#AskVIUHorticulture

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Ask Horticulture #VIUHorticulture #AskVIUHorticulture

Christine Quist, Instructor for VIU’s Horticulture Program, writes to let us know what is new this week in Horticulture, and tells how both student learning and community building are being enhanced through the creation of a new innovative online assignments.

“This week in Horticulture, in addition to our regular classes, we have been focusing on how to create and build community while working and learning remotely.

Jessica Gemella, our social media leader, has been working to set up our new plant query section on Instagram for members of the community to submit their plant questions.  

Each week the students will select a question from the public and use the knowledge from this semester, their backgrounds and group discussions towards preparing an answer and replying on Instagram. 

Jessica’s “#AskVIUHorticulture” idea has enthusiastic support from students and will carry on throughout the summer to help keep students, instructors, and our large community of followers connected over the out- of-session months.

We hope some of our fellow VIU faculty members will follow us on Instagram and submit garden questions of their own!

#VIUHorticulture #AskVIUHorticulture

What’s Happening in Horticulture as they Explore Alternate Instructional Strategies

Although alternate delivery models of instruction look very different from one program to another, I am noticing how many teaching and learning strategies are transferable to other contexts. In this short update, Christine Quist provides us with an overview of the strategies she put into play this week:

Week 2: Our topics yesterday were apple grafting and hanging basket assembly. A portion of the class discussion was on how our home environments compared to commercial greenhouse operations since students are now responsible for growing in their home spaces.  In addition, students updated each other on their bare root products they have been monitoring over the past week from our last class, some varying degrees of growth even in the past week!  As part of the grow kits, assembled for students during the pause week at VIU, students were provided with all the materials in order to participate in these activities. 

Apple Grafting Project

Part of my solution to the transition to alternate learning is zoom meetings at the beginning of scheduled class time where students get to interact informally to check-in before we begin the topic for each day.  This informal check-in was prompted by students missing each other. A big part of face-to-face environment is the friendships and community it brings. This is especially true in a ‘canned’ program like Horticulture Technician Certificate Program.

Afterwards, I present a short powerpoint through a shared zoom screen and students contribute/ask questions as we go along.  I have been preparing videos for students which they watch before we do the activity together – like the flipped classroom but, in class time, if that makes sense? Finally, we all meet back for a live demonstration and discussion about procedure and aftercare.

The result of yesterday’s class is encouraging for me. Students are participating in zoom meetings and posting their finished projects in VIULearn discussion boards for all to see and comment on. All participants, students and myself included, are feeling more comfortable with the online format and I am appreciate the momentum that is building as we are become more familiar with these new tools. The students play a huge role in the success of this transition and for that I am very grateful

The first shoots of success : Hanging Basket Project

Week: 1 The students picked up their grow kits this week. We think the grow kits will be therapeutic during this uncertain time. As you can see, the grow kits are now safely set up in student’s homes.

Christine Quist has done a ton of fantastic work on the Skills and Practices class by assembling grow kits and creating instructional videos. She will have lots of great ideas and experiences to share in the weeks to come.

Students Grow Kits set up and growing in their homes

Jessica Gemella shares Highlights from the week:

  • Grow kits are a hit! Students are posting home care activities already. I’ve attached a few photos of the grow kits in their homes (with student permission to share).
  • A series of instructions videos are in development.
  • A Best Plant Walk video competition is added to plant identification (to replace a test). The winning walk will be our first plant walk next semester (including dogs – everybody loves dogs). I also hope to provide some other recognition for the student winner (we will add to the Horticulture website and Instagram). 
  • Question to all: Any ideas about how to recognize student work at this time? Please respond in the comment section below

Zooming forward. 

Hanging basket grow kits. Looking forward to seeing some blooms