An Undergraduate Laboratory Project for Greenhouse Management and Related Courses in Plant Sciences

Abstract

The Dept. of Horticulture at Virginia Tech, as do many others at other land-grant institutions, offers a course entitled Greenhouse Management (GM). It has a four-semestercredit lecture/laboratory format dealing primarily with greenhouse management principles. Until recently, horticulture majors were required to take GM as sophomores; a few juniors and seniors enrolled, as did an occasional nonhorticulture major. Lecture material was originally structured to illustrate successful plant growth criteria in controlled conditions, in addition to discussing growth manipulation methods. It was necessary to design a laboratory whereby each student observed the immediate and longterm effects of greenhouse environment manipulation. Since emphasis was on individual student involvement, field trips were not arranged because less-motivated students generally fall into the background and become passive. Second, Blacksburg is located far from the centers of greenhouse commodity production and would require travel exceeding the usual laboratory time available. Therefore, the laboratory project described herein was developed in response to these situations and has been used and revised for more than 6 years. The course is team-taught, with one instructor teaching the laboratory, which comprises 25% of the student’s final grade, and another full-time faculty member handling lectures. Laboratory and lecture are taken concurrently. Each student works independently and is required to purchase only two materials., to complete the term-long project–a clear plastic metric ruler and a computer diskette.