PPWS 5214 Diseases of Crop Plants
What is an excellent, good __ etc. Disease Notebook?
Objectives of Disease Notebook
A=excellent: Coverage is consistent with student goals. Coverage of notebook includes a large number of diseases, and/or considerable depth on individual diseases or aspects. Student has explored a range of the most appropriate sources, and included appropriate material from those. Student is well familiar with major characteristics of diseases and disease management of the crops chosen. Students have extended their knowledge beyond what they previously had. Clear evidence of a total of about 40 hours or more, well-spent.
B=good. Student has met the major objectives of the assignment well: selected appropriate crops and diseases (consistent with goals), consulted an acceptable variety of sources, and extracted major features. Familiarity with material is good, but there may be some (not major) gaps in sources used and familiarity with information included. Knowledge and coverage (material included, sources) are good but fall short of excellent.
C=fair. Student has met some of the objectives, but there are significant gaps in sources used, material covered, and/or familiarity with material. This is common with notebooks thrown together mostly in the last week of the semester.
D=poor. Objectives have not been met well. There is evidence of some effort, but student has not used an appropriate range of sources, or has compiled only limited amounts of information (few diseases covered, and/or not much depth) and/or does not show much knowledge of major features of the material included.
F=failed. Fall far short of meeting major objectives.
Comments for Disease Notebook Goals, Outlines, etc. These are some of the comments I made on Disease Notebook Outlines. Which of these apply to your situation??
Include something about your interests and/or career goals. If you just tell me what you are going to put in your disease notebook, I cannot tell how it "fits in". Submit an amended goals statement to receive full credit for this stage.
Outlines
This is a good start, a reasonable plan, and a decent list of resources.
This is still pretty vague. Time to start getting some specifics together.
Include something about your interests and/or career goals. If you just tell me what you are going to put in your disease notebook, I cannot tell how it "fits in". Submit an amended goals statement to receive full credit for this stage.
Your outline falls below expectations: at this stage you should have selected at least some specific crops.
Your outline falls below expectations: at this stage you should have selected at least one specific disease.
Your outline falls below expectations: at this stage you should have looked at at least some sources, or compiled a list of what you plan to use.
Your outline falls below expectations: no sample write-up was included. When you have one, show it to me to give me a chance to comment, and receive the remaining credit (deadline: 10 days).
Do you think that broadening your coverage to include additional crops would make this project less or more useful to you?
When deciding on your topics, you should keep your career goals in mind, and may also take into account additional interests (such as hobbies). If your career goals are still vague, it is OK to state this. In that case I would suggest a fairly broad coverage, with diseases selected from a range of crops (for example, some ornamental plants along with some major vegetables or fruit crops) and of a variety of disease types.
Does your list reflect an appropriate variety of disease types (e.g., fungal as well as viral, bacterial, and nematode, foliar as well as root diseases, etc.)? For some crops, a particular group of pathogens may be poorly represented, but still try to include some information on their status (e.g., nematode or viruses may occur commonly but just not be very damaging on certain plants)
Keep in mind that this Notebook will be worth one credit, and that you will be expected to spend 35-40 hours on it. Will what you propose here reach that level? The list looks fairly short: do you plan to go into unusual depth?
I am not sure that your proposed coverage really fits with your stated goals. Can you explain further?
This list looks pretty long. If you find that it gets to be too much, you may "prune out" some of the less common or important diseases.
Remember two criteria: that you learn material useful to YOU, and that your topics are not TOO narrow. How well are both criteria met?
Try to NOT ONLY use the disease-by-disease approach, but also look at disease management from a crop management perspective.
You list some insect pests. I don't mind if you include some of that information, but this is not an entomology course, so I wouldn't emphasize that aspect. It IS a GOOD IDEA to include information on insect symptoms that can be easily confused with diseases. Same holds for conditions like nutrient deficiencies.
It's ok to have neat paragraphs, complete sentences, etc., but it's not necessary. Bulleted lists may be more effective at conveying major points than a paragraph. Aim for a notebook, not a formal paper. Pretty is not a criterion, informative is.
Process the information. Copying down a symptom description is not as effective as a side-by-side comparison of the symptoms of several different diseases. How exactly can you distinguish the early symptoms of Pythium blight from dollar spot or from__? For fungicides, compare spectra (diseases controlled), relative efficacy, application intervals, and cost. Tabular representation can be very effective.
One way to organize the notebook that many students find useful: include copies of websites, articles, etc., but intersperse with your own summaries. That will show what you have emphasized, while at the same kind including original information to help answer questions.
Since you have already taken a course on Diseases of ____, you should probably expand beyond that area, and not just go over the same ground again. Contact me to discuss, if you wish.
