One of the objectives of the National Forage & Grasslands Curriculum (NFGC) was to provide lessons that are in a relatively standardized format. The outline below summarizes the format that was used for lessons of the NFGC.
- Overview or Synopsis of the Lesson
- Instructional Objectives
- Pre-Test
- Lecture
- Test / Quiz Questions
- List of Images
- Lab Activities
- References
The Lecture portion of the lessons was organized according to the following outline.
Introduction
The introduction should stimulate awareness and interest in students. It should also begin to make the material relevant to students.
Topics
Each lesson was subdivided into a number of brief topics. For example, within a lesson on forage fertilization, one topic is the role of N in the forage plant.
Concepts
Within each topic there should be a number of well organized and clearly defined concepts or principles that are crucial to understanding the topic. When possible, links to images or examples were provided in this section.
Applications / Activities related to the Topic
This section provides suggestions for hands-on activities or applications related to the topic that could be included within a one-hour lecture period. An example of an activity is providimg students with samples of hay and silage and have them compare and contrast characteristics of the two. An example of an application is having students calculate how much dry matter is contained in a sample of silage versus how much dry matter is contained in a comparable sample of hay.
Key Terminology
This section of the lecture lists key terms associated with the topic. Each of these terms is linked to a separate glossary page and to diagrams when appropriate.
Review Questions
These questions are integrated into the topic concept sections with key words and concepts linked to a question screen that allows students to test their understanding and/or retention of concepts.
Image / Graph / Data Table Links
Images, graphs, and/or data tables are used to illustrate concepts within the topic concept sections. Images are provided as thumbnails, linked to larger images.
This pattern is repeated for each successive topic within a given lesson.