Agriscience Curriculum In Ohio Agricultural Education: Teacher Utilization, Attitudes, And Knowldege

Abstract

Enrollment in agricultural education in the United States has dropped steadily over the past 10 years, at a rate of 1% to 3% annually (National Research Council, 1988). In addition, the number of students from traditional farm backgrounds as a percentage of total agricultural education enrollment has dropped. Consequently, the need for the traditional production agriculture curriculum in agricultural education programs has been questioned recently. Advances in the field of biotechnology in agriculture, as well as the increasingly technical nature of agricultural careers have led many leaders in agricultural education to propose an emphasis on agriscience in high school agriculture programs. In 1988, the National Research Council’s Committee on Agricultural Education stated that major curricular revisions were needed within secondary agricultural education programs. One of the main conclusions of the Committee was that the agricultural education curriculum in high schools has failed to keep up with modem agriculture. The Committee recommended major changes in course content of the agricultural education curriculum. The Committee stated that the agricultural education curriculum be updated and revised to contain more scientific content, with an emphasis on relating that content to the increasingly scientific and technical nature of the field of agriculture. From a review of the Committee’s findings and recommendations, the following definition of the term agriscience was developed: Agriscience is the notion of identifying and using concepts of biological, chemical, and physical science in the teaching of agriculture, and using agricultural examples to relate these concepts to the student (National Research Council, 1988).