Evolution of a Tropical Production Systems Course

For the spring semester 2011, we revised TPSS 300 Tropical Production Systems, updating its topics, content, and teaching methods to meet the changing needs of the students. Discussions with the current and previous graduate teaching assistants for this course aided in the revision of the course topics. We included plasticulture, soilless growing media, container gardening, computer applications in horticulture, and roof gardens. As guest speakers in the course, graduate students spoke on field agriculture, crop breeding, and native plant roadside re-vegetation. A graduate student intern from Germany talked about organic farming in Germany, and a TPSS undergraduate spoke about his aquaponics enterprise. Speakers used PowerPoint presentations, tours of laboratories and greenhouses, on campus tours, and laboratory exercises. Various teaching techniques were used in the course including lectures, small group discussions, class discussions, in-class activities, take-home assignments, guest speakers, field trips, virtual field trips, podcasts, and laboratories. We increased the rigor of this course by incorporating more mathematics and quantitative reasoning, crop growth and development, growth analysis, and crop modeling and simulation. Additional mathematics required for the course included basic calculus. We incorporated tours of the leading innovative research laboratories in our College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources. Principal investigators, their graduate students, and other members of their research group spoke to the students about molecular, cellular biochemical, and genetic approaches; plant biotechnology; gene regulation; plant-microbe interaction; remote sensing and GIS; marine peptide biochemistry; and postharvest physiology. The class visited the first of its kind green roof system on the C-MORE Hale building on campus. The course provided more diverse learning experiences and hands-on activities. The integration of graduate and undergraduate guest speakers into the course worked well, with beneficial results for the speakers and the students. Students commented that TPSS 300 was a valuable learning experience.