Course Description
Students design and execute projects with the help of a faculty member with expertise in the student's area of interest.
Athena Title
RES ORG AG
Non-Traditional Format
This course is the capstone experience to the Certificate Program in Organic Agriculture. Projects are performed at an organic teaching farm off campus. The workload formula is fifteen hours of contact time per credit hour, with an additional two hours/week per credit hour of time devoted to the project. Thus, a one-credit offering of the course would involve a total of 45 hours of work throughout the semester, including meetings, project execution, analysis of results, and report preparation.
Prerequisite
Permission of department
Semester Course Offered
Offered fall, spring and summer
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
Students will: 1) Design and execute a supervised research project on some aspect of organic agriculture 2) Work closely with a faculty mentor, farm manager, and perhaps other students 3) Analyze the collected data and write a paper summarizing the results and concluions of the project.
Topical Outline
1) Student submits a proposal to the Program Coordinator the semester prior to enrollment, identifying a research area and number of credits desired. 2) Student is paired with a faculty mentor with expertise in the research area; a project is designed jointly. 3) Student meets with the farm manager who allocates space and resources for the project. 4) Student completes the project as designed. 5) Student submits a report on the project in the form of a scientific article.