lab Classes • Spatial abilities assessment, overview of soil morphology (Soil Resource Center) • Study of Soil Texture by feeling method and Soil Structure • Field Labs (each week had profile description for a different soil order)

I was setting in the class to observe the teaching methodology and I found out so many tricks and tips from both professors, which were time management (time and date for each lecture, lab, trips, weeks that there will be no class, exams and etc. was already clear), control of classroom, being prepared for the lecture, being at the class 10 minutes prior to class time and preparing everything they need, the system of blackboard (website where all students had access to presentation and class materials) and access of students on materials, making the learning objectives for each topic and asking the students to study a chapter of referenced book for more information, taking care of and brining of necessary equipment’s as teaching aid tools for assisting students to learn better visually and most importantly the amount of practical/lab/field work that students have to do was outstanding as they were making an expert out of each students by repeating the same methods of analyzing and identifying with different soil types/orders.

They had the soil maps of Indiana and by helps of a software called “ISEE” and IPads they were able to show all the changes in soils and landscapes while going to different fields and places, it was really a hand full of achievement and very useful to see what he is talking about and understand better.

From the other hand what I observed was the respect that students have for their professors and the way they beehive in the class was very cool, as everyone was sitting

Page 5: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

very quiet and was very much engaged with the lectures and actively taking part in discussions and asking questions.

Beside teaching methods I learn new things regarding soils and landscapes also as they were talking about the soil formation of Indiana by glacier and how those glacier ages effect soil formation in Indiana, it was a totally new and interesting topic for me, this course encouraged me to do lots of digging about our soils and collects monoliths of soil profiles from different places of Herat and around area, and by help of students who are living in different places collect different soil sample and analyze them, so I can be able to collect information and describe about soils of Herat and Afghanistan, as they do have information about soils of Indiana and United States. This class had two field trips to North and South of Indiana which was so much fun and full of learning opportunities below I have made a summary of both trips:

Field Trips to North and South of Indiana (Soils and Landscapes)

On the northern field trip, we were able to observe several unique soils rarely found in Indiana, as well as observe the larger scale landscape of Northern Indiana. The properties of the soils we examined were directly influenced by glacial actions and depositions at the end of the Pleistocene ice age 15-20 thousand years ago. Even today, by examining topography maps, looking at the larger landscape, and examining individual soil profile properties, it is possible to determine where the glaciers moved and deposited materials that would eventually become the soils we see in Northern Indiana today. The trip took us from flat till and lacustrine plains in central Indiana to rolling sand plains with dunes and glacial moraines in Northern Indiana. And finally, at the shores of Lake Michigan, the class was able to observe soil forming actions taking place, as active sand dunes formed along the beaches of the lake, where plants began to colonize these dunes and lay down organic matter and roots to begin the soil forming process.

Page 6: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

• The first stop of the trip was near Jasper-Pulaski Fish and Wildlife Area. At this site, three soils were examined by soil auguring on a sand dune at the base, back slope, and summit of the dune.

• The next stage of the trip took us through the former Kankakee Marsh. This area was once a large wetland interspersed with sand dunes, lakes and rivers.

• The next stop occurred north of this region at the Pinny Purdue Farm. Here, three soils were examined. The first atop a hill, was found to be a stratified outwash and was classified as a Hapludalf. The next soil at this site was formed at a lower topographic area than the previous soil. It had a deep, dark surface soil horizon and was determined to be poorly drained. The third soil at the Pinny Purdue Farm was very interesting. It was located at a very low spot in the landscape and had a very deep, dark, organic horizon. (it was my first time to see organic soils) Underneath this dark horizon a few feet down was a grey fine material that was determined to be copregenous earth or marl. This material reacted violently with hydrochloric acid so it therefore must be very high in calcium carbonates. It is assumed that bases washed out of the higher topographic areas in this vicinity accumulated in the lower spots in the landscape.

• The next stop of the trip was to examine an outwash site near Westville, Indiana. This large gravel pit showed the extensive stratification that is present in an outwash parent material.

