“The Greenhouse of the Future”: Using a Sponsored Competition in a Capstone Course

Horticulture students often lack practical experience integrating information from diverse sources to solve complex real-life problems. Capstone courses seek to remedy this by giving students an opportunity to demonstrate a range of workplace skills such as teamwork, effective communication, and critical thinking. Sponsored competitions provide educators with an active-learning framework into which the goals of a capstone course can be developed. In 1996 the U.S. Dept. of Energy and the Epcot Center announced the “Greenhouse of the Future” competition. The competition sprang from an interest by sponsoring agencies to promote the development of new environmentally sound technologies for greenhouse food production and was open to all U.S. undergraduate students. The competition encouraged the formation of interdisciplinary student teams under the direction of a faculty advisor and offered the winning entry a $10,000 research grant and the opportunity to display the new technology at the Epcot Center in Florida. The M.S.U. entry focused on the development of season-extending energy retention systems designed for small greenhouses, production testing of cool-season, stress-tolerant crops such as Mesclun salad greens, and the use of an environmentally neutral growing system. Sponsored competitions present an important tool for achieving certain educational objectives and may be one way to help students think on a higher level. Encouragement and development of similar competitions within the green industry is needed. Competition guidelines, components of the M.S.U. winning entry, and integration of the competition into the capstone course “Greenhouse Management” will be discussed.

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The Greenhouse of the Future: Using a Sponsored Competition in a Capstone Course

HortTechnology ◽

10.21273/horttech.8.4.609 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 609-613

Author(s):

Ricky M. Bates ◽

David A. Baumbauer

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Real Life ◽

Practical Experience ◽

Workplace Skills ◽

Capstone Course ◽

Learning Framework ◽

Capstone Courses ◽

Life Problems ◽

The Future ◽

National Competition

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Developing And Implementing An Undergraduate Finance Capstone Course For Both Onground And Online Course Delivery

American Journal of Business Education (AJBE) ◽

10.19030/ajbe.v3i12.968 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 3 (12) ◽

pp. 87-94

Author(s):

Linda S. Wiechowski

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Core Competencies ◽

Team Work ◽

Course Delivery ◽

Online Course ◽

Capstone Course ◽

Face To Face ◽

Capstone Courses ◽

Oral Presentations

Capstone courses provide an opportunity to integrate several topics and to help prepare students for the real world. This paper examines the process of developing an undergraduate finance capstone course for both onground (face-to-face) and online course delivery. The process begins with the determination of the core competencies employers require of recent finance undergraduate students. Several of these core competencies are addressed in this paper, along with the challenges of assessing the competencies of team work and oral presentations skills online.

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Outsourcing Execution in Transportation and Distribution

Outsourcing Management for Supply Chain Operations and Logistics Service - Advances in Logistics, Operations, and Management Science ◽

10.4018/978-1-4666-2008-7.ch006 ◽

2013 ◽

pp. 91-119

Author(s):

Paulo Mendes ◽

José Eugenio Leal

Keyword(s):

Literature Review ◽

Performance Management ◽

Customer Service ◽

Capital Investment ◽

Real Life ◽

Practical Experience ◽

Effective Strategy ◽

Company Strategy ◽

Life Problems ◽

The Right

Outsourcing can be a very effective strategy to increase operational performance and improve customer service; at the same time, that minimizes capital investment, freeing up capital to other important projects according to the company strategy that will increase revenue and profitability. However, when outsourcing is not performed in the right way, as there are several examples in the marketplace, it can also decrease performance and hurt customer service, reducing company competitiveness. Therefore, it is critical to establish a robust Outsourcing Execution Process to reduce risks of vendor failure due to lack of operational capability, performance management, and conflict of culture between 3PL and the company, just to enumerate a few possible real life problems. This chapter provides a broad and updated introduction of transportation and distribution operation, and based on literature review and practical experience from the authors, several best practices are reviewed to support outsourcing execution in transportation and distribution operation.

