Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the agricultural knowledge of college freshmen based on
the spatial density of population in which they were raised. Each college freshman who responded
indicated his/her location of their home as urban, suburban, or rural. Respondents then completed a
multiple choice exam to test their knowledge of agriculture in five thematic areas. Overall, suburban
students earned the highest scores ( = 52.4%) followed by rural students ( = 50.1%) and urban
students ( = 46.8%). A statistically significant difference ( = 0.007) existed between the suburban
and urban students. Suburban students also scored the highest in each of the five thematic areas of the
agricultural literacy examination. Statistically significant differences were found between the
suburban and urban students in Theme 1 (Understanding Agriculture) ( = 0.002) and Theme 2 (History, Geography, and Culture) ( =0.012).
Keywords:
spatial effects, population density, agricultural knowledge, freshmen
 Colbath_December 2010 NACTA Journal-4.pdf | [ ] | 135 kB |