• The next stops purpose in Michigan City was to examine a Spodosol. This soil order is common in northern climates under acidic coniferous forest conditions.

Page 7: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

• Next the tour lead the class across the sand dunes parallel to the shore of Lake Michigan. Each dune represented a former level of Lake Michigan, as the lake was higher at various stages in the past.

• The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural field here by auguring.

Overall, the Northern Field trip allowed the class to see some unusual and interesting soils. Some of the soils are only found in this area of Indiana due to the presence of unique soil forming factors. The Sand Dunes in close proximity to Lake Michigan are a unique environment in which to study the process of plant succession and soil formation as it is here that new soil parent material and disturbance by sand and wind contribute to the formation of soils. Elsewhere in the state, the soils are mostly already formed and have already undergone the first stages of soil formation. It is only here where actively forming soils can really be observed easily.

On the Southern Field Trip our class was able to observe a wide variety of landscapes and varying soils. The sites visited ranged from gently rolling Wisconsin glacial till plains to extremely hilly areas with great topographic relief in the Morgan-Monroe State Forest. The soils varied just as much as the landscapes did, some of the deep loess soils observed on the trip had fragipan layers in the subsoil and the soils formed in limestone residuum possessed a very red color. These characteristics are very different from what one can observe in the soils around Purdue University, and these differences go back to variations in the soil forming factors between the two areas, mainly time and parent material.

Page 8: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

• The first stop was along a road cut near Martinsville IN. Here, on the edge of an outwash terrace and an old river valley, three different soil parent materials are exposed. At the base of these soils was residuum or weathered bedrock from siltstone. Atop this was Glacial Outwash from meltwater that rushed through the area at the end of the last ice age glaciation. The Princeton Soil had a thin band of clayey material deep in the subsoil from a brief glacial lake that covered the area at one time. The parent material of this band could be said to be of lacustrine origin and it sloped downward towards the southwest. Finally atop this material and the outwash, was loess and Aeolian sand.

• Our trip now took us through the Morgan-Monroe State Forest and the next two soils to be examined were found in an experimental burning plot. Here the native hardwood forest understory is regularly burned and the impacts on forest growth and species diversity among other things are measured.

• The next stop was at a deep soil pit in the midst of a small conifer forest. Here, deep loess once again covered a subsoil formed in weathered residuum.

• The last soil pits investigated were at the Morgan Monroe FLUXNET site. Here readings of the secondary growth native hardwood forest are taken as well as climate and weather data.

• In Bloomington, Indiana just west of the Indiana University campus, a sinkhole in limestone was observed. Here the concept of Karst Topography could be observed. In places, the thin soil had been eroded away and water had slowly dissolved limestone in certain areas, forming sinkholes.

Overall, the Southern Indiana Soils Field Trip was a very good learning opportunity and very interesting. Many soils and landscapes that cannot be observed in central and northern Indiana are present in this part of Southern Indiana, south of the Wisconsin Glacial boundary. The soils here often require different management strategies than the glaciated soils farther to the north. Soils on highly sloping lands with great slopes are

Page 9: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

often left to grow as Native Hardwood forests and therefore Southern Indiana has more expanses of forests than anywhere else in Indiana.

Soil Physics Class (Dr. Eileen Kladivko) It was planned that I only sit on the soils and landscapes class but when I come to know that there is soil physics course is offering in current semester I asked my mentor that I would like to sit in physics class also, as I am teaching the same subject in my faculty in Herat University and I was eager to know what are the outline, lab work and their procedure to teach soil physics in Purdue University. I found Dr. Kladivko one of the best, promising, serious, hardworking and experienced professors. Her classes were always fun and full of learning opportunities, her respect to time, to students and her love to soil physics admired me. Something that I found common in professors here in Purdue University was they were so experienced and they have done plenty of researched and while their lectures they always give example of the work that they have done and this is what we don’t have in Herat University on which we should focus more in future. A good memory/experience of this class was the discussion session, professor distributed few research papers and asked students to study them and prepare answers to previously made questions and then students got together in a specific day and were discussing about what they got from research papers in respect to questions made and each of them were talking about their own understanding and grasping from the topic. I used the opportunity and talked with Dr. Kladivko regarding the topics that I am covering in soil physics course in Herat and asked her opinion and advise for making it more useful in case of lectures and lab work and she happily helped me out and I will make some changes to my lecture note while I am back to make it more update and useful for students who are registering for this course.

