Do-at-Home Experiments for Vegetable Crops and Seed Production Distance Learning Classes.

It is challenging to provide distance-learning students with meaningful hands on experiences.  Vegetable Crops and Vegetable Seed Production are two web-based asynchronous courses taught at Virginia Tech for degree credit by the Department of Horticulture and through the Office of Continuing Education.  Although pictures and streaming video presentations are used extensively in these courses, providing students with a hands-on experience that reinforces teaching points is challenging.  We have developed a kit comprised of ‘Microtom’ seeds, potting soil, containers, fertilizer that is mailed to students and allows them to observe the growth and development of a tomato plant at home for the class “Vegetable Crops” at Virginia Tech.   A germination test kit is mailed to students enrolled in Vegetable Seed production to introduce them to various concepts of seed technology and seed germination testing.  Students have rated these do-at-home projects as beneficial and one of the most positive aspects of the courses.