Course Capstone Project
This end-of-semester project will provide you with an opportunity to explore a topic of your choosing in detail. It might be how to grow a specific crop, train and prune grapevines, design and operate a drip irrigation system, incorporate cover crops into an annual garden rotation plan, etc.
Meanwhile, learning science research suggests that multiple opportunities to put information together in different ways - similar to repetition in the arts and competitive sports - reinforces the understanding of concepts and ultimately supports deep learning.
Therefore, components of this project will include a ten-minute "how-to" presentation open to the campus community during the last class meeting of the semester on Friday, December 8th, a brief (roughly five minute) instructional video that provides information in support of your presentation, and a manuscript that will be submitted to "Fine Gardening" magazine.
Goals of this relatively "deep dive" into a course-related topic include aiding in your understanding of course content, providing you with an opportunity to practice a variety of public presentation techniques and creation of learning artifacts suitable for demonstrating a range of critical thinking and presentation skills to potential employers.
To help you pull together your plans for this project, I've pulled together the following resources:
Project Evaluation Rubric
If you've been wondering how I plan to grade your project effort, you can now download the project evaluation rubric by clicking here.
"Fine Gardening" Magazine at the Moon Library Reference Desk
In addition to the magazine's website, I showed these "hard copies" to you several weeks ago in class and placed them on reserve in the library later that same afternoon. No doubt, you've already spent some time reviewing both to get a sense of the magazine's "voice," its use of graphics, etc., right? (Actually, I do think that when you do look through the magazine and website, you'll be surprised by how brief many of the articles are - people would typically much rather look at a bunch of pretty pictures, drawings, etc., than read a bunch of words!)
Plant Propagation Master Gardener Training and LSA 433 Student Videos
I uploaded the Plant Propagation videos for your access a couple of weeks ago and most of you indicated that you had been able to access them. I have also uploaded a number of LSA 433 (Planting Design) student videos for inspiration, too (note that a number of them are sort of "tongue-in-cheek" swipes at my candid comments - which is fine with me if it helps reinforce a learning opportunity).
Fall 2016 "Grow What You Eat" Course Capstone Presentations
The final project in last year's inaugural offering of "Grow What You Eat" focused on the creation of "best practices" guides that would be helpful in the future development, management and function of the GCI garden. Below you will find links to the presentations on best management practices students in the class chose to present to the GCI membership during the last "lecture" gathering of the semester. (The final Friday class meeting of the Fall 2016 semester was a "potluck" brunch to which each student brought a dish to pass)
Cover Crops (Prezi link)
Weed Management (link)
Grape Production (link)
Managing Garden Diseases (Sway link)
Lawrinson Container Garden (Prezi link)
Growing Season Extension (Prezi link)
Workshop Presentation Thoughts
The goal of the public presentation is not to inflict painful levels of anxiety, but rather to provide you with a structured opportunity (among friends) to hone your public presentation skills. (If it's any comfort - and though you may find it hard to believe - by the end of the semester it's likely you will be more "expert" on your topic than anyone else here at ESF!)
While your presentation will address the same content as your "Fine Gardening" article, consider “wrapping” it up in a compelling story. While your presentation needs to be factual, helpful, clear, concise and compelling, it doesn’t need to be boring!
To that end, while a Powerpoint presentation is fine, I encourage you to think of this presentation as a “safe” place to try out other presentation technologies such as the Mix add-in for Powerpoint, Sway, Prezi, etc. Or, maybe even consider incorporating video components into your presentation using Techsmith’s Jing, Camtasia, or Snagit, Apple's IMovie, etc.
(Tentative) Project Timeline
As you've learned, I am completely aware that strict timelines can be difficult to keep as due dates accumulate over the course of a semester. Therefore, while I want to keep to the dates below, I can be swayed if absolutely necessary (do keep in mind, however, that dates that may be more convenient for you, might not be more convenient for your classmates).
Friday, October 20th
Project topic is due. (This should not be a difficult due date to meet.)
Friday, November 17th Monday, November 20th
Rough draft of your "Fine Gardening" manuscript is due. I know this seems like a long way off, but I'm pretty sure that you're beginning to understand at this point in your college experience that it will be here in the blink of an eye! Therefore, I strongly encourage you to put together an outline and start writing at least a paragraph each day - beginning this weekend!
Friday, December 1st
Your short supporting video will be due to me by the end of the day so that I can get them uploaded as part of the promotion for the workshop.
Thursday, December 7th
Your presentation file is due to me so I can get it loaded onto my computer, tested and ready to go first thing the morning of the workshop!
Friday, December 15th
The final draft of your "Fine Gardening" manuscript is due.