NACTA Journal back issues from December 2004:
Using Professional Industry Partnerships for Advising Students at a Two-Year Technical College
Dec 01, 2004; ... Abstract In an effort to strengthen relationships between higher education and industry, and support student success, an industry partnership program for advising Turfgrass Management students at The Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute was introduced four years ago ....
Using the Internet for Instruction: Experiences, Possibilities, and Considerations1
Dec 01, 2004; ... Abstract The founding of the Internet largely bypassed the Land Grant Universities, as initial development was focused at Defense Department laboratories and a small number of related institutes at elite research universities. Colleges of Agriculture (CoA) embraced the technologies and, ...
Professional Development in Agriculture: Opening Doors through Creative Leadership
Dec 01, 2004; ... Abstract Internships and professional development courses are being utilized in colleges of agriculture to prepare students for the workplace. The author believes that the purpose of a professional development class is to encourage students to move from a state of dependence to a state ...
Training: Promoting Effective Teamwork in the College Classroom
Dec 01, 2004; ... Abstract The purpose of this study was the exploration relationships between student and faculty team training perceptions and student attitudes and behaviors. Faculty and students enrolled in interior design programs were selected to participate in the study and participants responded ...
Outcome Assessment of a Short-Term U.S. Thailand Student Exchange Program
Dec 01, 2004; ... Abstract An international student exchange program was established in 2000 between the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and Kasetsart University, Thailand. The program's objectives were to provide participants a comparative perspective of agricultural, food and natural resource ...
The Determinants of College Student Performance: The Role of Assessment Method
Dec 01, 2004; ... The objective of this research is to explore the potential influence of assessment method on student performance. Specifically, the research reported here used two semesters of data from a Principles of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness course to identify and quantify the determinants of ...
Determining the Qualities Agricultural Employers Want in Future Employees
Dec 01, 2004; ... Many popular publications, including Internet job sites like Monster.com and Jobhog.com, contain articles on what employers are looking for in employees, however these are often written by experts based on their experiences in industries other than agriculture. This study's purpose was to ...
Challenges of Objectively Assessing Thought Processes
Dec 01, 2004; ... Eighty-three high school students (54 treatment, 29 control) from 11 schools participated in a research project testing an Integrated Decision Making Unit from the Integrated Resource Management High School Curriculum Aid. Results illustrate the challenge faced by researchers attempting ...
Influence of Leadership Style, Learning Style, and Leadership Adaptability on Critical Thinking Disposition
Dec 01, 2004; ... The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of leadership style, learning style, and leadership adaptability on critical thinking disposition. The target population for this ex post facto study was 115 students enrolled in a college of agriculture and life sciences leadership ...
Choice of a Service-learning or Non Service-learning Senior Seminar Section Student Characteristics, Fulfillment of Learning Objectives, and Instructor Evaluation: A Case Study
Dec 01, 2004; ... Service-learning (SL) provides dietetics students opportunities to solve complex problems in the context of real-world situations, advance decision-making and communication skills, and link students with outstanding professionals. Students chose a SL or non-SL class taught in the same semester, ...
Teaching Critical Thinking Skills in the Context of Biotechnology
Dec 01, 2004; ... Seeds of Change is an introductory course that develops students' critical thinking skills within the curriculum of biotechnology in agriculture, the environment, foods, and medicine. The objectives of the course is to 1) Become knowledgeable of the basic science and principles of genetic ...
A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Two Educational Techniques: Informational Brochures vs. Cooperative Learning Activities
Dec 01, 2004; ... Environmental education efforts between the general public and outreach professionals work to influence the perceptions and learning experiences of citizens. Two commonly used educational techniques in the natural resources and life sciences are: (1) informational brochures and (2) cooperative ...
Effectiveness of AGB 101 in Changing Students' Attitudes toward the Agribusiness Major and Careers
Dec 01, 2004; ... A pre- and post-test methodology was used to capture whether students' choice of major and/or career interest was influenced by what they learned in AGB 101. The authors administered a pre-test to all four sections of AGB 101, which captured 148 students. This test was administered during the ...
