2018 ASHS Annual Conference

HORTTEC 2189 Greenhouse Management Practicum, FAES 3797 Ghana Education Abroad, and COMLDR 2530 Introduction to Agricultural Communication, Education, and Leadership (ACEL), are three courses within different majors at the Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute with a common approach to teaching: Project Based Learning (PBL). This interdisciplinary approach brought students and professors together to research, develop, and test a low-cost hydroponic system to be utilized by subsistence farmers in Ghana, West Africa. Following the project we evaluated our challenges and successes in researching, developing, and implementing a PBL project to suit the curricular needs of three different disciplines. During fall 2016 and spring 2017, our student researchers in HORTTEC 2189 and COMLDR 2530 developed a hydroponic system capable of functioning off an electrical grid, using all locally available materials. An additional undergraduate research PBL was conducted to investigate the feasibility of growing leafy vegetables similar to African cultivars and to determine changes in nutrient and water uptake overtime. In summer 2017, FAES 3797 enrollees traveled to Ghana to help farmers to implement the tested technology to grow leafy vegetables for personal use and for sale. As a result of the project, students from all majors were exposed to issues in global food security and resource scarcity. Students in HORTTEC 2189, who had previous exposure to hydroponics, found new crops that can be introduced to diversify US hydroponic crop production systems and identified challenges in running low-tech hydroponic systems. Students COMLDR 2530 got the exposure to greenhouse crop production and hydroponic techniques that will be useful for them as agricultural classroom and extension educators. This project provided a strong foundation to students in FAES 3797, before dissemination of knowledge in Ghana by providing a hands-on experience from seeding to harvest. Students also identified common crop production issues during technology transfer across continents. In conclusion, a single PBL provided variable learning outcomes based on the discipline and introduced a real-world experience to the class room.