Alternatives to Lecture Format: Strategies to Promote Interactive Learning and Why You Should Try.

Adaptive management for improved nutrient management uses an interactive approach to learning. An interactive approach is needed when working with farmers because there is no one ex ante nutrient recommendation for any individual field that consistently provides the economic optimum rate (EOR). The EOR can only be known ex post and often is impossible to know due to insufficient information. Nutrient recommendations from Land Grant universities are an excellent starting point for application rates, but the recommendations need to be verified for individual fields by objective tests. Results from the objective tests often do not provide a clear-cut answer about the exact ex ante EOR for the next growing season, and sometimes provide strong evidence that current recommendations for many fields are not accurate. Learning how to interpret such results in meetings of farmers, scientists and agricultural service providers, and learning how to adapt the Land Grant recommendations for individual fields are best completed by using interactive approaches to learning. This symposium will demonstrate three interactive methods of learning: problem-based learning, practical implementation format, and the probing question format. Come prepared to participate in the discussions. Participants will learn about why interactive formats for presentation of results from objective tests to verify recommendations promote learning that has a much greater chance to improve nutrient management compared with the traditional lecture-format presentation of results.