Cultivating Curriculum

It was a frigid opening day of the spring semester, but it wasn’t noticeable from inside the Illinois Plant Care Facilities, where students from our Introduction to Horticulture Lab gathered for the first time. We are grateful to offer our Introduction to Horticulture class online, where it is accessible to 100+ students from on- and off-campus every semester. However, as an inherently hands-on discipline, we recognize the limitations of an online class and are excited to be offering a complimentary in-person lab again. Workshopped for the first time last spring, Horticulture Teaching Faculty, Dr. Andrea Faber Taylor, Dr. Jennifer Nelson, and myself have joined forces to co-teach this multi-section, hands-on lab that dozens have voluntarily enrolled in this spring. This is just one of the many improvements to the horticulture curriculum in recent semesters, with more growth to come.

Just before the start of the Spring semester, faculty in the Department of Crop Sciences gathered for a day-long “Teaching Retreat”. Here, faculty cohorts in various disciplines presented their evaluation of current curriculum and opportunities for improvement. Our horticulture “working group” (made up of Dr. Faber Taylor, Dr. Nelson, and myself), engaged in productive conversations with the growing number of Horticulture faculty within the department. We discussed industry and academic needs (with help from recent Seed Your Future reports), subject needs, and how to continue developing leaders across horticulture industry and academia. It was an energetic day filled with big dreams, tethered to realistic goals, on how we can best serve our students and stakeholders. We continue to cultivate horticultural education at Illinois and look forward to more opportunity on the horizon. 

Keep Growing,

Jack McCoy, Ph. D.

Lecturer of Horticulture

Department of Crop Sciences

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