PPWS 5214 -- Disease Notebook midterm self-assessment
Name of notebook compiler ________________________
Is goal statement included? __________
Approximate amount of time spent on project so far ___________
How much more time do you think you'll need to complete project? _____________
Do you believe you have a clear idea of sources/resources available?_____________ (books, trade magazines, extension literature, webpages, experts __.)
Are your sources reasonably up to date? ______________
What additional sources/resources do you plan to explore?
To what extent have you not only collected but also digested (learned) material, and how well do you think this exercise will end up meeting your own (educational) needs relative to plant pathology?
What grade are you shooting for for this part of the course, and what do you think you still need to do to achieve your goal?
What do you think you deserve if the current state were to be half of the final version?
I am ( ) at least 30% done (2 pts) ( )15-30% done (1 pt) ( ) less than 15% done (0 pts)
Grade criteria
A=excellent: Coverage is consistent with student goals. Coverage of notebook includes a large number of diseases, and/or considerable depth on individual diseases or aspects. Student has explored a range of the most appropriate sources, and included appropriate material from those. Student is well familiar with major characteristics of diseases and disease management of the crops chosen. Student has extended his/her knowledge considerable beyond what he/she previously had. Clear evidence of a total of about 40 hours (or more), well-spent.
B=good. Student has met the major objectives of the assignment well: selected appropriate crops and diseases (consistent with goals), consulted an acceptable variety of sources, and extracted major features. Familiarity with material is good, but there may be some (not major) gaps in sources used and familiarity with information included. Knowledge and coverage (material included, sources) are good but fall short of excellent.
C=fair. Student has met some of the objectives, but there are significant gaps in sources used, material covered, and/or familiarity with material
D=poor. Objectives have not been met well. There is evidence of some effort, but student has not used an appropriate range of sources, or has compiled only limited amounts of information (few diseases covered, and/or not much depth) and/or does not show much knowledge of major features of the material included.
F=failing. Falls far short of meeting major objectives.
Disease Notebook mid-semester review form
Name of notebook compiler ________________________
Name of Reviewer: ________________________
Criteria
1. Is goals statement included, and is rationale for choice of crops and diseases covered adequately explained?
2. Does coverage seem reasonable in light of the student's goals, and the 1-credit weight of the assignment? Any suggestions for improvement?
3. Is a list of sources included, and are the sources used (books, pamphlets, internet, trade magazines, professionals, etc.) appropriate and sufficient? Any suggestions for additional or better sources?
4. Are format, organization, and content appropriate? Suggestions for improvement?
5. Other comments and suggestions
For the "midterm check", I recommend:
( ) 2 points Clear evidence of progress. At least 30-50% done
( ) 1 point Got a start, but progress limited
( ) 0 points Not much done yet
Dr. Baudoin should look at this ( ) yes ( ) not needed
Please list comments (may number by criterion) below:
What kinds of questions usually get asked at the final interview?
Where is your goal statement? (for those who forgot to include it :-) ) How does your choice of material relate to your goals?
Please give me an overview of how you have spent your time (and energy) on this project.
What are some of the most common and important diseases of______?
What kind of damage does this disease do?
How can this disease be diagnosed? What are identifying characteristics? How can you tell the difference between diseases A and B? What other problems could be confused with this?
What are some of the best resources for diagnosis of diseases of______? If you received a book gift certificate from the American Society for the Promotion of Plant Pathology, with the stipulation that it could only be spent on something related to plant diseases, are there books available that would seem useful to you?
Where can you find information on the biology of….? What time of the year does this disease tend to be most serious? Under what kind of weather conditions? Are there any specific growth stages of the plant that are particularly susceptible? Predisposing factors? How does the pathogen spread? What are conditions required for infection and colonization? How or where does the pathogen survive the winter or off-season?
Where can you find specific management recommendations for __? What kind of options does a grower have for the control of __?
What are some of the disease management considerations that a grower should pay attention to in establishing this particular crop. What kind of monitoring and actions may be required in the course of the growing season? What would an integrated disease management program for this crop look like?
Did you look at any of the outside links posted on the course website? Any websites that would be useful to add? If you had to create a website on Diseases of ___, what major links would you include? Did you look at the Virginia Extension Pest Management Guide? Which links did you find useful? What kind of information can you find in the Virginia Extension Pest Management Guide? If you plan to move to another state, did you check that state's equivalent resource?
If you were asked to give a presentation to (grower group, Rotary Club, ...) on disease problems and disease management in ____, what would be the major topics you would present, and the main points that you would emphasize?
What questions should I ask that I haven't asked yet? In case I did not touch upon some of the stronger aspects of your work, what aspects should we discuss that we haven't discussed yet?
What grade do you feel you deserve for your Disease Notebook? What are the strong and the weak points?
Last update: Dec 23, 2008