Forests for the Future: Critical Thinking in an Undergraduate Forestry Course
Dec 01, 2004; ... The University of Florida's School of Forest Resources and Conservation offers a critical thinking course taught in the context of forest issues such as global warming, genetically engineered species, clearcutting, and wildfire. Designed for first and second year undergraduate students, Forests ...
Excellence, Expertise, and Scholarship of Teaching in Agricultural, Environmental, Natural and Life Sciences
Dec 01, 2004; ... The ways in which colleges and universities measure and recognize effective teachers is complex and controversial. There is disagreement on how to identify, define, develop, and promote effective teaching within our institutions (Cross, 1977; Menges & Austin, 2001; Sherman, Armistead, ...
The Value of a Legislative Internship: A Case Study
Dec 01, 2004; ... Student internships permeate academic programs across a wide variety of disciplines. For both undergraduate and graduate students, internships with companies and agencies can expand knowledge and understanding and may result in employment after graduation. Students also can intern with ...
Job Seeking Skills: Teaching Students to Think, Reason, and ACT
Dec 01, 2004; ... The mission of the agriculture department at Eastern Kentucky University is to prepare students for careers in the food and fiber industry. This mission is similar to other agriculture departments at institutions across the country. The preparation involves coursework in all of the major ...
Influence of Student Learning Styles on Critical Thinking Skills
Dec 01, 2004; ... The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of student learning styles on critical thinking skills. The target population for this ex post facto study was 135 students enrolled in a college of agriculture and life sciences leadership development course. Results showed that no ...
Meeting Upper-level Agriculture Course Prerequisites: Where Have All The Students Gone?
Dec 01, 2004; ... Agricultural academic units in four-year universities have traditionally sought to maintain institutional quality in degree programs through structured sequences of prerequisite courses. The theory was that students would first be required to demonstrate an acceptable level of knowledge in ...
A Comparison of Learning Styles, Academic Majors and Selected Demographic Characteristics of Agricultural Students at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College
Dec 01, 2004; ... Learning styles and preferences has been of interest to educators for decades. The more we know about the learning styles of those we teach the better able we are to design curriculum and deliver instruction. Dyer and Osborne (1996) supported this assumption when they reported that we should ...
Journal- Based Reflection in Undergraduate Service Learning and the University Therapeutic Riding Center
Dec 01, 2004; ... Principles of Therapeutic Riding, Animal Science 3309, is a service- based learning course that gives undergraduates the opportunity to participate in hippotherapy sessions. This course first offered in 1998, has been held for 12 semesters. A total of 233 students from over 15 majors have been ...
Teaching Thinking Skills
Dec 01, 2004; ... Why should we be concerned about critical thinking skills in our classrooms? Obviously, to educate citizens whose decisions and choices are based on careful, critical thinking. Educators have been bombarded with a series of reports which claim that "Johnny can't think" (Mullins, 1983; Gardner, ...
Throwing Out the Cookbook: Student Planned and Executed Laboratories
Dec 01, 2004; ... While hands-on learning exercises are useful in demonstrating techniques and principles, they may become routine for students in courses with scheduled laboratories. Students know the expected outcomes and so don't evaluate the results with open minds. In an attempt to promote critical thinking ...
Using Writing to Promote Thinking in a First Year Agriculture Course at the University of the West Indies
Dec 01, 2004; ... One learning objective of AG16B Introduction to Agriculture, a first year course in the B. Sc. Agriculture and B.Sc. Agribusiness programs at the University of the West Indies, is that the students will be able to prepare written discussions on topics presented in the course. In 2003/2004, 145 ...
Using an Online Modified Delphi Approach for the Development of Competency Profiles
Dec 01, 2004; ... Dacum processes and similar procedures have long been the staple technique for the development of competency lists or profiles for occupations in many fields. These profiles often become the basis for curriculum, instructional programs and training. All of these approaches require that a group ...
Peer Review of Teaching: How do I Prepare to be a "Peer"
Dec 01, 2004; ... According to Chism (2003), peer review is a critical component of today's university environment. Promotion and tenure expectations place a heavy burden on faculty to document their effectiveness in their classroom teaching. Therefore it is essential that we study the peer review process as part ...
