A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Eight Types of Learning Activities When Teaching “Organic Farming Systems” to Horticulture and Non-horticulture Majors

The Organic Farming Systems class has been offered at Kansas State University since 2006 and class size has grown from eight students to 22 in 2012, with half of those coming from other departments than Horticulture.  A variety of teaching methods have been used in the class, with a strong emphasis on assigned readings, lectures/discussion, and homework assignments.  These have been supplemented with occasional field trips to farms and guest speakers.  In 2012, in addition to these five methods, we expanded the breadth of teaching methods to include three additional activities; student farm hands-on field work, research projects in the greenhouse, and art/self-expression.  To assess the effectiveness of these eight teaching methods, an in-class survey was administered the last week of class.  Students were asked to rate each activity on a 1 to 5 scale for whether the activity helped them to learn more about agriculture, helped them learn specifically about organic agriculture, and whether the activity was enjoyable.  There were at least two activities in each teaching method category, and the eight categories were compared in addition to activities within a category.  For the question, “did this activity help you learn about organic farming systems?” the students rated guest speakers, field trips, and homework assignments (filling out organic certification application forms) the highest, with all scoring 4 or higher on a 5 points scale.  The reading assignments, working at the student farm, and in-class discussion all scored between 3.7 and 3.8.  The greenhouse research project and art/self-expression activities ranked 3.5 and 2.5 respectively.  When asked if these activities were enjoyable, field trips ranked the highest (4.6), followed by working at the student farm and guest speakers (3.9).  Reading assignments were ranked as least enjoyable (2.8).  The art/self-expression assignments received mixed ratings, with some students giving it the highest score possible and others the lowest (overall rating of 3.4).  Within a teaching method category activities received similar rankings with the exception of the greenhouse experiment.  Students enjoyed designing and conducting the experiment but not writing up the final report; all three activities were rated highly for learning value.  Horticulture students ranked guest speakers and farm tours higher for learning value than non-horticulture students.  This was initially a surprising result, but having previous knowledge of the topic apparently added to the value of the experience for the horticulture students.