Four AGNR Faculty to Teach I-series Courses in Spring

AGNR I-Series Brochure

faculty will introduce three new courses in the Spring 2010 semester. The courses were among the 24 selected in the signature program of the new general education courses. Four AGNR faculty members developed courses that will focus on contemporary issues.

AGNR's I Course are:

• Specialty Crops: Plantation Agriculture to Globalization taught by Dr. Christopher Walsh, professor in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture;
• Greening Cities: Who Wins, Who Loses, and Who Cares developed by Dr. Marla McIntosh, professor in the Department of Plant Science and Landscape Architecture; and
• The Chesapeake Bay Ecosystem: Intersection of Science, Economics and Policy, which will be taught by Dr. Doug Lipton, associate professor and coordinator of  Sea Grant Extension Programs, and Dr. Doug Parker, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Resource Economics.

The "I" series courses—"I" for issues, imagination, intellect, investigation, inspiration and implementation—are designed to focus on "big" questions rather than the introductory material traditionally found in CORE classes. Of his Life Sciences course, Lipton says, "The University sits smack in the middle of one of the greatest and most challenging attempts at ecosystem restoration in the world. What a unique opportunity for our students to become engaged and learn how restoration science blends with political and economic realities to make this a particularly vexing challenge."

Selected from more than 50 submissions, the 24 courses were approved by the General Education Task Force charged with overhauling the CORE system to pilot the "I" series of courses, which will form the centerpiece of a new general education curriculum that will take effect next year. The university's overhaul of CORE is part of its strategic plan, approved last year by the University Senate.