The 2011 ASHS Annual Conference

TPSS 300 Tropical Production Systems is a horticulture course with two 75-minute lectures and one 3-hour lab per week.  Prior to 2008, past undergraduates who had taken this course often spoke of discordance in topics and overuse of guest lecturers.  In the Spring 2008, a new instructor was appointed to teach this course.  As a result of consulting with previous instructors who taught this course and the graduate teaching assistant, TPSS 300 underwent major revisions in topics, content, and pedagogy.  It included a wider range of topics such as systems analysis, environmental monitoring, cropping systems, sustainable agriculture, hydroponics, green roofing, urban agriculture, mechanization, and virtual field trips.  These topics provided undergraduates with much needed, broader-scoped exposure to aspects of various agricultural systems.  The course also involved more interaction with the instructor and between students through small group and class discussions, allowing for active learning in a relaxed atmosphere.  The teaching assistant’s role in the class was also more involved by giving lectures and running class discussions.  Over the years the instructor and the teaching assistants have modified the course by maintaining and including topics that students from previous years found beneficial, based on course evaluations.  Topics that have been maintained include systems analysis, environmental monitoring, sustainable agriculture, and virtual field trips.  Graduate students were a novel addition to the lecture schedule of this course.  Graduates gave invited talks on either their own research or their experiences working in production systems at local, national and international locations.  This allowed undergraduates to compare between different production systems, while simultaneously allowing graduate students to share their firsthand experiences.  Certain graduate students also gave tours of labs they worked in and provided hands-on activities for the undergraduates of this course.  This year, TPSS 300 included lecture topics on mathematics for the horticultural industry, crop growth analysis, modeling and simulation, soilless growing media, computer applications in horticulture, and future technology.  Laboratories were also revamped to include visits to cutting-edge labs to expose students to molecular advances in agriculture and environmental resource management.  Overall, TPSS 300 Tropical Production Systems has evolved to explore new topics to raise awareness of production systems both inside and outside of the field of horticulture.