Cucurbits and their familiar shapes were used to showcase
student talents and bring together over 500 university students
from the diverse academic areas of public relations and horticulture.
While not exactly a household name, cucurbits comprise the
plant group with the most species used as human food. It includes
cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, gherkins, melons of all kinds
and a variety of palatable gourds.
Cucurbits were used in two large introductory lecture classes
for a fun, interdisciplinary hands-on learning activity.
The brainstorm for this unique collaboration began when David
Berle, assistant professor in the Department of Horticulture,
and Myra Blackmon, public relations instructor in the Grady
College of Journalism and Mass Communication, found themselves
teaching classes in the same room in the Student Learning
Center this semester.
After Berle’s class ended and before Blackmon’s
began, they struck up a conversation and decided it would
be great if an assignment could compel students from two
very different disciplines to learn from each other and
about each other. The two came up with an innovative and
entertaining way to make that happen.
The 250 students in Berle’s introductory horticulture
class had to complete a “Carve a Cucurbit” assignment.
They turned in a variety of decorated and carved pumpkins,
gourds, squashes and cucumbers. The 286 students in Blackmon’s
introductory public relations class viewed the entries
and cast ballots for their favorites.
Student carving and decorating talents were impressive
with a number of UGA-themed entries. One student carved
and painted a ferocious-looking Bulldog head, while another
aspiring artist took great pains to replicate a detailed
UGA Arch scene on one side of a pumpkin and a full-body
Bulldog on the other. A number of gourds were decorated
and there was even a dead-on carving of Berle himself. “That
entry is my personal favorite,” joked Berle.
Blackmon’s ADPR 3850 class also incorporated cucurbits
into an extra credit assignment dealing with public relations
in nonprofit organizations. Student teams proposed creative
ways to use cucurbits to promote a nonprofit organization. “The
promotion could be a fundraiser, a health promotion, volunteer
recruitment, awareness, whatever,” said Blackmon. “The
more creative, the better.”
Berle’s HORT 2000 class members will get to select
the top public relations proposals. At a November 21 luncheon,
the winners from each class will be recognized. “The
luncheon is another required project for my class,” noted
Berle. “Students sign up for different fruits and vegetables
and prepare a dish using them. There’s always lots
of food.”
And it’s a good bet that at least some of those dishes
will include cucurbits, a word that now rolls off the tongues
of a new generation of university students.
Building the New Learning Environment
The new learning environment is an academic and intellectual
community on the campus of the University of Georgia humming
with the vibrancy of the true college experience—bright
and talented students working with brilliant faculty formally
in the classroom and informally over a cup of coffee or lounging
in the greenspace which stretches from one end of campus to
the other. It is a place which recognizes that new information
technologies are transforming traditional academic disciplines
and embraces those opportunities. |
Students
from David Berle’s horticulture class partnered with students
from Myra Blackmon’s public relations class to find innovative
and entertaining ways to use cucurbits, a group of plants that include
pumpkins.