The Role of Absenteeism on Student Grades in Two Horticulture Courses
Dec 01, 2004; ... The correlation between class attendance and grades at secondary and post secondary levels of education in the United States has been debated for many years. Though intuition suggests that poor class attendance leads to poor grades in college, definitive data is scant on this issue due to a ...
Reviving Agricultural Economics
Dec 01, 2004; ... The land grant universities were designed to provide education concerning agriculture and related disciplines. Hence most of these institutions were/are located in predominantly agricultural areas. Agricultural economics programs are relatively successful at many land grant institutions. These ...
Through the Digital Lens ...
Dec 01, 2004; ... Advancements in cameras have changed technology but not photography techniques. As photography is fundamental to agricultural communications, faculty at Oklahoma State University developed a new digital photography course to help students. The course is designed around a one-hour lecture ...
Recruiting Expansion for Agricultural Education
Dec 01, 2004; ... Eighty-three high school agriculture education students participated in a survey. Ninety-five percent were from rural areas. As the number of students from rural communities continues to decline and the number of urban students increases, it is important that agriculture education make a ...
Success Strategies for Agriculture: What Should a Course with this Title Contain?
Dec 01, 2004; ... As a junior-level core course, "Success Strategies for Agriculture" objectives include developing skills in problem-solving, communication, interpersonal relations, resume preparation, and interviewing. Over time, the course has been taught by many different faculty members using different ...
Agricultural Knowledge Assessment: Does FFA Membership Make a Difference?
Dec 01, 2004; ... The National FFA has spent millions of dollars in recent years to maintain and develop existing programs, and this has resulted in membership once again nearing the half million mark (National FFA Organization, 2003). An integral part of a comprehensive agricultural education program, the FFA ...
A Critical Thinking Instructional Model for Food Biotechnology
Dec 01, 2004; ... The area of food biotechnology offers one of the most important domains of knowledge where the teaching of critical thinking skills has a potential for enhancing education for students in the food and agricultural sciences. It can be argued that no greater need and importance of critical ...
Principles of Therapeutic Riding as a Service-based Learning Course Within an Agricultural Curriculum
Dec 01, 2004; ... Increasing evidence in higher education has pointed to the benefits of service-based learning on the total undergraduate experience. At Texas Tech University, undergraduate students can take an elective course in which they participate in hippotherapy sessions with disabled children while in a ...
Teaching Food Economics and Menu Planning to Dietetics Students
Dec 01, 2004; ... Understanding the relation of food economics to diet and ultimately, health, is mandated in didactic programs of dietetics. This topic is especially important for low income clients. Working with low socioeconomic status (SES) audiences is especially challenging for primarily middle-class ...
The Learner-Centered Classroom: An Overview and Implications for College Teachers of Agriculture, Environmental, Natural and Life Sciences
Dec 01, 2004; ... Whether we teach courses in agricultural economics, animal science, entomology, fisheries and wildlife, forestry, or horticulture, one of our goals as instructors should be to provide students with opportunities to become active, critical thinkers who move beyond a view of learning as ...
A Feedback Mechanism for Guiding Novice Graduate Teaching Assistants in Preparation for and Presentation of Effective Instruction
Dec 01, 2004; ... People new to the teaching profession are often bewildered about how to plan an effective lesson, and then how to deliver the lesson effectively. Too often, there is little help with gaining the perspectives needed for success. The authors have developed and tested an instrument for evaluation ...
Using Computers at a Higher Level to Teach at a Higher Level: Effective Instruction with Laptops and at a Distance
Dec 01, 2004; ... The Department of Genetics, Biochemistry, and Life Science Studies is using a variety of computer technologies to incorporate process and critical thinking skills into our curricula and in delivery of Web-based courses at a distance. The first part of this workshop will include a demonstration ...
Critical and Creative Thinking Course Activities
Dec 01, 2004; ... Helping students improve their critical and creative thinking skills and abilities is one of the most fundamental and underlying goals of higher education. The importance of emphasizing critical and creative thinking in course work has been well documented in the literature based on numerous ...