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Interdisciplinary Research for Engineering Skills Development

Acta Universitaria ◽

10.15174/au.2008.121 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 18 (3) ◽

pp. 14-19 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Angel E. González-Lizardo

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Interdisciplinary Research ◽

Engineering Students ◽

Ad Hoc ◽

Undergraduate Research ◽

Real Life ◽

Qualitative Description ◽

Research Experience ◽

Life Problems ◽

Engineering And Technology

This work reports the results of an ad hoc interdisciplinary research experience for undergraduate engineering students at the Plasma Engineering Laboratory (PEL) of the Polytechnic University of Puerto Rico (PUPR). The strong features of this experience and their relationship with Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) outcomes are pointed out, and a qualitative description of the results is discussed, in terms of the performance of the students during the experience and after it. An example of the different activities performed by a team of undergraduate students, and their relationship with the ABET outcomes is presented. The undergraduate research at the PEL provides the students with a unique opportunity to practice engineering before graduation through real life problems, innovation, collaboration with other institutions, and presentation of their work for engineering and scientific audiences.

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KNOWLEDGE - FINAL RESULT OR PERMANENT PROGRESS

Knowledge International Journal ◽

10.35120/kij34010255b ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 34 (1) ◽

pp. 255-262

Author(s):

Lalka G. Borisova ◽

Stela Iv. Baltova

Keyword(s):

New Technologies ◽

Real Life ◽

Daily Routine ◽

Development Programs ◽

Life Problems ◽

The Future ◽

Continuous Progress ◽

The One ◽

The Individual ◽

New Education

Nowadays, the world through the eyes of young people probably looks in a different way from the one in the horizon of a previous generation. Why is that? Because today their daily routine is dependent to new technologies, social networking, international training and development programs. In line with this, upon graduation, their jobs require flexible skills, teamwork skills and special competencies for each profession. Did the Higher schools prepare them for the actual practical work, are they aware they will face problems and tasks they are not prepared for, because of many reasons. For the professions of the future and the lifelong learning, analytical and critical thinking, emotional intelligence and competence, effective problem solving, creativity and proactiveness will be required. The way today's students prepare for the time ahead goes through the education. But not the education that exists in most universities presently, but a new education - with other goals and practice-oriented approaches. Universities of the future should not place first the assessment and theoretical knowledge, but the skills and achievements of students, the acquisition of certain competencies. Training should be directed towards enhanced hands-on training and greater involvement of trainees in this process - what they want to do with their hands; to research, to discuss, to search themselves the answers to raised problems. Thus, in addition to theory, they will learn to solve real-life problems they may have better solutions to. Modern technologies come to the rescue as an aid in teaching and communication. In this new education, the role of the teacher is even more important - he is a mentor, tutor, sets the direction for development, notices the individual capacities and talents of each individually, maintains effective feedback, encourages the results achieved. This does not end the learning process, the goal is not to evaluate these high-scoring results, but to work for continuous progress. Then it can be said the teacher has fulfilled his mission. To sum, to make sense and satisfaction for both parties, the dedication from educators and from trainees is needed. Students need to find sense, satisfaction and purpose in what they do. This is the thesis that we will try to prove in this study - the power of tomorrow's knowledge, and its absorption depends on the personality of the teachers and the motivation of the students.

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Rethinking Laboratorio Experimental Towards a Methodological Transition

CLEI electronic journal ◽

10.19153/cleiej.20.3.10 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

Author(s):

Diego Munguı́a Molina ◽

Jaime Gutiérrez Alfaro ◽

Aurelio Sanabria Rodrı́guez

Keyword(s):

Undergraduate Students ◽

Low Cost ◽

Real Life ◽

Academic Experience ◽

Computer Engineering ◽

Theoretical Concepts ◽

Open Hardware ◽

Life Problems ◽

Research Initiative ◽

Practice Problem

In 2012 the Instituto Tecnolo?gico de Costa Rica opened the Computer Engineering program at the recently created Centro Acade?mico de Alajuela. At that time there were neither research space nor resources available for undergraduate students to practice problem solving by applying theoretical concepts to real life problems. The Laboratorio Experimental was proposed in mid 2013 as a research initiative where students and faculty could engage together in projects powered by low cost open hardware and free software. This article shares the experiences learned by the proponents of the lab and a detailed explanation of the projects, also describes the results of students academic experience.

