Teaching Undergraduate Soil Management to Diverse Majors: Linking Lectures with Field Practicals

Abstract

Core Ideas Undergraduate students favored field activities related to soil management to enhance their learning. Most students indicated that field tests connected lecture with reality. Field activities can improve learning of soil management, particularly for non‐soils major students. Pairing lectures with field activities can be an effective strategy to teach large (>75) undergraduate soil courses with a wide variety of majors. Enhancing student learning of soil management demands effective teaching strategies. Devoting some lecture periods to field activities could provide a hands‐on learning experience, but studies on this approach—particularly in lecture‐only, diverse‐major, and large undergraduate courses—are not available. We assessed this approach for 3 years in a soil management course for a total of 211 undergraduate students with diverse but related majors. About 23 to 37% of the students were non‐soils or non‐agronomy majors each year. We included two field sessions in fall semester of each year to illustrate how management affects soil processes and properties. Student surveys (21 questions), using ratings on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree), showed that students favored field practicals (>4). Students perceived that the written report regarding the field activities further aided their learning (mean of 3.25 across 3 years). Field tests connected lectures with real‐world application, especially for non‐soils/agronomy majors. Some challenges with lecture–field activity teaching approach for large classes (>75 students) include providing opportunities for each student to conduct field measurements, limited time during field tests, and compromising lecture material coverage with in‐depth learning material, among others. Overall, connecting lectures with field activities can improve student perception of increased learning of soil management, particularly for non‐soils major students.