Artifacts
Reflections on Artifacts
Before beginning my coursework, I was hired by Penn State's Food Services to initiate the Farm to College Program at Penn State. Because of my background in vegetable production and marketing, and my familiarity with growers in the region, I jumped right in!
I believe case studies are an excellent method of teaching. When designed and written well, they engage students in real life situations in a way few other methods can. Case studies enable critical thinking and build communication skills. The most challenging part of writing the case study was designing follow up questions that would give students enough information to get them thinking, but not so much that would inhibit creativity.
Designing this syllabus was a prelude to the curriculum I will be designing for part of my thesis. Laying out the course class by class forces you to be organized and think about presenting information in a logical manner. It was also challenging to integrate different types of lessons (field trips etc.) into the course so they fit in well with lecture material. Most difficult was deciding what NOT to include when there is so much material to cover.
In this assignment, we selected a topic to teach in one class period. I chose "Effective Class Discussions" because I think being able to lead discussions well one of the most powerful tools a teacher cam possess. Coming up with a creative way to discuss discussions proved difficult, as did narrowing down the material I wanted to discuss into my 50 minute slot.
As the teaching assistant for Horticulture 433, Vegetable Crop Production, I was responsible for the lab portion of the class. The class is in the Spring semester (January-April) which presents a challenge in the Pennsylvania climate- it's still winter and nothing is growing. This experiment is one of the labs I designed for the class.