Introducing the Flipped Classroom in Several Horticulture Courses

In the "traditional" classroom, the instructor lectures and students do homework outside of class.  To reduce the amount of lecturing and promote more student engagement in class, the flipped classroom technique was introduced in several horticulture courses. In a flipped classroom, lectures are assigned for homework, and students do in the class what used to be done outside the classroom. The objective of this presentation is to discuss some of the ways the flipped classroom approach was introduced into Tropical Plant & Soil Sciences (TPSS) Department courses. The TPSS courses were TPSS 674 Plant Growth Development, TPSS 300 Tropical Production Systems, and TPSS 654 Communications in the Sciences. Various lectures were replaced by YouTube videos, websites, and HortTalks presentations. Students viewed these on their own outside of class. They reviewed the Virtual Plants online computer simulation, Flower Power wheat flowering model, Prune Chilling Prediction Model, chilling accumulation models, and a growing degree-days phenology model.  They viewed videos on soybean yield potential, soybean maximum yield, hydroponics, computer modeling and simulation, and scientific conferences. Class time was used for activities in which students engaged in small group discussions, class discussions, and hands-on activities. They brought their laptops, e-tablets, and smartphones to class to do Internet searches for relevant information for class and small group discussions. For example, when analyzing graphs and tables from scientific articles, they sometimes searched for the original article to get additional information. In class, students ran online computer simulations such as the Virtual Plants computer simulation, Flower Power model, Prune Chilling Prediction Model, and chilling accumulation models. For homework, students searched for an online crop model or simulation and brought its URL to class to share with the other students.  Each student ran their model and discussed it while the class followed along on their own laptops. Introducing the flipped classroom approach helped create a collaborative learning environment in the classroom in which students were actively engaged in the learning material.