It is my first semester with a full teaching load and I’m astounded at how quickly the weeks have passed. After what has felt like some of the longest days and shortest weeks, we have entered week six! I am a big fan of reflective writing and, perhaps irritatingly for my students, try to incorporate […]
Written by guest contributor, Joe Ku. Ever since I was little, the fact that just a handful of seeds could feed a village fascinated me. Gardening (especially with fruits and vegetables) has been a primary interest and passion of mine from middle school and throughout high school. I had my own 800-square-foot garden for about […]
In October, our undergraduate recruiter and academic advisor, Erika Olivares, invited me to help her with activities for the IlliniFest, a campus-wide open house for high school students. I began brainstorming how I might describe our degree concentration in “Horticultural Food Systems” to prospective students and, being a somewhat visual person, drafted the figure above […]
On a beautiful Fall morning this past September, the Department of Crop Sciences hosted it’s second annual Harvest Open House. A family-oriented event geared towards the public, dozens of community members came out to the Agronomy Seed House on the UIUC campus to engage with faculty, staff, and students, participating in a host of […]
This past August I traveled to California for a workshop on scientific teaching at University of California, San Diego as part of my training for a project with the Biology Education Intersegmental Collaborative. One thing abundantly clear after this workshop, and often mentioned in teaching circles, is the importance of “active learning”. Active learning is […]
In my first semester as Lecturer of Horticulture, I am grateful to have been appointed as co-advisor to the undergraduate Horticulture Club alongside Dr. Andrea Faber Taylor (a staple of our teaching faculty I might add). As an undergraduate at the University of Arkansas – Fayetteville, I was heavily involved in the Horticulture Club and […]