Just-In-Time Adventure Learning about Food and Agriculture In South America.

An adventure learning course titled ““Food and Agriculture from Cairo to Cape Town at 10mph” was team-taught in the spring of 2009 and 2010 as one of the instructors (Dr. Porter) bicycled across the African continent, traveling through ten countries.  Daily audio blogs of the food and agroecosystems encountered each day were made available to University of Minnesota students in St. Paul through technologies such as a satellite phone, Hipcast, and Wordpress.  The co-instructor in St. Paul (Dr. Brakke) guided the students through selected readings on the foods, agroecosystems and cultures encountered.  In addition, she weaved a coherent theme through a series of guest lecturers who spoke on their areas of expertise related to African food and agriculture.   Student evaluations showed this method of just-in-time adventure learning was well received and that it furthered student interest in an international travel experience.  A similar course is offered in the fall of 2011.  This time, however, the bicycle ride will be from Buenos Aires, Argentina to Lima, Peru and the focus of the course will be on food, agriculture, and agroecosystems of South America (http://paulporter.cfans.umn.edu).  The 80-day ride will start in late September, and this time several students will actually participate in the ride.  If the technology works as planned, the audience attending this ASA presentation will communicate directly with Dr. Porter and the students to get an update on the agroecosystem they are currently encountering.