Teaching tropical plant pathology to a global audience
J. B. RISTAINO (1), M. Daub (1). (1) North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, U.S.A.
The Global Plant Health (GPH) program funded by the International Research Experience for Students (IRES) program at NSF includes the study of tropical plant pathology and promotes discovery research using hands-on training in the tropics. A diverse group of undergraduate and graduate student scholars take a course in tropical plant pathology in the spring semester that precedes a week-long field class that includes learning experiences in cacao, banana, pineapple, tropical root crops, floriculture and sugarcane fields. Additional research experiences are provided to GPH interns who work with paired mentors over a six week period in the summer in Costa Rica and the following fall semester at NC State University on research projects on tropical plant diseases. The research projects have direct benefits to society and include opportunities for students to solve real world problems by conducting ecologically-based research in the tropics on economically important disease problems on tropical crops. The tropical plant pathology class is also offered as a distance education class for students outside North Carolina. Students write research reports, and produce a voice over power point presentation of their data to a broad community that includes the Universidad de Costa Rica, an undergraduate student symposium at NC State, and major industry groups including Dole Foods. The transformative IRES in tropical plant pathology enhances food security in both countries.
View Presentation |