Page 10: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

Page 11: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

Synergy in Science: Partnering for Solutions

ASA, CSSA, SSSA and ESA 2015 Meeting Nov. 15 – 18 in Minneapolis, Minnesota

I had always hear the name of Soil Science Society of America and it was like a dream to attend at one its annual meetings, but I never had an idea that these meeting held this big and huge number of topics will be presented.

The meeting was held in Convention Center at Minneapolis and while registration I got a guide book of the meeting in which all the topics were listed that were going to be presented on different days of meeting, it was in such a way that at the same time different topics were presented in different rooms of convention center and you had to search your book and find out the topic of your interest and simply you could sit at that exact room and every day at the evening time they has poster sessions which was a fantastic idea of sharing researches that has been done and the researcher was available to describe and answer any questions.

I got an idea from this meeting and the method of holding it for our faculty, we are having seminars of 4th year students every year in seven different departments of Agriculture faculty and I am going to ask dean and head of departments to arrange all seminars of all departments for an exact week (we can call it seminar week) and we can announce the topics that are planned to presented by students one or two day prior to their presentation and any of our students from first, second and third year can go and sit at whatever presentation they want according to their interest and can learn different topics during one week from all seven departments.

Below is the list of topics I attended during annual meeting of ASA, CSSA, and SSSA:

First Day (Sunday, Nov. 15) • Registration • Attended to Undergraduate Research Symposium Contest • Attended to Global Agronomy

Second Day (Monday, Nov. 16) • Attended to Soil Education and Outreach • Attended to Soil Survey: Present and Future • Attended to Agriculture Remote Sensing

Page 12: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

• Attended to Digital Soil Mapping for Precision Agriculture • Attended to Semi – arid Dryland Cropping System • Attended to Graduate Students Poster Contest

Third Day (Tuesday, Nov. 17) • Attended to Soil and Water Management and Conservation • Attended to Nitrogen Science and Management • Attended to Undergraduate Education • Attended to How to Publish Manuscript in ASA, CSSA & SSSA Journals • Attended to Fertilizer from Rock to Crop (N, P, K & Micro Nutrients) • Attended to Graduate Students Poster Contest

Forth Day (Wednesday, Nov. 18) • Attended to Cover Crop Management • Attended to General Extension Education • Attended to Phosphorus Science and Management • Attended to Soil and Manure Laboratory Proficiency and Certification Program • Attended to Strategies to Improve Water Efficiency in Crop Rotations & Cover

Crop System • Nutrient Management and Soil & Crop Analysis Poster Session

Meeting with NRCS – USDA, Thursday, Nov 19 in St. Paul, Minnesota Land Use Interpretations for Raster Soil Maps meeting was called by Maxine Levin and David Hoover from USDA, NRCS, and NSSC in Minnesota State Office.

Meeting started by introduction of participants and their involvement in objectives for meeting, goals for the initiative and outcomes for the agency and followed by history and future of interpretations development and history and future of digital soil mapping by Bott and Hoover. Later is was continued by D’Avello regarding definition of raster data, digital soil mapping and uncertainty values.

State and user needs was covered by Beck after lunch break that focused more on agency needs in conservation planning, local user needs and state legislation and national needs and requirements. Rest of day was covered by Levin about the opportunities (agency and soil science division direction, expanding the use of interpretations and changing the paradigm from polygon to raster).

Meeting was planned to continue for one more day but I left the meeting with Dr. Philip at the end of first day and drove back to Purdue University, West Lafayette.

