Abstract:
In an age when many college agriculture students come from non-farm backgrounds, knowledge of and experience in farming operations is still required or desired for many careers in the agricultural industry. In response to this dilemma, the Department of Agriculture at Illinois State University has designed and implemented a contest that provides students an opportunity to gain hands-on experience with crop production and marketing. The contest was based upon pedagogical research that supports the theory that student comprehension is increased through critical thinking exercises and application of course concepts to real-world situations. The contest was designed to enhance learning by requiring students to develop and implement crop production and marketing strategies on a two-hectare plot of University farmland, which encouraged critical evaluation of classroom instruction. The objective of this study was to determine if participation in the contest enhances student knowledge of crop production and marketing. Four teams that represented student organizations designed and implemented their own crop production and marketing strategies with the goal of obtaining the highest return to management from a Zea mays-Glycine max(corn-soybean) rotation. The impact of the contest was qualitatively evaluated by having the students reflect upon what they had learned. This reflection occurred during focus group discussions and sessions in which students wrote responses to openended questions. Students indicated that participation in the contest had positively impacted their knowledge of agricultural practices, increased their selfconfidence when interacting with farmers and agribusiness personnel, and improved their leadership skills.
Keywords:
hands-on, crop production, marketing, contest
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