Teaching Tips/Notes
Dec 01, 2004; ... Enhancing Presentations with Images With today's technology, it is easy to import images to help your teaching presentations be as informative and interesting as possible. You can run key words and select the "Image" option in Google to access an unbelievable number of high-quality ...
Biorenewable Resources, Engineering New Products from Agriculture
Dec 01, 2004; ... Biorenewable Resources, Engineering New Products from Agriculture By Robert C. Brown, Iowa State Press, 2003, 286 pages, hardback $74.99 Biorenewable resources represent a major growth area for agriculture. In addition to the economic benefits of using renewable resources instead of ...
Growing Home: a Guide to Reconnecting Agriculture, Food and Communities
Dec 01, 2004; ... Growing Home: a Guide to Reconnecting Agriculture, Food and Communities By Joanna Green and Duncan Hilchey, Community, Food and Agriculture Program, Department of Rural Sociology, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. cloth bound, $25.00 Study of horticulture, agronomy, and economics in our ...
Pig Production: Biological Principles and Applications
Dec 01, 2004; ... Pig Production: Biological Principles and Applications By John McGlone and Wilson Pond, Thomson Learning, Inc., 2003, 395 pages, hardbound, $91.95 Pig Production: Biological Principles and Applications, by McGlone and Pond, is an excellent textbook offering an interesting overview of pig ...
Soils in Our Environment
Dec 01, 2004; ... Soils in Our Environment By Duane T. Gardiner and Raymond W. Miller, Prentice-Hall, 2004, 641 pages, clothbound, $108.00 Duane Gardiner and Raymond Miller (posthumously) provide an exceptional textbook for undergraduate soil science courses in their 10th edition of Soils in Our ...
Marketing Grain and Livestock, Second Edition
Dec 01, 2004; ... Marketing Grain and Livestock, Second Edition By Gary F. Stasko, Iowa State Press, 2003, 273 pages, hardback $59.99 This textbook was designed for first- and second-year college students and adults who have little or no experience in marketing. The intended audience is well targeted with ...
What Agriculture Students Say Motivates Them to Learn
Dec 01, 2004; ... Abstract A major shift in higher education is underway from a focus on teaching to a focus on learning. Thus, understanding what motivates students to learn may provide teachers insights into elements of the learning process over which the teacher may have some control. Students in the ...
How an Online Course Compares to Its Classroom Counterpart: A Preliminary Investigation
Dec 01, 2004; ... Abstract Student satisfaction with, and performance in, an online agri-sales course is compared with that of students enrolled in a simultaneously-taught classroom course. Online and classroom students were equally satisfied with the course and the instructor using most measures, but had ...
Written Communication Competencies: Strengths and Weaknesses of Agricultural Education Graduate Students
Dec 01, 2004; ... Abstract The purpose of this study was to assess and describe the written communication competency strengths and weaknesses of selected agricultural education graduate students. Content analysis techniques were used to analyze writing samples from 44 graduate students enrolled in two ...
Developing an Interactive Multimedia Computer Program for Learning Agronomic Principles
Dec 01, 2004; ... Abstract A Computer Interactive Multimedia Program for Learning Enhancement (CIMPLE) was developed to enhance student learning in an introductory agronomy course (Agron 114) at Iowa State University. The program was designed to improve learning tools for off-campus students in the ...
Learning from the Wisdom of Practice: Engaging Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources Faculty to Become Reflective Practitioners
Dec 01, 2004; ... The process of teaching and learning is complex, bound by context (Kreber, 2002), and often defined by ill-structured problems (Jonassen, 2000) of practice. Bass (2002), in regard to the differences between teaching and scholarship denotes that, "One telling measure between of how ...
Summary Lecture versus Web-based Method for Instruction of Site Planning for Protected Environment Structures1
Dec 01, 2004; ... Abstract This study compared student learning outcomes from two teaching methodologies about site planning for protected environment structures (PES): a traditional summary lecture presentation and an asynchronous web-based method that included a case study ...
Does Focusing on Individual Students Perceptual Learning Needs Enable Students to Achieve More Successfully?
Dec 01, 2004; ... Ideally when going into a research study, one theorizes on an eventual outcome and then data is presented that supports or diffuses that theory. Upon occasion, trends surface that bring up questions in other areas that weren't being considered in the initial study. In Dr. Andrew J. Baker's fall ...