Page 13: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

My Research Work (Digital Soil Mapping)

Soil Classification Map for Herat Province Digital Soil Mapping (DSM) in soil science, also referred to as predictive soil mapping or pedometric mapping, is the computer-assisted production of digital maps of soil types and soil properties. Soil mapping, in general, involves the creation and population of spatial soil information by the use of field and laboratory observational methods coupled with spatial and non-spatial soil inference systems.

The international Working Group on Digital Soil Mapping (WG-DSM) defines digital soil mapping as "the creation and the population of a geographically referenced soil databases generated at a given resolution by using field and laboratory observation methods coupled with environmental data through quantitative relationships."

Digital Soil Mapping Workflow

There are two different methods for generating soil maps, one is using Geo statistics which needs plenty of data regarding soil properties from the area of interest and second is using different Terrain Attributes which are driven from DEM of the study area and are logarithmic analysis of DEM through specific computer software’s which later can be upgraded more and more by adding soil properties data and most important by using the method Fuzzy Logic it will help to predict the characteristics of the areas between two sampled points or surrounding areas of sampled points.

First of all something which is very important and is at the top of all following process is learning GIS software’s, GIS is having different software’s, some are not open source and very expensive like ArcGIS and some are open source (you can download from websites freely) like, Saga, Solim, QGis, GvSig and so on… before coming here I was not much familiar with GIS software’s specially with the one they are using here (ArcGIS, Saga…) and I had to learn them first in order to be able to work on soil classification map, after you are comfortable working with software you would need the following workflow for generating soil classification map. As its listed below, digital soil mapping workflow is consist of four different stages that I would like to describe each of them in details:

1. Obtaining Information: It’s any sort of information regarding the soil properties of area of interest, it can be paper maps, data from researches done, lab analysis, experts information about the soils of the area, farmers info for example the depth of soil or so on… these data can be used for setting a better module and acts as catalyst for generating better and more detailed map.

2. Downloading DEM: DEM is a digital model or a 3D representation of the terrain’s surface. It comprises of sampled array of elevations for a number of ground positions at regularly spaced intervals for example 30m, 90m. The finer the

Page 14: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

resolution for soil mapping the better, because one is able to capture more soil variability across a landscape.

DEM can be downloaded from different websites online for different resolutions, I was able to download 90m and 30m DEM for Herat and Afghanistan but for this study I am using a 90m DEM.

3. Developing a model: As per my short time experience working in Soil Mapping I got that Digital Soil Mapping is a combination of computer software and knowledge of the person who is generating soil maps, if it was only computer work then any one can do it by learning GIS software but the points is that at the same time you need to know GIS software and have knowledge of soils special soil Pedology and soil formation.

Developing model is more about using different terrain attributes according to the types of area, for example in mountain area we use different sort of them and in a flat area different sorts will be used. From other hand what we learned while working on Herat Soils Map by looking at DEM and geomorphology map we knew that Herat soils are mostly consist of two different parts, one is erosional zone which is mountain areas (Obe, Chesht-e-Sharif, Farsi, some parts of Adraskan, Karukh and Kushk-e-Khuhna) and then we have depositional areas which are the flat area of Zinda Jan, Ghoryan and Kohsan. I have to mention that for generating a soil classification map we need to use a geology map as base map and combine it with cluster of terrain analysis, and here comes the use of knowledge and developing modules, because geology can show very nice classes about the areas of erosional because eroding is happening on parent materials and geology reflect the parent materials, but geology won’t show a good result in case of depositional soils because they are transported from other places and deposited in that area and geology of that area doesn’t have any role in formation of those soils. So we have to use soils map or geomorphology map as base map for depositional area and a geology maps for erosional area to get the best soil classification map.

4. Generating Soil Map: A combination of DEM, knowledge of GIS software and Soils along with an appropriate module and base maps (geology or geomorphology) is the soil classification map and by adding data you can add more and more layers to it.

