Professors at the university who interact with students throughout the school year saw the need.
“The pandemic has shown that there are many practical life skills that students just don’t have today,” says Colleran, who teaches the Food and Nutrition 1 curriculum she personally teaches with a mix of video demonstrations, assignments, and powerpoints to one Online platform has adapted. “The main goal of this curriculum is to teach the basics of cooking and understand the basics of healthy eating – things like measuring, how to choose food carefully in the grocery store, how to store food, table etiquette, knife skills. It is not a science course, but a course for life skills related to food and nutrition. “
Gentry-Apple developed the Animal Science course.
“A lot of students come to the class just because they know they like animals and want to know more,” she said. “Others want to become veterinarians. We start on a very simple level – the difference between a cow and a bull – and work our way through safety, anatomy and introducing them to large animals and also discussing the jobs available in the very broad area of animal science. “
These jobs can include research, conservation and zoo roles, animal health diagnostic roles, farm product sales, and more, Gentry-Apple said.
“The course is almost what I would do in an introductory animal science course on campus,” she said. “I grew up in Ohio and we didn’t have any exposure to animal science in high school. So it’s really incredible to be part of the only government program that offers agriculture classes on an online platform to reach more students. “
