One of the objectives of the National Forage & Grasslands Curriculum is to provide lessons that are in a relatively standardized format. The outline below summarizes the format that is being used for lessons that become part of the National Forage & Grasslands Curriculum.

  1. Overview or Synopsis of the Lesson
  2. Instructional Objectives
  3. Pre-Test
  4. Lecture
  5. Test / Quiz Questions
  6. List of Images
  7. Lab Activities
  8. References

The Lecture portion of the lessons is being 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 is subdivided into a number of brief topics. For example, within a lesson on forage fertilization, one topic is the role of N in forage plants.

Concepts

Within each topic there should be a number of well organized and clearly defined concepts or principles that are essential to understanding the topic. Where appropriate, links to images or examples also are 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 may be included within a one-hour lecture period. An example of an activity is to provide students with samples of hay and silage and have them compare and contrast characteristics of the two. An example of an application is to have 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. These terms will be linked to a separate glossary section.

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, or data tables are used to illustrate concepts within the topic concept sections. Images may be displayed as thumbnails or accessed through text links to separate screens.