Teaching Students How Perennial Grasses Grow and Develop: Online Learning Objectives and Assessment.

Central to traditional rangeland and pastureland management, as well as cellulosic biomass energy production systems, is having a firm understanding of how perennial grasses grow and develop.  To expand our education and outreach efforts, we developed an online module that teaches students about physiology, growth, and development of perennial grasses through animation, text, and video.  This module is written for beginning agronomy, plant science, and natural resource ecology and management students and will be useful for advanced high school students or introductory-level undergraduates.  Distance students and extension audiences wishing to learn more about perennial grasses will also find the lesson helpful.  At the completion of the lesson, students should be able to: 1) define the word "tiller"; 2) identify the three structures that make up a leaf; 3) identify and explain the difference between vegetative and reproductive tillers; 4) compare and contrast rhizomes and stolons; 5) identify traits that distinguish a sod-forming grass from a bunchgrass; 6) list the different inflorescence types; 7) name three functions of roots; and 8) quantify developmental stage of grasses.  In fall 2012, the module was evaluated by students enrolled in Agronomy / Range 240: Forage Crop and Range Management at the Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln.  Students were exposed to questions about the lesson in a pre-exam in August before viewing the lesson, a graded post-lesson quiz in September, and a final exam in December.  Average scores of 80% and 78% on the post-lesson quiz and final exam, respectively, demonstrated student learning and retention relative to the average score of 52% from the pre-exam.  The module has subsequently been evaluated by students at the Univ. of Illinois with similar results.  The module has been accepted by Natural Sciences Education (Peer-Reviewed Web Lesson) and is publically available at http://passel.unl.edu/pages/informationmodule.php?idinformationmodule=1130447263.