Virtual Field Trips In a Tropical Production Systems Course

Field trips play an important role in a horticultural course. Visits to farms and nurseries add much to a course by giving students firsthand experience. However, a problem with field trips is the students visiting the same farms/nurseries in several different courses. In addition, there is the cost and availability of transportation by van and private cars on the island of Oahu or airfares and rental cars on the neighbor islands. The objective of this study was to determine the feasibility of using virtual field trips to supplement actual field trips in an undergraduate tropical production systems course. Students were surveyed to find out who has had work experience on a farm/nursery. This included students whose family had a farm/nursery or who were owners of a farm/nursery. Students were to take photographs of the farm/nursery and gather information about its operation. The goal was to give a presentation to the rest of the class as if they had actually visited the farm/nursery. Students gave excellent PowerPoint presentations about the farms and nurseries they had work experience with or had visited. These included several students who went on a field trip to a hydroponic vegetable farm on Oahu for a vegetable production course. A student visited a hydroponic vegetable farm on the island of Maui during spring break for his presentation. Questions from the class indicated much student interest in these horticultural enterprises. Of particular value was the presentation by a student who owned a mondo grass farm, giving an owner's perspective. Another insightful presentation was by a student who worked on a family farm on the U.S. mainland which emphasized crop diversity. The virtual field trips presented by the students offered the class much needed exposure to farms and nurseries that the class did not have a chance to visit. These included places on the U.S. mainland, the neighbor islands of Maui and Hawaii, and farms/nurseries not ordinarily visited in other departmental courses. Virtual field trips offer a viable alternative to actual field trips.