Sometimes we coma cross with situations that we don’t have any data from the area that we are going to map, even though having data is important but still we can work on some of initial computer based steps and then whenever we got date we can keep upgrading our map with data we generate by soil analysis or found from any above mentioned sources (Obtaining Information). This was the case for my work, I had no data

Page 15: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

from soils of Herat so I did the initial computer based data and used my knowledge of soils of Herat along with a geology map and a soil map that I found online and made a soil classification map for Herat Province that will be followed by my research in Herat to generate a more detailed and useful map.

Future work in Herat (Research work) As I described generating soil classification map requires both computer based steps, knowledge and data of soil properties, what I am missing in my research work during my stay in Purdue University is data of soil properties, I made the initial soil map with cluster of terrain attributes and geology/soils as base map, this map shows the different classes of soils present in Herat province, and what I am going to do next is gathering information from different sources and I am planning to collect georeferenced soil samples (samples will be collected by my students who are living in different district of Herat Province because it wouldn’t be possible for me to travel in all over districts due to security and costs) and analyze those samples in soil lab of Ag. Faculty at Herat University, by getting data from soil analysis and expertise, from any other available source I will work on upgrading the map step by step and we can add different layers showing different properties of soils gradually but it won’t be possible without being in touch with Dr. Phillip Owens because I learned the process of making the initial soil map, I can manage to collect soil samples and I know how to analyze them in my lab but the 3rd step which is adding different layers to my map from those data required more knowledge of GIS and guidance of Dr. Phillip Owens.

Next is a research work with guidance of Dr. Phillip Owens which is making a detailed soil map for Urdo Khan Research Farm, so they would be able to know what type of soils are present in farm, we have full access to farm regarding taking sample, analyzing samples, use their experts and labor to help us out in gathering required information. It will help us to have a detailed map of soils and at the same time I can train some of expertise working in Urdo Khan Farm regarding soil mapping. I am going to start working on it while I am back in Herat and after it’s done we can publish it together with Dr. Phillip. I always wanted to have collaboration with professors out of country and now that I got the opportunity through this partnership program I am planning to use it very efficiently, I am sure this will be our first mutual research and will be a good start.

Page 16: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

Extra-Curricular and Fun Time

48th Feast of Hunter’s Moon

I and Dr. Paul Ebner attended to the Feast of the Hunters' Moon which is a re-creation of the annual fall gathering of the French and Native Americans that originally took place Fort Ouiatenon, a fur-trading outpost in the mid - 1700s.

It was like a great journey to the mid-1700s and 1800s, participation of thousands of people and re-enacting this event create it a feast for all senses. Smell of the wood smoke, hearing the report of the rifles, savor authentic/traditional food, cloths, music and so on... was very exciting and worthy to spend time among them, I enjoyed and had very fun time but missed to have a turkey leg because we had to wait to at least for an hour as it was a long line of people waiting to get it.

Page 17: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

Half Marathon and 5K It was my first experience to participate in a running match, since I was in Purdue campus some days that I was not able to go to Sports Center for workout I used to run inside the campus and when I saw the notice about Half Marathon and 5K, I thought it’s a good chance to test myself and I joined it. I run for 5K and it was a nice experience, I crossed the finish line in 26 minutes and I was the 114th among 886 people and 5th among my age group.

Trip to Chicago First time I visited Chicago with Dr. Paul Ebner and his wife, when we entered in downtown Chicago, the first thing come to mind was “Now I know I am in United States” and that was because of huge buildings, crowed streets, more traffic and etc. this was the image I had from USA in mind and I found it in Chicago, it was very fun, we visited the Willis Tower (Sky Deck), Museum of Arts, Chicago Bean, Fountain, River side and we had stuffed pizza for lunch which was very tasty and so good.

Second time I visited Chicago with a friend who is studying in Michigan State University and we visited the Museum of Science and Industry, Aquarium, Beach and etc. Chicago was always fun and I love to visit it again and again.

