Teaching the Components of Agricultural Research.

Agricultural students learn to conduct research by working with accomplished researchers as mentors. Because of time limitations between a student and professor a formal class was initiated that teaches the skills needed to be a successful future scientist The class is taught by two teachers interacting throughout the course but each one has primary responsibility for one of the three modules that make up the class. The first module covers development of a proposal with a testable hypothesis that is science rather than calibration research. The proposal includes all the components of a journal article excluding the Results and Discussion section. The second module teaches the student to present a 12-min seminar, including proper slides, and a poster presentation based on journal articles from the literature. The third module introduces the student to issues of perception, prejudice, and fraud as related to scientific research. The students completing the class have the tools to be a successful researcher at the M.S. or Ph.D, level. A GRICULTURAL EDUCATION involves a broad spectrum of -/^disciplines, but unlike many engineering curricula, there is often no capstone undergraduate course that integrates all the information a student has obtained into a picture of the agricultural system. Consequently, when agricultural students enter graduate school, they must learn to conDep. of Agronomy and Horticulture, Box 30003, Dep. 3Q, New Mexico Stale Univ., Las Cruces, NM 88003. This research was supported by the New Mexico Agric. Exp. Stn. Received 6 Mar. 1995. 'Corresponding author (tsammis@nmsu.edu). Published in J. Nat. Resour. Life Sci. Educ. 25:58-61 (1996). ceptualize the agricultural system and apply the scientific method to it. As graduate students, they must develop a research proposal that will ensure successful research and perhaps even good science. Furthermore, researchers aspiring to earn Ph.D.'s should extend their knowledge to understand a particular component of agricultural systems. In the past, students have learned to conduct research by working with accomplished researchers as mentors. Ideally, the student's major advisor guides the student in understanding the scientific method and ensures that the student will develop a sound approach to research. Often the student joins the advisor in an ongoing research project, working on a small component of the project. The student may begin work without a clear understanding of the goals of the research program and not know how to define a problem, hypothesis, series of objectives, or an experimental design that will support or refute that hypothesis. If the student and professor write a research proposal defining the scope of the research, however, a more productive interaction and learning process between them is virtually assured (Perkins, 1984). Unfortunately, time for interaction with the major professor may be limited by increased demands to publish, develop additional grants, or participate in university or professional committees. Thus, the mentor relationship may often suffer without another paradigm to develop the skills required to be successful future scientists.