Are Incoming Freshmen Prepared for Introductory Plant and Soil Science Courses?.

When teaching introductory courses, it is expected that students are enrolled in order to gain a basic understanding of course material. However, there are often expectations that the instructor has concerning the students background knowledge. At some point during course structuring/restructuring, an initial assessment or re-assessment of background knowledge should be done. We continue to hear that students are getting worse, but maybe that is only true because learning outcomes at the high school level have changed. In order to assess the current undergraduate population of introductory plant and soil science courses, a survey will be conducted during the fall semester. The results of this survey as well as the test scores from the first two exams will be evaluated to note any trends.