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Improving Classroom Engagement to Maximize Learning in an Interdisciplinary Dual Faculty Capstone Experience at the University of Manitoba

Proceedings of the Canadian Engineering Education Association (CEEA) ◽

10.24908/pceea.v0i0.12997 ◽

2018 ◽

Author(s):

William C.D. DeGagne ◽

Paul E. Labossiere

Keyword(s):

Real Life ◽

Capstone Course ◽

Engineering Program ◽

Capstone Courses ◽

Future Assessment ◽

Education Association ◽

University Of Manitoba ◽

The Difference ◽

The University ◽

Capstone Design

One of the most effective and efficient ways for an engineering program to facilitate compliance with the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board (CEAB) accreditation criteria is through capstone design projects and courses [2]. Currently, The University of Manitoba Faculty of Engineering has several capstone design courses; however, each is independently focused on its own respective discipline. The resulting educational experience for students, though rigorous and challenging, is maintained within the boundaries of the students’ engineering discipline, thereby neglecting to provide the opportunity for students to work with people from multiple disciplines and across different faculties. This method of education, where students work in isolation, arguably does not reflect real world engineering. Through internal focus group meetings, program representatives from the Faculty of Engineering at The University of Manitoba agree that the capstones should be more reflective of real life situations. Interdisciplinary courses are most important because they “…articulate the difference between educational problems and workplace problems” [1]. Hence, to allow “(students) persons from different disciplines to work collaboratively and are integrated to combine their knowledge to solve a problem” (sic)[4], interdisciplinary capstone courses are essential to a rounded engineering education. Furthermore, teaming with the Faculty of Architecture will provide several benefits for both facilities such as: develop lifelong learning patterns; foster cooperative and collaborative team relationships; and, allow both facilities to learn the other’s cultures and technical languages.Since 2016, The University of Manitoba has presented research papers at the Canadian Engineering and Education Association (CEEA) conferences on the development and future assessment of an interdisciplinary capstone course. These papers have shown the evolution of the course from a multidisciplinary engineering program to an interdisciplinary Engineering and Architectural dual faculty offering. The course was launched in January, 2018, and will be evaluated through the winter session and into the fall.This paper, will explore, define, and explain how the proposed new engineering/architecture interdisciplinary capstone and dual faculty course will be developed, highlight the early stages of its initiation, describe the ongoing implementation, outline how the performance of the new course will be evaluated, delve into how the new course will be improved to make it more meaningful and practical to both faculties and students, and; discover how engagement can improved student learning.

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Toward a Philosophy for Capstone Courses in Horticulture

HortTechnology ◽

10.21273/horttech.5.2.175 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 5 (2) ◽

pp. 175-178 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tim Rhodus ◽

James Hoskins

Keyword(s):

Communication Skills ◽

Undergraduate Students ◽

Learning Goals ◽

Research Projects ◽

Problem Solving Skills ◽

Capstone Course ◽

Curriculum Review ◽

Capstone Courses ◽

Current Popularity ◽

Specific Learning

Capstone courses generally target undergraduate students who are nearing completion of their studies. They are designed to build on skills acquired in earlier courses and emphasize situations and challenges that exist in the real world. Specific learning goals and course objectives vary across disciplines and institutions, but most capstone courses provide an opportunity for students to demonstrate a range of professional competencies and communication skills. By incorporating computer simulations, case studies, or research projects, students are better able to develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, a learning goal frequently adopted following curriculum review. A brief overview of the development, current popularity, and widespread offering of university capstone courses is presented. The goals and organization of `Quality, Ethics, and the Global Environment,” the capstone course in the horticulture major at Ohio State Univ., is compared to other capstone courses.

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