Agriculture Industry AGRI Course Syllabus. Chad Henry-Instructor

Transcription

1 Agriculture Industry AGRI 1231 Course Syllabus Chad Henry-Instructor

2 Spring, 2015 Course Description: An overview of world agriculture, nature of the industry, resource conservation, and the American agriculture system, including production, distribution, and marketing. Textbook: Modern Agricuture, David P. Price, SWI Publishing. Course Goals: The student will describe the changing picture of agriculture and its role in the nation s economy; discuss the production capability of American food and fiber industries; compare the world s food consumption and production potential; define and utilize a problem-based learning approach in the food and fiber industries; and identify career opportunities in Agriculture. General Course Requirements: Class attendance is required. Participation in the Discussion Forum weekly is considered your attendance. Class Hours Office Hours On-line weekdays On-line MWR 11:00-12:00 & 2:30-4:30 T :00 & 3:30-4:30 F 8:00 10:00 Appointments with me may be scheduled at other times. Call for an appointment at (903) My office is located in AGC 110 and my address is chenry@ntcc.edu. ADA Statement It is the policy of Northeast Texas Community College to provide reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals who are students with disabilities. This College will adhere to all applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations and guidelines with respect to providing reasonable accommodations as required to afford equal educational opportunity. It is the student s responsibility to arrange an appointment with a College counselor to obtain a Request for Accommodations form. For more information, please refer to the Northeast Texas Community College Catalog or Student Handbook. Academic Dishonesty: Cheating is against the Northeast Texas Community College policy. Cheating includes any attempt to defraud, deceive, or mislead the professor in arriving at an honest grade assessment. Plagiarism is a form of cheating that involves presenting as one s own the ideas or work of another. Violation of the cheating policy may result in a lowered grade of F in the course. A grade assigned to a student because of an alleged cheating policy violation may be appealed by the student through the appeals process of the College. See the Student Handbook for details. I recommend that you become familiar with your handbook. 2

3 Course Objectives: The student should be able to: Identify careers in agriculture and agribusiness Understand the role of agriculture in the US and world economy Understand the importance of agriculture to our society Understand the importance of developing leaders in agriculture Understand the existence of multiple approaches to agriculture production including organic, sustainable, and conventional systems Create a resume, conduct an interview Understand the importance of goal setting Understand the importance of a good job interview and resume Grading: Grades will be computed as follows: 14 Weekly discussions on blackboard 25% 11 Weekly Assignments on Blackboard 20% Phone Interview 15% (2) Exams: 10% Resume* 10% Report on controversial topic in Agriculture* 10% Cover letter* 10% *Assignments account for higher percentage of total grade The grading scale below will be used to determine your final grade. Points grade A B C D BELOW 59% F Weekly Discussions on Blackboard: I will post discussion questions on blackboard weekly. You are required to have a minimum of 4 posts per discussion. Your post is due by Thursday at midnight. You will be required to answer my questions from your post in detail. The response to my questions are due the following Thursday by midnight. You are also required to respond to at least 2 of your classmates post and your response posts are due by Sunday at midnight. You should read all the post in the discussion board. NO CREDIT WILL BE GIVEN IF YOU DON T HAVE AT LEAST 4 POSTS PER DISCUSSION AND ANSWER MY QUESTIONS FROM YOUR POST! Postings will be evaluated on the quality of the posting and the degree that the postings promote discussion with classmates. The discussions are worth 100 points. Posting should 3

4 contain a minimum of 5 sentences and be relative to the subject matter. Discussions should be at a critical level, not just recitation of facts. Weekly Assignments on Blackboard: Each week I will post an assignment on blackboard. Eleven assignments (excluding: resumes, controversial topic in agriculture, and cover letter) will count as 20% of your grade. These assignments will be due on Thursday at midnight each week. The questions should be answered from reviewing the power points, web-links, or other resources. The answers need to be in your own words and not copy & pasted from the power points. Your answers need to be in great detail, so that I know you understand the material. Report on controversial topic in Agriculture: Each student will be required to write a 2 page report on a controversial topic in Agriculture. You are free to choose any topic in agriculture that you feel passionately about, but it should be written with factual data. An example of a topic is Round-up Ready Corn. Resume: Each student will be required to submit two resumes. One resume will be a current resume and the second resume will be how you would like for it to appear in 5 years. The due date will be posted on Blackboard. Cover Letter: Each student is required to write a cover letter. The cover letter is an invited letter for the job description you turned in. Exams: There will be 2 exams that count for 10% of your overall grade. Job Interview: Each student will be required to have a mock phone job interview or face-to-face interview with the instructor (may include peers). You will be applying for the job you turned in with your job description and the cover letter. The date and time of the interviews will be given to the students during the semester and posted on Blackboard. Job Description: Each student is required to find a current job opening in an occupation you would enjoy having as a career. You will be required to turn in the job description (copy) for that position, along with how and where you found out about the job opening. 4

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