Hands-on Horticulture: A Magnet Course for the Horticulture Minor

Hand-On Horticulture was conceived as a course to entice students from across the university into sampling the wonderful world of plants and, subsequently, take additional horticulture and plant science courses. The course is offered once a week in a four-hour block during the spring semester. Each week students are introduced to a new horticultural topic such as floral design, plant propagation, bulbs, natural dyes, pruning, art, season extension techniques, pest management, garden design, grass, and water gardening. Students are provided with an overview and introduction of the topic, then learn to perform the task or skill related to the topic. Guests are occasionally used who have expertise on a specific topic and can guide the students through their task. Incorporated into each class is a culinary experience where students are invited to consume a food product related to the topic at hand, with the goal of providing a food that they have never consumed before. The course culminates with a Saturday field trip to visit horticulture professor’s gardens. Learning is assessed through weekly quizzes, reflection papers, a photo project, and a final project. Hands-On Horticulture is very popular with students, and even though it is offered on Friday afternoons, the course fills to capacity quickly. Limits had to be placed so that seniors and plant science majors cannot pre-enroll. This course not only has motivated students to take additional horticulture courses or minor in horticulture, but it has provided a strong pool of summer interns and student researchers for horticulture faculty. Although the course expense per student is higher than average, the campus-wide exposure that this course receives makes it worth the investment.