Agronomy 517 Goes the Distance
Perspectives on Agricultural Biodiversity in the Old & New Worlds


An internet discussion workshop on Agricultural Biodiversity will be conducted from February 27 through April 9, 2006 between students in the US and Italy on the topic of agricultural biodiversity.  Students from Italy will be national and international students in the International Ph.D. Programme in Agrobiodiversity at the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa.  The US students will be those enrolled in Agronomy 517, Weed Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Iowa State University.  The workshop will by jointly organized and lead by moderators at Iowa State University and the Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna.

This forum is an experiment of a new, highly interactive, teaching approach, purposely aimed at a very heterogeneous and international group of student scholars.  The forum is organized in 3 modules of 2 weeks each.  Topics will be introduced by the coordinators at the beginning of each module.  Then, students will write a short essay on the topic showing their viewpoints and perspectives, and subsequently comment on the essays of the other student from both continents.  At the end of each module, and the workshop, the two leaders will prepare a short summary of the discussions.

The forum will be conducted entirely on the internet, relying on this web site as the hub and archive of the proceedings.  The discussion will be conducted on a dedicated discussion site utilizing Moodle courseware.


Schedule of Activities 

Discussion Contributions & Synopses

Picture scrapbook of the workshop


©jdekker-2006