Course Structure
During the interim between the fall and spring semesters, a two-week field trip (or field laboratory) is conducted in Mexico with students and professors from the Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán and the Universidad Veracruzana. A term paper or project is required based on the joint trip experience and the student's subject-matter interests. A preparatory course (IARD 402, Agriculture in Developing Nations I) is required in the fall semester prior to the trip. This course provides students with background information and allows the faculty to screen prospective students for IARD 602-Mexico.
In IARD 602-Mexico, participating professors and others address various subject matter areas through field trip observations and applications in other settings in developing countries. Students share their reports, review pertinent information in their fields of interest, and assume leadership in presenting various aspects of the field experience. Student presentations focus not only on agricultural development in the tropics but also on what those in temperate zones can learn from the study of agriculture in the developing nations. (See Tradition and Transition)
to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
