IPAN Projects in China

China Agricultural University

CAU's 2+2 Program with UM's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources has gotten alot of attention. Below are 3 articles -- take your pick:


"Asian/American Educational Alliances Benefit Students," AGNR's Momentum magazine, Spring 2009, pg. 16	"New Program Spreads Agriculture’s Roots," Between the Columns, Feb. 5, 2009	"Putting Down Roots,"Maryland International, Spring 2009, pg. 4

June 2010

China Agricultural University's Professor Xu Ji, below center, is pictured with the incoming cohort of CAU 2+2 transfer students. The students will arrive at UMD in August, when they will begin their third year of study.

CAU1

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding

Click on Pandas to read article about UM's partnership with Chengdu Panda Base.

July 2010: Two Virginia-MD regional College of Veterinary Medicine students interned at the Chengdu Panda base this summer, as part of a partnership program between the Panda Base, UM, and the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. VMRCVM is a joint venture between UM and Virginia Tech.

Michelle Larsen and Robert Edwards spent three weeks at the Panda Base, where they assisted with ultrasound to detect early pregnancy in pandas.

Previously, AGNR undergrad Kasen Whitehouse spent part of 2007 and 2008 at the panda base where he studied the reproductive science of the giant pandas. This internship was under an arrangement with the Smithsonian Institute's National Zoo in Washington, D.C., and the panda base.

See article.

Dr. Copper Aitken-Palmer's three year study of giant pandas' reproductive physiology at the National Zoo and China’s Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding. The study has discovered new information regarding male panda biology and breeding, and developed a new method for freezing sperm that will provide for more flexibility in assisted reproduction. This new information can now be used to improve breeding programs and maintain genetic diversity of these endangered animals both in captivity and possibly in the wild.

Chengdu Research Base powerpoint.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

NORTHWEST AGRICULTURE & FORESTRY UNIVERSITY

October 2008 -- Extension specialists David Martin and Susan Schoenian visited NWAFU to assess the potential for developing Extension capabilities at NWAFU. David visited many apple farms, an orchard demonstration park and NWAFU's Apple Experiment Station. David also lectured on conventional and organic apple production to students and faculty in the horticulture department.

goat

Susan (pictured above) worked with the dairy goat industry, while David worked with the apple industry. China is the largest producer of apples in the world and Shaanxi is its largest apple-growing province. China supplies about 50 percent of the world's apple juice, half of what we drink in the U.S. The average orchard (or farm) is less than one acre. Plantings are dense. Sixty percent of the apples are of the Fuji variety. The apples are big.

There are more dairy goats in China's Fuping County than any county in the world and more than the entire United States. The average farmer has fewer than 10 goats, but the government is encouraging larger goat farms based on several organizational models. Most of the goats are hand-milked, but that is changing, too, as centralized milking stations are being built in the rural villages. Goat's milk is usually made into powdered milk.

Exchange Faculty

2007-08: Several scientists from NWAFU are each spending a year at UM's College of Agriculture to participate in research and learn more about inquiry-based science. They are: NWAFU Assoc. Prof. Yahong Yuan (food safety), Lecturer Liqun Shao (agricultural economics), Assoc. Prof. Huiling Zhou (plant pathology and genomics), Xin Wang (food safety), and Ph.D. students Xiaoying He (agricultural economics), Liu Liu (food safety), and Xiaoli Xie (computational biology). Huie Li is in the College of Chemical and Life Sciences.

NWAFU exchange faculty and Ph.D. students at UM during 2007-2008 year. Left to Right: Yahong Yuan (Food Science), Liqun Shao (Ag. Economics)， Huiling Zhou (Plant Sciences), Xiaoying He (Ag. Economics)， Xiaoli Xie (Animal & Avian Science), Xin Wang (Food Science) and Liu Liu (Food Science). Hui e Li wasattending a conference at the time this photo was taken. (May 2008)

After their one-year commitment at UM, the scientists will return to NWAFU to continue teaching and research. (2008, 2007)

UM Exports Active Learning -- Meet Yahong Yuan

Picture a class at a Chinese university. The class is typically large and the students, who work hard to score high grades, typically silent. Even during time set aside for questions. Yahong Yuan, a researcher visiting UM from Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University (NWAFU) in central China, wants Chinese students to learn to fill in the silences. When she leaves for China in August, Yuan will take with her the active learning emphasized in the United States. "Here," she says, "the learning outcome we strive for is competencies."

YahongYuan The Chinese government, which is financing an initiative at NWAFU to improve teacher skills, shares her thinking. Still, Chinese students confront cultural barriers: fear of losing face and the expectation that teachers know everything. "You don't ask questions," she says, "because you don't want to appear dumb." Yuan is working with nutrition and food science's Martin Lo, associate professor of food bioprocess engineering, on a multi-year research project.

OTHER

The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources is a founding member of a new Consortium of U.S. universities developing programs at Chinese universities. The consortium members are: Cornell, North Carolina State, Texas A&M, Purdue, Iowa State, Ohio State, Oregon State, University of Minnesota, UC Davis, Michigan State, University of Wisconsin and the Institute for International Development and Education in Agriculture and Life Science (IDEALS). IDEALS will serve as secretariat. The first meeting of the Consortium with its Chinese counterparts was in November 2001, in Beijing, preceding the International Conference on Agricultural Science and Technology.

IPAN and AGNR assisted the Chinese government in organizing the International Conference on Agriculture and Science Technology (ICAST) held in Beijing in the fall of 2001. Approximately 10 universities from around the world were invited to assist in the planning of the conference. The University of Maryland is working to be a major participant in the planning efforts, and thus become a significant player in China.

Share This ShareThis