Promoting Interactive Learning with an Electronic Student Response System
Dec 01, 2004; ... University instructors have long struggled to incorporate problem solving exercises and meaningful question/answer sessions into the traditional lecture format, particularly in large-enrollment courses. One promising alternative for creating a more interactive, student-centered classroom is ...
Exploring the Reliability of Using the Learning Environment Preference Inventory as a Valid Measure of Perry's Scheme of Intellectual Development of College Students
Dec 01, 2004; ... This study explored students' cognitive complexity as defined by William Perry (1970). Two components of this research were; (a) application of Perry's Scheme of Intellectual Development to encourage cognitive growth, and (b) investigate reliability of the Learning Environment Preference ...
Critical Thinking as a Function of Experiential Learning in Oral Communication
Dec 01, 2004; ... Undergraduate education should develop critical thinking skills in order to solve problems and succeed in careers. Rudd, Baker, and Hoover (2000) described critical thinking as "a reasoned, purposive, and introspective approach to solving problems or addressing questions with incomplete evidence ...
Service Learning and National Youth Service Day
Dec 01, 2004; ... Service learning is a teaching tool that enables students to perform a community service, while practicing the theories learning in the classroom. The goal of service learning is to benefit both the student and the community. Youth Service America awarded 100 service-learning project grants ...
A Virtual GIS Computer Lab for On-Campus and Distance Education Students
Dec 01, 2004; ... Courses in geographic information systems (GIS) are now firmly established within the mainstream curricula of university programs world-wide. Recent changes in information technology have challenged instructors not only in terms of what they teach, but more importantly in terms of how they teach ...
Assessment of Student Learning by Use of Pre and Post-Testing
Dec 01, 2004; ... The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the usefulness of pre and post-testing as an assessment tool in the classroom setting. Traditional testing tools are typically designed to measure what a student knows regarding a given subject area at a given point in the course. A student ...
Using Experiential Learning to Enhance Knowledge about Sustainable Whole Farm Systems
Dec 01, 2004; ... During the summer of 2003 six students participated in an Agroecology On-farm Internship, sponsored by an USDA Higher Education Challenge Grant. This grant provided students the opportunity to participate in a paid ten week internship with producers who utilize sustainable practices in their ...
Learning Objects for Environmental Sciences
Dec 01, 2004; ... Learning objects are small instructional components that can be reused many times in different learning contexts. They are self-contained each learning object can be taken independently; they are reusable a single learning object may be used in multiple contexts for multiple purposes; they can ...
Using Marketing Concepts to Enhance Student Enrollment in Colleges of Agriculture
Dec 01, 2004; ... Static or declining enrollments have become issues for many Colleges of Agriculture (COA), especially those competing for enrollment-based university resources. Curriculum changes, in the absence of a strategic marketing approach, have not reversed this trend. Enrollment enhancement efforts by ...
Using Field Experiences to Enhance Student Learning
Dec 01, 2004; ... The Agricultural Systems Technology and Education (ASTE) department uses experiential approaches to improve students' thinking and reasoning skills and validate coursework for students. The department hosts three bachelor of science degree programs, Agricultural Systems Technology (AST), ...
Trade-offs in Agriculture and Natural Resources: An Issues Course Designed for Non-Majors
Dec 01, 2004; ... Nearly every issue related to agriculture and the environment has two or more sides, often with both vocal proponents and opponents (e.g., genetically modified crops, forestry practices). In 1995, we developed a required course for Environmental Studies students in the College of Arts and ...
Virtual Plant Identification and Landscape Design
Dec 01, 2004; ... The onset of distance education has significantly broadened student enrollment while unifying lecture content, and minimizing duplication of faculty resources. However, the challenge of delivering hands-on laboratory portions of courses still remains. In an effort to illustrate landscape design ...
Enhancing the Crop Science Laboratory Experience
Dec 01, 2004; ... Laboratories for introductory Crop Science courses regularly include exercises related to seed and plant structures; crop growth and development, including growth stages and environmental factors; agronomic calculations; and identification of crops and weeds. Following several years of ...