Trip to Washington DC I got that a few friends are planning to visit Washington DC and I jumped in with them in last moment, it was mid-October and the best time of year to drive all the way from West Lafayette to DC, the weather was awesome, and the trees were presenting a rainbow of leafs, green, red to orange and yellow to gold yellow were the color or leafs in both side of the roads, I enjoyed the every minute of that journey.

In Washington DC, I visited The White House, Capitol Hill, World War II Memorial, Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. We spent a night in DC and next in Wheeling, Vest Virginia.

Trip to Indianapolis

Page 18: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

I spent my last weekend of being in Purdue University at Indianapolis, Dr. Paul Ebner took me and Dean Jami to Indianapolis and we were so lucky as on the same day there was a championship football match between Michigan State and Iowa teams, people were all around the downtown having fun, drinking beer and enjoying their time prior to match, we visited a few places in the city and walked around the stadium and what I realized was even though there were so many people where half were supporting one team and the rest were supporting next team, but they were so nice to each other and simply were enjoying their time and yelling for their own team, it was fun.

France A. Córdova Recreational Sports Center Spending time in sports center and working out was the best part of my daily activities, registering to center was the first thing I did after getting my Purdue ID cart. There was no way I miss my one and half to two hour workout in sports center. My daily workout was starting from running for a few minutes and working with weights, followed by spa pool and a few minutes of swimming and completed in Sauna room. It’s a great place for workout, you can find each and every type of facility you need and I tried the climbing wall for the first time which was really awesome.

Purdue Campus

Page 19: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

Purdue University is having one of most beautiful campuses I ever seen, combination of new and old buildings, roads, sidewalks, bicycle roads, green area, trees, sculptures and everything is very nice and most importantly the services and maintenance section is very active and busy all over the year for maintaining and redecoration, in the semester that I spent here I saw them all the time busy with cutting grasses and so on and overall taking care of each and every tiny part which has a role in making campus beautiful. It’s clean and have all the facilities for making Purdue a comfortable place for studying.

Conclusion

Visiting Faculty Fellowship program at Purdue University is an unforgettable memory for me, this program made me learn so much and think a lot wider. I updated my knowledge to first world knowledge and education. It was not limiting to Agriculture but I had opportunities to exchange culture and talk to different people from different countries. This program had lots of effect on my academic and personal life. It was nice to see everybody is helpful and friendly there in Purdue University. The Professors are so hard working and are expertise in their own field with lots of experience and knowledge; Students are smart, intelligent, hardworking and eager to learn, I enjoyed being in an international environment among different languages, cultures and in a green and calm place. Every program was well managed which created so many opportunities to learn more and spent every day useful.

Acknowledgements First of all grateful to Dean of Agriculture Faculty (M. Yousof Jami) for his encourage and support, and secondly Professors of Soil Science Dept. in Herat University who accepted to cover all my subjects during one semester of absence.

I want to thank heartily the team of Agriculture Administration and International Programs – Purdue University, Specially Dr. Kevin McNamara Professor, Department

Page 20: Visiting Faculty Fellowship’s Final Report · • The final stop on the trip south of the Valparaiso Glacial Moraine was at the Marvin Stoner Farm. One soil was examined in an agricultural

IPIA1012017

of Economics College of Agriculture, Purdue University and Assistant Director International Programs in Agriculture, Trish Sipes and Michelle Falk for their kindness and full support during my stay in Purdue University.

Without support, help, friendship and encourage of Dr. Phillip Owens, Shams Rahmani, Minerva Dorantes and Mercy Ngunjiri it was not possible to carry on and achieve the success in learning GIS software’s and generating soil properties map, each of them had their own role on my learning and research process, so I salute them all.

A special thanks to US State Department for funding this program and facilitating this opportunity for me and Ministry of Higher Education-Afghanistan for mediating such programs and the attitude that never want to miss a chance to help professors for building their capacities and thanks to Purdue University for being a home far from home.

Best Regards Emal Sobat 11/Dec/2015